AN 88-YEAR-OLD Newport man who spent 40 years working in the steel industry died after systematic exposure to asbestos, an inquest has found.
Bernard Arthur Hurley of Robert Close in Pill – a former welder and fabricator at nine different steel and engineering works in the region – died at his home on November 20, 2019, at 10.20pm.
Mr Hurley had started experiencing breathing difficulties and chest pains in 2018, and was diagnosed with mesothelioma on January 31, 2019.
Mesothelioma, a cancer that develops in the lungs, is almost always linked to asbestos exposure.
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Professor Nick Maskell, an expert in asbestos-related diseases, told the court that exposure at just one of Mr Hurley’s jobs would have been sufficient to develop mesothelioma.
In April 2019, Mr Hurley informed doctors that he had been exposed to asbestos by nine of his jobs between 1941 and 1980, and had never been informed of the dangers of exposure.
In a letter in June 2019, Mr Hurley – a fixture of his community in Pill who loved doing chores around the house and in the garden – said he had become “very frustrated” at not being able to go outdoors to see friends and family, and he thanked his six children for visiting him every day while he was ill.
Assistant coroner for Gwent Sarah Le Fevre said Mr Hurley had been "repeatedly exposed to asbestos through no fault of his own, and with no health and safety provision in place to help him".
Conclusion: industrial disease.
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