UK asbestos maker withheld information on material’s risks, court papers show

According to documents, Cape played down dangers and lobbied for warning labels to be tempered

One of the UK's biggest manufacturers of asbestos, and industry bodies it cofounded, historically withheld information on risks posed by the carcinogenic material, playing down the dangers while lobbying the government for product warnings to be tempered, according to documents released after a lengthy court battle.

A lawyer who acted for the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK in its fight to obtain the documents about Cape compared its behaviour to the tobacco industry's former refusal to admit evidence of harms from smoking while its own research showed the opposite.