The economic burden of asbestos-related disease

A new report commissioned by the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency measures the medical and economic opportunity costs associated with asbestos-related disease.

The report, by the Centre for International Economics, looks at the direct health care costs, as well as the cost of productivity and other losses resulting from time out of the workforce due to an asbestos-related disease in one year (2015).

It estimated hospital and primary care costs to be $192 million per year, and indirect costs arising from time out of the workforce to be $321 million per year.