Plumber John Middleton died as a result of inhaling asbestos filaments possibly as much as 50 years earlier.

Mr Middleton, of North View, Marlborough, died at Great Western Hospital in Swindon on August 16 this year at the age of 72. He had been diagnosed in May with mesothelioma, a form of cancer commonly associated with asbestos.

Wiltshire coroner David Ridley, sitting at Trowbridge Town Hall on Tuesday, heard that Mr Middleton was taken into hospital on August 5 suffering with shortness of breath and died on August 16.

He told the inquest that Mr Middleton had left school at 16 and was apprenticed as a plumber, working with a number of firms in the area. Mr Ridley said: “Part of his job would be stripping down boilers and pipes, which would have been lagged with asbestos. In the 1950s and 1960s the dangers of asbestos were not widely known and no protective equipment was issued.”

When Mr Middleton became ill he was sent to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and a diagnosis of mesothelioma was made. This was confirmed in a post mortem examination report from Dr Darko Lazic, who found characteristic lesions in Mr Middleton’s lungs as well as particles of asbestos.

He said there was a malignant mesothelioma spreading into Mr Middleton’s abdominal cavity, which was instrumental in causing the bronchial pneumonia and subsequent septicaemia which eventually killed him.

Mr Ridley said he had no hesitation in finding Mr Middleton died of an industrial disease brought on by his contact with asbestos. A claim for compensation will now be made by Mr Middleton’s solicitors.

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