An inquest into the death of man who was exposed to asbestos for 40 years has been adjourned so the Dublin city coroner can hear expert evidence on any possible link between the asbestos exposure and his fatal stomach cancer.
James Carrick (62), Whitehall, Dublin, spent all his working life in the Dublin docklands. His wife, Phyllis, told the coroner's court that he regularly handled raw asbestos when loading and unloading ships and was unaware of any danger.
"The bags containing asbestos used to burst regularly and he'd come home covered in white . . . They used to make snowballs and throw them at each other. They didn't know any better. They didn't know it was dangerous."
Mr Carrick died at home on May 25th last year from stomach cancer. A postmortem showed he had asbestos fibres and pleural plaques in his lungs as a result of this exposure. However, this did not cause his death and had not developed into a tumour of the lungs commonly associated with asbestos.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the court that asbestos exposure usually manifested itself in lung disease in later life but a lesser link also existed between asbestos exposure and stomach cancer.