Mesothelioma, an asbestos-related form of lung cancer, could kill up to 100,000 people over the next 20 years, figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggest.
One of the areas hardest hit is the north-east of England, where the number of deaths has been steadily growing in recent years and now constitutes around a tenth of all mesothelioma deaths in England.
Most victims of this will have been exposed while working in the ship building and steel manufacturing industries.
The latest figures from the HSE show that around 1,800 people die of mesothelioma in England each year - an increase of around 33% compared to the previous eight years. Nearly 170, or 10%, were from South Tyneside and the north-east of England.
The reasons for the high incidence of asbestos related diseases are not hard to find.
In North Tyneside, by the ruins of the Roman fort in Wallsend, the cranes of the shipyards where many workers were exposed to asbestos can be seen. According to some campaigners, as many as one in four people in this part of the world either know someone who has an asbestos related illnes or has one themselves.
Like families on the Clyde or those associated with the dockyards of Plymouth and Portsmouth, those on Tyneside have long lived with asbestos and now have to come to terms with the problems.
Although the use of asbestos has decreased over the last 40 years, the latency period between exposure and the development of disease means that numbers of victims will continue to grow.