A FORMER Cowley plant health and safety officer died from exposure to asbestos at the factory, a coroner ruled.

The family of Anthony Boodell, from Kidlington, are taking legal action over his death on April 25 aged 75, it was revealed at his inquest.

He worked at the former Pressed Steel factory from 1954 to 1988 where he contracted epithelial mesothelioma caused by asbestos.

In a 2010 statement filed at county court he said he was responsible as a tinsmith for removing ovens and furnaces and stripping lagging to 1968.

The statement, filed the same year he began to develop breathing difficulties, said: “As I removed the asbestos lagging I was exposed to asbestos dust.”

Assistant Oxfordshire coroner Peter Clark said: “He had previously worked in removing and relaying lagging and had undertaken other repairs and, as a result, was exposed to asbestos dust.”

This also came from “pipework and lagging and this being the likely cause of the mesothelioma”.

He recorded a verdict of death from industrial disease.

Although he was “doing extremely well” by March 2013, he went for radiotherapy the next year.

A statement from consultant in respiratory medicine Dr Najib Rahman said apart from heart disease that was being controlled, he had “no other significant medical history”.

He said it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that Mr Boodell – who died at the Churchill Hospital’s Sobell House Hospice – had epithelial mesothelioma.

Mr Clark heard legal proceedings are still ongoing.

Mr Boodell was appointed foreman in 1968 and principal safety engineer in 1986 and the disease presented itself 10 to 30 years after exposure.

 

 

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