At the end of this week, the HSE is to announce tighter regulations on the use of white asbestos insulation board and a list of workers who are most at risk.

The material is widely used, but potentially lethal to those who breathe in its dust.

Plumbers and electricians who drill into walls made of insulation board are in the top risk group, as are those working in laboratories which study asbestos samples.

In a House of Commons debate on Wednesday, MPs heard that asbestosis, which is caused by breathing in asbestos fibres and can lie dormant for up to 40 years, could kill up to 10,000 people a year by 2020.

Asbestosis can cause lung cancer and cancer of the lining of the chest and lungs.

Blue and brown asbestos - the most dangerous kinds - are banned in the UK, but can still be found in some old buildings.

White asbestos was not considered as dangerous until recently.

Safer alternatives

The Health and Safety Commission, to which the HSE reports, is also looking to tighten regulations on importing and using white asbestos.

The HSE has been looking at alternatives to white asbestos and believes it has found substitutes which are safer.

Consultation on the these is due to end in December when a campaign on how to use white asbestos begins.

An HSE spokeswoman said she thought the estimates of deaths from asbestosis had been overdone, but said there was no reason to be complacent.

Inspectors were examining 10% of licensed removal sites where breaches of guidance on asbestos were suspected.

They did not inspect all sites as this would not give them time to check up on the main unregistered sites which were "potentially more dangerous".

Scottish town badly affected

The campaign against white asbestos has been gathering momentum in recent years.

West Dunbartonshire Council organised a conference on the issue following the release of statistics that showed the town of Clydebank had the highest incidence of asbestos-related disease in the UK.

John Carney, a spokesperson for Clydebank Asbestos Group, said: "Asbestos is OK, but the minute it is disturbed, and somebody cuts it, the fibres become air-borne, and that is what does the damage.

"Asbestos came from the ground and that is the only place it should be, not open to our environment."

Dr Allan Henderson, a consultant physician at Lorne and Islands Hospital, said: "It is a time bomb. The problem is that the disease does not appear for 40 years.