The number of deaths from exposure to asbestos has skyrocketed since the late ‘60s and is projected to keep climbing through the next decade due to long-ago exposure to the substances that was widely used for insulation and fireproofing, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The government-funded group determined that in 1968, 77 people died from asbestos, compared with the 1,500 people who died from it in 2000 — almost a 2,000 percent increase.

The CDC reached its findings after reviewing death certificates of nearly 125,000 people who had lung conditions linked to inhaling dust or fibers from minerals such as coal or asbestos, but many medical professionals say the real number is far higher. They attribute the underreporting to the inability of many doctors to identify asbestos as a cause of cancer.

Furthermore, they say, the casual nature in which death causes are designated on death certificates for many years complicates the accuracy of the CDC’s report.

It can take up to 40 years between the time a person is exposed to asbestos and the time they die from it. Because asbestos use in buildings increased substantially after WWI and peaked in the late 1970s and ‘80s, death from the material will probably increase during the next decade, said Michael Attfield, a CDC epidemiologist.

“We’re paying the price now for the use of this mineral in almost every construction insulation product used back in the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, all the way to the ‘70s.

Government regulations and thousands of lawsuits in the ‘80s and ‘90s curbed the wide use of asbestos, but it is still found in more than 3,000 products, including brake linings, engine gaskets and roof coatings. And it is still present as insulation in older buildings.

Government efforts to ban asbestos were defeated by the Asbestos Information Association of North America and the Canadian asbestos industry, which said asbestos can and is used safely today. However, most Western countries have banned the import, use and manufacture of asbestos.

While asbestosis — an incurable disease caused by the fiber — has been on the rise, black lung, which is caused by coal fiber inhalation, has sharply declined.