Death by asbestos

10:36am Tuesday 23rd March 2004

A FORMER car plant worker may have developed an aggressive form of cancer after exposure to asbestos, an inquest heard.

Henry Essex, 74, of Rubens Street, Catford, who worked for most of the 1980s as a maintenance engineer for Ford, died on November 4 last year after developing malignant mesothelioma.

He had only come into contact with asbestos when the car factory was being decommissioned between 1988 and 1989, Southwark Coroner's Court heard on March 17.

Pathologist Dr Jane Norton said she found an "aggressive form of malignant mesothelioma" in the lungs.

She added: "About 90 per cent of mesothelioma cases are found to be linked to asbestos."

Coroner John Sampson recorded that Mr Essex died as a result of an industrial disease.