CUTTING asbestos until he looked like he was covered in flour gave an Ipswich carpenter a deadly industrial disease.An inquest heard Stephen Tournay-Godfrey spent hours sawing pieces of asbestos with no mask or protective clothing.
CUTTING asbestos until he looked like he was covered in flour gave an Ipswich carpenter a deadly industrial disease.
An inquest heard Stephen Tournay-Godfrey spent hours sawing pieces of asbestos with no mask or protective clothing.
Greater Suffolk Coroner Dr Peter Dean read from a statement made by Mr Tournay-Godfrey before his death which detailed his horrifying work conditions.
It read: "You used to spend two hours at a time [cutting asbestos] and come out covered in dust looking like someone had poured a bag of flour over you."
Dr Dean said Mr Tournay-Godfrey, 51, of Whitland Close, worked as a carpenter between 1968 and 1978.
During those 10 years he was often called upon to cut sheets of asbestos and was never issued with protective clothing.
A post mortem revealed Mr Tournay-Godfrey was killed by mesothelioma – a rare type of cancer, often found in the chest.
Dr Dean said an expert pathologist had failed to find any evidence of asbestos in Mr Tournay-Godfrey's lungs.
But he said the development of mesothelioma was almost always linked to exposure to asbestos.
And he concluded the presence of the disease tied in so well with Mr Tournay-Godfrey's former working conditions it was almost certain they were linked.
Dr Dean said: "There is only one possible conclusion left to me and that is death by industrial disease."
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