A health and safety inspector checks ceiling panels for asbestos

Medway has the country's second-highest death rate for terminal asbestos cancer, new figures reveal.

Statistics show the number of people who died from mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the lung wall, was more than twice the national average in the Towns.

The disease, which affects workers who have come into contact with asbestos, was recorded as the underlying cause of 104 deaths in the area from 2006 to the end of 2010.

That is the equivalent of 6.5 deaths in 100,000 people. The national average during the same period was 2.5 deaths.

Some workers who develop mesothelioma are unable to pursue a claim for damages because they can no longer trace the employer who exposed them to asbestos.

This could be because the onset of symptoms often comes decades after a worker has inhaled asbestos fibres - during which time employers can go out of business and insurance documents can be lost or destroyed.

David Bott, president of not-for-profit campaign group the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: "More people die of mesothelioma in Medway per head of the population than most other parts of the country.

"This is bad enough, but the number of men dying from this disease is expected to peak during the next five years and what many people don't realise is that hundreds of sufferers across the UK cannot get the compensation they need to help them through the last days of their life.

"What is needed is for the government to bring forward proposals for a fund of last resort which would act as a safety net for injured workers who are otherwise unable to pursue the justice they deserve."

The figures for England and Wales were obtained from the Office of National Statistics using the Freedom of Information Act.

The area with the highest mesothelioma death rate from 2006 to the end of 2010 was Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, with 8.4 deaths in 100,000 people.