Health officials in South Korea are recording significant increases in asbestos-related diseases among the country’s population, including asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. According to a report by TIME Magazine, the number of mesothelioma diagnoses increased from just 12 in 2001, to 55 new cases in 2007, the most recent year that data is available. It is, “in public health terms, a notable increase,” TIME quotes Paek Dom-yung, an occupational medicine professor at Seoul National University.

While South Korea enjoyed a boom in urban development from the 1960s through the 1980s, it is becoming evident the country’s lax rules on asbestos regulation may have exposed millions of people to health hazards. According to the TIME report, Seoul did not place a full ban on asbestos manufacturing, import and use until last year. It also had no regulations in place for the safe removal of existing asbestos during demolition and remodeling projects.

Now, trade and labor unions in South Korea are calling for the government to take responsibility for workers it knowingly exposed to deadly asbestos, and who are now suffering as a result.

Due to the long latency period between exposure and the development of mesothelioma or other asbestos diseases – which can be as long as 20-50 years – South Korean health officials are bracing for a future epidemic. It is predicted that the incidence of mesothelioma diagnoses in the region will not peak until around 2030.