TWO people a week are dying of asbestos-related industrial diseases in Hampshire, the Daily Echo can reveal.

That's the tragic human cost being paid by former employees of shipping and rail firms.

In Southampton alone one person a week dies because they inhaled the deadly fibres while working near asbestos lagging and dust which fell on them like confetti.

Now the employers face massive compensation claims which run to millions of pounds.

Legal experts estimate that families in Southampton and Portsmouth could end up receiving payouts in the region of £5m per year as the full extent of the tragedy unfolds.

The bill is set to rise as the asbestos timebomb continues to tick.

And the full impact of asbestos, the biggest workplace killer in the UK, which claims more lives than road traffic accidents, won't be reached until 2020.

Among Southampton's sufferers was dock worker Dave Batchelor, who died four years ago, aged 59.

His widow Jean, of Millbrook, also lost her father to an asbestos-related illness 20 years earlier.

She said: "When you're watching them in agony, day and night, you feel so helpless and there is nothing you can do.''