About the survey
The Asbestos Workers Survey started in 1971 and is a health surveillance study run and funded by HSE. It monitors the long-term health of workers to evaluate how well regulations control risks from asbestos exposure. The findings help inform future policy decisions.
Under previous asbestos regulations, people working with asbestos were invited or required to attend medical examinations. During the examinations, they were asked to take part in the survey. Workers are still being enrolled today under the current regulations with more than 100,000 taking part so far.
The survey is long-term with no end date. The data collected will be stored securely for 15 years after the end of the survey. This ensures that any findings are traceable for a reasonable time after publication.
How we collect health information
When a licensed asbestos worker attends a medical examination and agrees to take part, they are asked to complete the survey questionnaire. This includes questions about current and past work with asbestos, and about smoking history.
Copy of consent form and survey questionnaire
The information from the medical examination is kept confidential. Only the survey questionnaire is sent to HSE.
Personal information given by participants is used to link the survey data with the databases of:
- NHS Digital (England and Wales)
- National Records of Scotland (NRS)
Participants are 'flagged' with NHS Digital or NRS so they can notify HSE of any cancers or death registrations among the participants. This includers the date of the event, cancer type or cause of death.
They also tell HSE if a participant has emigrated.
This enables HSE to follow up the long term health status of participants.
Study findings
HSE publish the study findings online in research reports and other articles.
No individual will be identifiable in the reports or articles.
Withdrawing from the survey
You can ask to withdraw from the survey at any time using the contact information given at the end of this page. However, HSE will keep the information collected because it will already be part of earlier analyses and published statistics.
How we use the data
The data is kept strictly confidential and is used:
- for health research purposes only
- to compare ill-health and mortality among asbestos workers with the general population
- to examine differences between groups of workers within the survey population
We do not use automated decision-making or profiling.
As a government agency we use personally-identifiable information to conduct research to improve workers' health. As a publicly-funded organisation, we must ensure that it is in the public interest when we use personally-identifiable information from people who have agreed to take part in research. This means that when they agree to take part in a research study, we will use their data in the ways needed to conduct and analyse the research study. Their rights to access, change or move their information are limited, as we need to manage their information in specific ways for the research to be reliable and accurate. If a participant withdraws from the study, we will keep the information about them that we have already obtained. To safeguard their rights, we will use the minimum personally-identifiable information possible.
Health information is sensitive personal data and is regarded as special category data.
Your sensitive personal data will be processed for research purposes only.
More information on how HSE processes data is provided in HSE's Privacy Policy Statement.
If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your personal data, contact our data protection officer by email at [email protected], or write to us at:
Data protection officer,
Health and Safety Executive,
1.3 Redgrave Court,
Merton Road,
Bootle,
Liverpool L20 7HS
If you’re not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data in a way that is not lawful you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Contact us
If you have any questions about the research, contact us.