For more than 18 years, DOA Underwriting has been quietly working behind the scenes, providing critical professional and liability cover for asbestos-related trades. Now, the UK-based MGA is taking its work a step further, launching a national campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos and support those affected by Mesothelioma.
The campaign is rooted in a personal and professional commitment, said Damien Abraham (pictured), director at DOA. “We have a long-standing history in understanding and underwriting asbestos-related risks” he said. “But with so many lives affected every year by this terrible disease, I knew more needed to be done and to give something back. After learning about the work of these two incredible organisations, I had to get more involved.”
Mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by asbestos exposure, still claims more than 2,200 lives a year out of the 5,000 asbestos related deaths in the UK. Asbestos accounts for over 70% of the country's occupational lung disease deaths, despite a full ban on asbestos in 1999. Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of UK buildings - especially schools, hospitals, commercial buildings and older homes - remain contaminated.
“People assume this is a problem of the past,” Abraham said. “But if you walk into any building built before 1999, there’s a good chance asbestos is still in the walls, the ceilings, the floor tiles. And when it breaks down, the fibres are airborne and lethal.”
DOA’s own insured clients, asbestos removers and surveyors, knowingly enter hazardous environments daily as part of their job. But what about those who don’t know it’s there? Abraham said, “Part of this campaign is to raise awareness, ensuring fewer individuals’ lives are affected as a result of unknowingly exposing themselves to asbestos.”
In collaboration with Mesothelioma UK and Asbestos Information CIC, DOA is providing initial funding of £15,000 to support care, prevention and education efforts. The MGA has also pledged ongoing monthly donations, drawn from their earnings, not passed on to clients or brokers.
“We’re aiming to fund an entire Mesothelioma nurse position for a year,” said Jack Whitby, DOA’s marketing executive. “The goal is £25,000, and we’ve set up a JustGiving page to help reach it.”
Mesothelioma UK provides clinical trials, education, and specialist nurses who deliver frontline support to patients across the country. Asbestos Information CIC is spearheading a national roadmap, collating real-time data on where asbestos remains present in buildings. This “Asbestos Roadmap” could soon become a vital underwriting tool.
“It’s like flood, theft, arson or subsidence risk data,” Abraham said. “We should be checking for asbestos risk too. You wouldn’t buy a house without an EPC certificate, why not require an asbestos check as well?”
DOA’s involvement in the asbestos market began 20 years ago, when Abraham partnered with Hiscox to develop a pioneering scheme that few insurers were willing to support. “Asbestos was seen as a ticking time bomb,” he said. “No-one wanted to insure it.” DOA broke the market monopoly, drastically reducing premiums, enabling more firms to operate safely and legally.
Since then, DOA has become a leading name in high-risk liability schemes. Its role, Abraham said, is not just about coverage, but responsibility. “The people identifying and removing asbestos are protecting us. But they’re exposing themselves in the process. If we don’t support that work with proper care, regulation, training and risk management, the consequences are tragic.”
Those consequences, he added, are still underestimated by both government and insurers. “The UK’s 10-year infrastructure plan makes no mention of the urgent need to tackle the presence of asbestos across the country, underscoring just how far we still have to go to bring this issue to the forefront in Westminster,” he said. “We’re reserving 50–60% of our EL premiums for future disease claims. Other insurers don’t realise the scale of what’s coming.”
Abraham believes the solution was in a coordinated national strategy. That includes mandatory asbestos checks for buildings, better site-sharing data across the insurance industry and proactive funding of public awareness.
“Insurers, brokers and government all need to take this seriously,” he said. “Because unless we act now, this won’t just be a problem for removal contractors. It will be a pandemic of avoidable deaths - in homes, schools, hospitals. Places our children go every day.”
He speaks from experience. Abraham’s own family business once made breathing apparatus for coal miners and later for asbestos workers. His father and grandfather, he said, always warned that the material was banned “decades too late.”
Now, Abraham is determined to prevent another generation from paying the price. “This is more than corporate social responsibility,” he said. “It’s personal. And it’s urgent.”
