Asbestos News

A rail worker in the UK who died of malignant mesothelioma had the highest level of asbestos in his lungs the examining coroner had ever seen.

John Hall only spent one year working for the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company but that one year in the 1950s proved to be of serious consequence. ThisIsGloucestershire reports that Hall said before his passing that employees were always spraying asbestos into carriages in the room where he worked.

"It would be hard to find an area where it was more likely to come into contact with asbestos dust," Gloucestershire Deputy Coroner David Dooley said. "Mr. Hall had a clear employment history and the fiber assay in this case is the highest I have ever had to deal with. It is also clear that the disease arose from and because of his employment."

Many blue collar workers were exposed to asbestos on the job as the carcinogenic substance was often used as an insulator and a flame retardant in many industries. However, it was proven by the mid-1960s that exposure to asbestos not only caused malignant mesothelioma, but asbestosis and lung cancer as well.