Power station worker died from industrial disease

8:20am Friday 2nd November 2007

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POWER station worker Geoffrey Turl discovered after 33 years that the asbestos he had cut up as a young man was going to kill him, an inquest heard.

As he lay on an oncology ward, suffering from malignant mesothelioma - an incurable cancer caused by exposure to the banned material - Mr Turl, 74, was clear-minded enough to write down details of his working conditions at Berkeley Power station in the 1960s.

In a statement read at his inquest he said he had worked as a plant attendant at the station between 1963 and 1969, as an employee of the Central Electricity Generating Board.

"There was no ventilation, just blow holes," wrote Mr Turl, of Baylands, Newtown, Berkeley.

"There were pipes lagged with asbestos all around and they became extremely hot and would sometimes catch fire.

"I would have to take down the burned asbestos and replace it with new. As I took it off it would break up and I would breathe it in. We didn't wear masks."

Another job would be to saw through 'rolled up mattresses' of asbestos, again without a breathing mask, he said.

Consultant clinical oncologist Dr Peter Jenkins said that he saw Mr Turl at the beginning of this year, after had been referred with a history of chest pains and coughing.

Mr Turl died at Cheltenham General Hospital on April 25 this year after being diagnosed with malignant mesothelima, a tumour in the lining of the lung, caused by asbestos fibres.

Pathologist Dr Keith McCarthy said there was no doubt the cancer was born from the banned material. Tests on Mr Turl's lungs showed the presence of over 91,000 asbestos fibres per gram of dry lung tissue.

"The national 'background' average, present in everyone's lungs, is less than half that figure," Dr McCarthy said.

"It is consistent with asbestos exposure. From the pattern of tumour growth, I'm satisfied that this is malignant mesothelioma."

Gloucestershire Coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease - in this case, asbsestos exposure.

"Malignant mesothelioma is almost always caused by asbestos exposure - I've never seen a case where it wasn't," the coroner said.

"I am quite satisfied that Mr Turl was correctly diagnosed in life, and that Dr McCarthy has confirmed that at post-mortem.

"I am also satisfied from Mr Turl's own evidence that he was exposed to a considerable quantity of asbestos when he worked at the power station from 1963 onwards."