Asbestos exposure and its related illnesses have Queensland, Australia worried. The region’s asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma sufferers receiving $33 million in workers’ compensation payouts last financial year, breaking Australia’s previous payout records. Worse still, payouts are set to rise for the next decade, as asbestos-related disease symptoms manifest in Queenslanders decades after exposure.

The figure has almost doubled since QComp, the state’s workers’ compensation regulator, started keeping records of public and private asbestos payouts in 2003. Between 2003 and 2010, 1472 claims have been filed in Queensland. Diagnosis of asbestos-related diseases is increasing and the peak isn’t expected until 2020.

Mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest, abdomen, heart or lungs attributed to exposure to asbestos, can take up to 70 years after exposure to develop, and the average is over 40 years. The disease is so aggressive and diagnosed so late that rarely is mesothelioma treatment, a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, enough to preserve life beyond a year and a half.

Since 2004, an average of $25.8 million has been paid out to Queensland workers, with $17.6 million paid in 2003-04 alone. Asbestos was added to construction materials until 1987, so a flood of claims are yet to come, as the lag time for developing mesothelioma is anywhere between 10 to 70 years. Something even more worrying to employers and insurers than the sheer number of victims is that each successful claim opens the door for more to follow.

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