London, 28 mar (EFE).-the families of workers who died by being exposed to asbestos from the past 40 years to 90 in the United Kingdom shall be entitled to claim compensation, today ruled the Supreme Court, the highest British court.

Family members had begun five years ago a long legal process to demand compensation from the insurance companies.

Many people who worked in heavy industry (mining and steel industry, among others) developed mesothelioma, cancer directly related to the inhalation of asbestos particles.

According to the Supreme Court, the claim is considered automatic from the moment in which workers were exposed to asbestos and not when the symptoms of mesothelioma. were

With the opinion today, insurance companies face a few millionaires payments to relatives, according to legal experts.

Mesothelioma is a particularly aggressive cancer, affects the lungs and the membrane that covers the part of the chest and abdomen that surrounds the lungs and intestines.

It may take up to forty years to occur, but once diagnosed, patients have a life expectancy of between nine and twelve months, because there is no cure, according to specialists.

The carpenters, shipyard, metallurgical workers and electricians have been the most exposed. EFE