Recent correspondence alleging a lack of insurance for demolition workers who may be exposed to asbestos dust is surprising because the long-term, serious dangers to health have been raised in the local press a number of times these last two or more decades – including by myself writing from the UK.

This possible cavalier attitude to workers’ health might cost some employers dearly. Workers exposed to asbestos dust may develop cancers up to more than 40 years later and they (or their relatives) might be able to sue previous negligent employers for compensation.

I know of at least one local former dockyard worker whose relatives were compensated by the British Ministry of Defence – the evidence, collected from an autopsy in Malta and presented to the British MOD by a Maltese lawyer, was accepted by the British authorities as proof of asbestos causation.

Asbestos dust exposure may cause two types of chest cavity cancer: mesothelioma and carcinoma. Asbestos causation of mesothelioma is relatively easy to prove, but lung carcinoma attributable to asbestos is trickier to prove because this tumour type is also related to cigarette smoking and most asbestos-exposed workers are smokers.

However, there are clear pathological guidelines how to present carefully prepared autopsy evidence that a particular lung carcinoma is causally related to significant asbestos exposure (irrespective of smoking) and which a British or North American court will accept. One presumes that a Maltese court would follow similar guidelines.