Daughter's warning after father's asbestos-linked death
A daughter of a plumber who died from asbestos exposure tonight warned many more people may be walking around unaware they were exposed to the lethal fibres decades ago.
John Byrne, 59, from Blackrock in Dublin, died from a tumour in the chest on June 19, 2005 after being exposed to asbestos 40 years earlier in his work as a plumber.
After the inquest his daughter, Barbara, said: “He wasn’t a smoker, he was a very healthy man. Just out of the blue, this had spent 40 years of his life lying dormant in his system. He had not a clue until it was initially diagnosed.”
She added: “Clearly a lot of people unfortunately might be facing this because of their exposure to asbestos and they don’t realise it. They are only becoming aware now of the dangers of it.”
The Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard Mr Byrne had been exposed to asbestos in the early 1960s when he worked as an apprentice plumber for an engineering firm.
His wife, Patricia, told the court: “He remembered mixing asbestos to coat the boilers.”
In the late 1960s he worked for CIE in its maintenance staff. Mrs Byrne said asbestos had been used in the roof of the building where he worked repairing the buses.
“They were the only two places he was definite about being exposed,” she said.
His wife said: “He was only 59, very healthy, didn’t smoke, ran marathons, ate healthily, it was a shame.”
She said they were only heading into their retirement years after raising three children when this happened.
Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said a letter from Ken O’Byrne, a consultant medical oncologist at St James’s Hospital, who treated Mr Byrne, stated exposure to asbestos was the cause of his mesothelioma, or tumour in the lining of the chest.
Dr Farrell told the court this disease, which has a high association with asbestos, often does not become apparent until up to 40 years after the exposure.
“There is an increased awareness of it now,” he said. “We are hearing of deaths in the court now, not infrequently, which may be related to asbestos.”
The jury found his death was due to an occupational related disease.
The inquest heard there was no autopsy carried out after Mr Byrne died in St James’s Hospital as the Coroner’s Office had not been informed of the possibility the death was related to the workplace.
Dr Farrell said: “We would strongly remind the medical profession of their legal obligation to report the occupational disease to the Coroner’s Office.”
The court earlier passed an open verdict in the death of John Farrell, 63, from Dublin’s Phisborough, who was diagnosed with a malignant mesothelioma and died on May 23, 2005 in the Mater Hospital.
Dr Farrell said an autopsy was also not carried out in this case as the office had not been informed to the death. His wife, Maria, told the court he had not known if he was exposed to asbestos dust during his working life.
