Asbestos blamed for ex-Navy man’s death
A former Royal Navy engineer has joined the growing list of mesothelioma victims in Swindon.
Clive Witts, 61, of Richmond Road, Rodbourne, officially died of pancreatitis on January 5. But Wiltshire coroner David Masters, sitting, told an inquest that the condition was hidden due to him also suffering from acute mesothelioma.
He said Mr Witts’ pancreatitis could have been treated if he had not contracted the asbestos-related disease.
The inquest at Swindon Council’s Civic Offices heard that Mr Witts was exposed to asbestos while working as a marine engineer in Portsmouth in the 1960s and 1970s.
Mr Witts’ widow, Rosemary, told the inquest that her husband was responsible for removing asbestos from pipes and then relagging them with the same substance.
She added that he wore no mask or protective clothing and slept in the boiler room on a hammock on occasions.
When he left the Navy he joined the prison service and was then employed at Raychem in Swindon. Dr Jeanette Armstrong, who carried out the post mortem, found that Mr Witts’ right lung was encased with a thick, white fibrous tumour, but concluded that he died from acute pancreatitis. Yet, Mr Masters ruled out a death due to natural causes.
He said: “Mr Witts died from pancreatitis, but this was contributed to by mesothelioma because the mesothelioma masked the symptoms of the pancreatitis. He died from this condition at the Great Western Hospital, but it is apparent to me, on the balance of probabilities, that he died from an industrial disease.
“The pathologist says his death was natural, but I don’t agree with her because the mesothelioma had a bearing on his death.”
Mr Witts’ inquest was held on the same day as Mesothelioma Action Day, a day designed to heighten the awareness of the disease.
The TUC used the awareness day to urge firms to do more to protect workers against exposure to asbestos, which kills 2,000 people every year. It claims the deadly substance is still to be found in more than 1.5 million workplaces even though its supply and use has been banned in the UK.
Mesothelioma has become known to some as the Swindon Disease because of the large numbers of former railwaymen who contracted it, as asbestos was used widely in the town’s railway works.
Source: Swindon Advertiser