Asbestos News

An 82-year-old man from Poole, England, who worked for a rubber company for a number of years passed away from malignant mesothelioma approximately five decades after he was first exposed to asbestos.

According to the Bournemouth Daily Echo, local district coroner Sheriff Payne said during an inquest that Francis O'Neill spent nearly 20 years working around asbestos as an employee of the Dunlop Rubber Company.

O'Neill, who worked for the company both in Birmingham, England, and in India, died on May 20 after being diagnosed with mesothelioma seven months earlier, the inquest was told.

Prior to his death, O'Neill told an asbestos attorney that he worked with pipes that were lagged with asbestos and was not able to avoid breathing in the dust.

"I recall the floor was white with dust," O'Neill explained. "I was never warned about the dangers of asbestos or given any protection."

The symptoms of asbestos-related illnesses including mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer often do not manifest themselves until decades after initial exposure to the carcinogenic substance. Such diseases claim the lives of approximately 107,000 individuals around the world each year, according to the World Health Organization.