NEARLY three-quarters of businesses in the region are breaching workplace asbestos regulations that came into force yesterday, a survey has found.

More than 23,000 businesses across the North-East have failed to carry out any asbestos assessment in line with the new legislation, and 20 per cent of the region's companies have never heard of the regulations, the survey by lawyers David Arnold Cooper showed.

New rules to reduce the risk of potentially fatal asbestos exposure impose stringent demands on building managers to carry out checks.

About 500,000 buildings across Britain still contain asbestos, most of them built or renovated between 1950 and 1980. The Duty to Manage rules will help save about 5,000 lives over the next 50 years, according to the Health and Safety Executive.

Asbestos is considered the biggest occupational health risk faced by workers in Britain.

The heat and chemical-res-istant material can damage the lungs if inhaled, causing a type of lung cancer called mesothelioma.

Although exposure to the material peaked in the 1960s, the annual number of deaths is expected to reach at least 4,000 a year, reaching a peak between 2011 and 2015.

The new rules form part of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations. They relate to the management of commercial, industrial or public properties and the common areas of domestic properties.

Bill Callaghan, chairman of the Health and Safety Commission, said: "Asbestos is not yesterday's problem. We must now meet the challenge of managing the risks from asbestos if we are to prevent another generation of workers suffering an early death at its hands."

In the past, those most at risk from asbestos-related illnesses were workers in industries such as shipbuilding and railway engineering.

But the presence of the material in thousands of buildings means building and maintenance workers are now most at risk.