By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter A local court acknowledged damage caused by asbestos, ordering compensation for a worker who died after being exposed to the material. It was the first court ruling in Korea for compensation for asbestosis, and similar suits are expected to follow. The Daegu District Court Tuesday ordered an asbestos cloth making company in Busan to pay 160 million won in compensation to the bereaved family of its former worker, Won, who worked for the company for two years from 1976. Won died from malignant mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer in October 2006, two years after she was found to have the disease. The court acknowledged the company's negligence in providing worker safety. ``The company was well aware of the possible danger of asbestos. But it neither provided masks, gloves or other protective gear to its workers, nor established ventilation facilities,'' the court said in the ruling. It added the company did not provide the workers with education about the dangers of asbestos. The ruling was the first of its kind _ although health risks from asbestos are fatal, symptoms generally appear 20 to 40 years after exposure and thus victims have had difficulty clearly proving a link between their diseases and asbestos. According to the Daegu Federation for Environmental Movements, 46 people have died from asbestos-related diseases such as lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma in the last seven years in Korea. The group said considering the long incubation period, the number of victims will grow, since asbestos-related industries started business here in the 1960s. rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr