A public health expert says new research showing that deaths from asbestos-related lung disease have been grossly underestimated is symptomatic of other work-related diseases.
The study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, has found deaths from asbestos-related lung disease in men have been grossly underestimated.
Findings show the number of males dying with the respiratory disease rose sharply in the 1990s.
Of the 264 deaths associated with asbestos between 1988 to 1999, 44 were directly attributed with the substance.
In the other 220 deaths recorded in that same time period asbestosis was found to be a contributing factor.
Director of Massey University's Centre for Public Health Research, Professor Neil Pearce, says poor official figures hide the occupational disease toll.
Pearce says most doctors and hospitals don't know patient work histories and the Ministry of Health doesn't encode work-related deaths.
He says overseas studies suggest hundreds of cases of occupational cancer in New Zealand yet the official rate is in single figures.
The use of the asbestos peaked in the 1960's and 1970's and 20% to 40% of all adult men are likely to have had some exposure to it during their working life.
The report says many asbestos related illnesses are wrongly attributed to other factors such as smoking.
This is compounded by instances were people forget they may have been exposed to the mineral.
Author of the research, Pam Smartt, says the findings fit into the global pattern.
The Building Trades Union national secretary, David O'Connell, says the findings are not a surprise for the industry.
The report could provide more fuel for asbestos victims to claim for compensation.
Earlier this year a judge ruled the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) must pay nearly $100,000 to the widow of a man who died from an asbestos-related illness.
However ACC has appealed the decision.
N.B. Professor Neil Pearce is the author of a
recently published report into a 30 year study of
cancer deaths among former staff at the Ivon Watkins Dow plant in
New Plymouth.
