A JOINER who spent years drilling, cutting and fitting asbestos sheets died from industrial disease.

An inquest heard how David Hartley, of Alvaston, worked at the Reckitt and Coleman site while employed by Byard and Green shop fitters in the late-1960s and early-1970s.

While at the Sinfin Lane business, he would cut the corrugated asbestos sheets with a hacksaw and use a drill to fix them to the walls.

In a statement made to his solicitor before his death on October 25, the 57-year-old said he remembered seeing asbestos dust "flying in the air and falling in his face".

Dr Robert Hunter, Derby and South Derbyshire Coroner, said: "Mr Hartley's quite detailed employment history showed he was involved in handling and cutting asbestos products.

"On one occasion, when cutting pipes, he recalls the dust falling on his face.

"Given his statement I am quite satisfied during the course of his employment he was exposed to asbestos and I return a verdict of death by industrial disease."

In Mr Hartley's statement, read out in court, he tells how he started to feel short of breath around Christmas 2006.

On holiday in April 2007 he said he could not walk up hills and on his return home made an appointment to see his doctor.

Mr Hartley, of Lindon Drive, was initially diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent six bouts of chemotherapy over a five-month period.

However, in March 2008, doctors confirmed he was suffering from malignant mesothelioma, an incurable form of cancer caused by breathing in asbestos fibres.

In the statement, Mr Hartley said he joined Byard and Green as an apprentice when he was aged 16.

One of the principal contracts he worked on was at Reckitt and Coleman.

He said: "I can recall cutting corrugated asbestos sheeting and I had to remove (asbestos) lagging from the pipes. It was a very messy job.

"No one ever told me it was dangerous.

"I do not recall being given any warnings and I was never given a mask."

Mr Hartley, whose wife, Gillian, 52, a laboratory technician, was in court, then said he went on to work as a self-employed joiner.

Joanne Carlin, from Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team, said Mr Hartley was the latest in a line of former joiners she had heard about who had developed mesothelioma.

She said: "This is another sad death, caused by merely going to work.

"We hope that in the future there will be no more tragic deaths from exposure to asbestos."

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