The medical profession and the public have "misconceptions" about the reporting of deaths from occupational disease, according to the Dublin City Coroner, writes Marie O'Halloran
Dr Brian Farrell said the law needs to be developed in this regard and a new law currently being drafted "will be even firmer", about the reporting of unnatural deaths. He was defending his statutory obligation to carry out an inquest where there was an unnatural death, including those from occupational disease.
The family of the late Brian Connolly (59), Willow House, Kinsealy Lane, Malahide, Co Dublin had objected to an autopsy , because they accepted the evidence of the medical profession, that his death was from mesothelioma, a malignant tumour due to exposure to asbestos dust. The jury delivered a unanimous verdict of death by occupational disease. Connolly had worked in the 1960s and 1970s for his father's industrial maintenance firm.
He did not have direct contact with asbestos but worked in an environment where there was asbestos. He lived in Sligo before moving in with his sister when he was diagnosed with cancer 18 months before his death. Mr Joe Connolly, his brother, said the family had already approached the coroner before his death with the medical reports and they wanted to follow their brother's wishes before he died on April 2nd, 2001, that his body be donated to medical science.
Mr Connolly believed the autopsy was unnecessary. Dr Farrell rejected this. The medical evidence suggested asbestos but did not make the diagnosis. The autopsy, carried out by the Deputy State pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, found "asbestos bodies in the lung tissue", which was conclusive about asbestos.
The coroner apologised that the family had been upset but he pointed out that he could not "yield jurisdiction" on any unnatural death. "At the end of the day Brian's death was unnatural" and such situations "will always require an inquest. That will not change in the future." An earlier case was referred to the coroner's court by the registrar of births, deaths and marriages. The registrar refused to issue a death certificate for Gerry Phelan (64), Sandyford, Dublin who died on December 15th, 2002, because the medical certificate cited asbestos.
No autopsy had been carried out and the jury issued a finding of carcinoma of the lung with contributory factors, including a significant history of exposure to asbestos dust, and a history of smoking.