Asbestos bears some blame in Derby’s lack of better health

Posted on July 13, 2010 with 1 Comment

ASBESTOS-RELATED illness and deprivation in Derby are being blamed for little improvement in the number of city people dying of cancer. Latest figures show the city has seen barely any change in the death rate from cancer in 10 years, despite a national reduction.

A new report shows the number of cancer deaths in Derby was below the England average in 1998, but the lack of improvement over the following decade caused it to fall behind the national picture. GP John Grenville (pictured above), secretary of Derbyshire Local Medical Committee, said this may well be due to a combination of deprivation and industrial disease.

His comment followed a report in the Derby Telegraph last week that asbestos-related deaths had become so common they were the subject of more than one inquest a week in South Derbyshire.

Dr Grenville said: “We could be looking at industrial-related disease because a lot of Derby people worked with asbestos. “I think it is an interesting question which should be considered.” The figures have been revealed in a new report from the Department of Health about a whole range of health issues in the city.

The Health Profile 2010 states that in Derby there has been “little change in the rates of early deaths from cancer in the past 10 years”. And it described Derby as an area with “high levels of deprivation”, which Dr Grenville said was another reason for cancer deaths because it was linked to a lack of understanding about leading a healthy life and getting the right care. He said: “You have the lifestyle problems of smoking, drinking alcohol and poor diet, and you also have the problem that people don’t access the health care they need.”

His views were supported by Mary Insley, chairwoman of the Derby Burton Patient Forum, part of the East Midlands Cancer Network.  She said: “In different areas different cancers will cause problems. “I would have thought our breast cancer rates are as good as anywhere else but in Derby we have a lot of people who used to work in heavy industry with asbestos. “And Derby is considered to be quite a deprived area.”

The report looks at the number of cancer deaths per 100,000 people in 2007 compared to 1998. Nationally, the figure fell from 135 to 114. But in Derby that drop was much smaller, from 125 to 120. That was in contrast with the rest of Derbyshire, where deaths fell from 131 to 111.

Catherine Thomson, head of statistical information at Cancer Research UK, said: “In Derby, the death rates from cancer for under-75s don’t seem to have followed the national trend. “But it is important to remember that, in comparison to England, Derby has a small number of deaths in a small population so we need to be careful about drawing any conclusions.” No one from local health authority NHS Derby City was available to comment.

The health profile also highlighted Derby’s on-going problems of below-average life expectancy and high levels of diabetes, smoking deaths, alcohol-related hospital stays and childhood tooth decay. This stands in contrast to the rest of Derbyshire, where health is better than the national average, particularly in terms of childhood health.

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