The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is aiming to protect the 1.8 million UK workers who run the risk of exposure to deadly asbestos fibres every working day.

Asbestos-related illnesses claim 4,000 lives every year – more than die in road traffic accidents.

The HSE's Hidden Killer campaign aims to highlight the dangers of asbestos to the most at-risk workers, including plumbers, plasterers, builders, joiners, electricians and painters and decorators.

Bob Cusworth, 72, is living with pleural plaques – or scarring of the lung tissue – caused by exposure to asbestos, which can lead to the killer disease mesthothelioma.

Mr Cusworth, of Ribble Walk, Calf Close Estate, Jarrow, said: "I back this campaign by the HSE all the way.

"Asbestos is dangerous, and we'll be living with its effects for the next 50 years."

Mr Cusworth suffers from breathlessness and cannot walk too far, after being diagnosed with pleural plaques when he was 66.

"In some ways, I wish I'd never gone for the test or been told I had pleural plaques.

"You have to live with it every day. It's on your mind all the time," he added.

"And I've seen lots of lads from the yards die of asbestos. It's always been a killer, and that's why we have to protect people from it."

A temporary light man in former local yards, including Swan Hunter and Hawthorn Leslie, Mr Cusworth said everything from drills to floors and electrical circuit boxes on ships carried potentially deadly asbestos.

The national HSE campaign has also been backed by South Tyneside asbestos campaigner Anne Craig, of Hebburn, whose husband, David, a former shipyard worker, died at 54 from mesothelioma.

She said: "People need to realise that just one asbestos fibre is enough to kill.

"This campaign by the HSE is very important, because we must warn workers of the dangers."

The HSE estimates that about 20 tradesmen a week die from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, and the numbers are rising all the time.

An HSE spokesman said: "Anyone working on a building that was built or refurbished before the year 2000, could be exposed to asbestos, without even knowing it.

"In the UK, about 500 non-domestic buildings contain asbestos and it remains a very real threat."

The HSE campaign is being backed by unions, employers' representatives, health charities, sufferers and victim groups.