Asbestos-related diseases will kill 100,000 Americans in the next decade, claimed a report from the US Environmental Working Group (EWG).
It called for a ban on asbestos use in the US and said a proposed legislative solution of a $110bn trust fund would cheat future victims of asbestos-related diseases.
The report cited research in a British Medical Journal paper which predicted 100,000 deaths in the West from mesothelioma, with the epidemic peaking between 2015 and 2020. It said there would be 2,000 deaths from mesothelioma a year in Britain.
The EWG said other experts had predicted that asbestos exposure was a looming catastrophe in the third world where its use is still common.
According to the EWG, government statistics have estimated that 1.3 million Americans are still exposed to asbestos at work.
The report said the US death toll from asbestos-related diseases is likely to peak between 2015 and 2020, with four primary asbestos-related diseases potentially causing up to a total of 100,000 deaths.
An average of 10,000 deaths per year in the US over the nest decade would be higher than the number of skin cancer-related deaths, and near to the number of fatalities involving handguns.
