THE future cost of asbestos related disease in the UK could reach £20 billion, according to a new report.

More than 200,000 people in the country are expected to file insurance claims during the next 30 years.

Many of them will be in Hampshire, where the number of deaths relating to asbestos inhalation is particularly prolific because of work on the railways and in ship building.

The release of the report, from The Actuarial Profession, came on the day that three more inquests took place in Southampton into the deaths of men who died from the industrial related disease mesothelioma.

Gareth Yates, 72, from Netley Abbey, and Harry Moore, 85, from Waltham Crescent in Southampton, both died at Southampton General Hospital earlier this year from the form of lung cancer.

Mr Yates had been an apprentice at the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Woolston where he had been exposed to asbestos dust.

Mr Moore had also worked at Vosper Thornycroft and the Harland and Wolff yards.

A third pensioner, Hector Olden, 80, of Midway in Hythe, was also found to have died from the disease after having worked in a boat factory.

Speaking after the inquest Mr Moore's daughter, Lesley Harris of Edelvale Road in Bitterne, said she was unsure if she would be filing a claim for compensation.

She said her father had been planning to go to Portugal on holiday but had to cancel his plans when he fell ill. She added: "He was always very fit and healthy. The disease really hit home in March. He was working at Harland and Wolff between 1934 and 1939. He worked on the boats there. He used to be very active. It was a terrible shock."

Southampton General Hospital sees between 50 and 100 patients with asbestos-related diseases each year. An estimated half of these people will die from their illness.

Earlier this year, the Daily Echo revealed how Hampshire shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft had set aside £15m to cover asbestos and other work related claims after the insurer went into administration.

Insurance firms are expected to meet half of the total bill, which could leave them paying out up to £10 billion.

Recording a verdict of death by industrial disease for all three men, coroner Keith Wiseman said that they had all been exposed to asbestos when modern health and safety requirements had not been relevant.

He said: "That is the, somewhat depressing, overall picture.

"It is upsetting for so many families that this sort of death comes in this area with no sign of decreasing."

Julian Lowe, of the Actuarial Profession, who chaired the working party which carried out the latest research said: "Asbestos is certainly not yesterday's problem. Its effects will continue to affect insurance companies and healthcare providers in the west for decades to come.

"Perhaps of more concern are the appalling demographic and social consequences of asbestos manufacture and use that will inevitably be seen in the developing world over the next 30 to 50 years.

FACTFILE:

Mesothelioma is a rare disease caused as a result of malignant cancerous cells lining the patient's body cavities such as chest, abdominal region or the area surrounding the heart.

It is typically associated with exposure to asbestos, which has been documented in as many as 70 to 80 per cent of cases.

Even insignificant exposure to asbestos (commonly reported in such work environments as asbestos mills, mines, shipping yards, some older navy ships or patients' homes) is known to result in mesothelioma, which in many cases does not occur for decades after initial exposure to this cancer causing substance.