THOUSANDS of people in the region will die from the asbestos-related lung disease mesothelioma over the next decade, it has been revealed.

The statistics come in the latest Healthy and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics, which show UK deaths linked to asbestos will not peak until at least 2011.

The revelation has prompted a leading expert in industrial disease cases in the region to demand that the Government increase medical research into treatment for mesothelioma.

HSE statistics show that asbestos-related deaths from the disease will be at their highest in the region between 2011 and 2015.

There were about 1,600 deaths of men from mesothelioma in the North-East and North Yorkshire between 1981 and 2000, which amounts to ten per cent of all deaths from the disease in England and Wales.

Particular hotspots are all parts of Tyneside and Stockton, where there were 107 deaths.

There were also about 200 deaths of women in the same area over the same period.

Experts say research is vital to enable victims of the condition to recover proper compensation when companies or their insurers responsible for exposing them to asbestos dust cannot be traced or are insolvent.

Roger Maddocks, a partner at the Newcastle-based personal injury law firm Irwin Mitchell (IM), said last night: "Diagnosis of mesothelioma is almost invariably followed by death within three years."

According to HSE figures, more than two million people suffer from work-related ill health.

Of these, 6,000 people died of cancer in 2002 due to past exposures at work.

Of those cases, 1,800 were attributed to mesothelioma and 100 to asbestosis.

The annual number of deaths in the UK from mesothelioma has increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,862 in 2002 and is not expected to peak for another several years.

Claims for compensation will rise significantly in the next decade, say experts.

They are concerned that many victims and their families will face difficulties in obtaining compensation.

Mr Maddocks said: "Because of the long time lag between exposure to asbestos and develop-ment of mesothelioma, typically anything between ten and 50 years, many victim or their families will face difficulties in the future."