Sylvia Coster, 73, from Totton, in the UK had eight times the normal amount of asbestos particles in her lungs when she died. The cause? Washing her husband’s asbestos covered clothes and visiting her father at work.
Sylvia’s husband Dennis had brought home his overalls for washing when he worked at Pirelli in Eastleigh during the 1960s.
It is the latest in a series of deaths by industrial disease that face Hampshire women who came into contact with the material decades ago as they greeted their husbands home and did the weekly wash.
Mrs. Coster came into contact with asbestos while shaking asbestos particles off her husband’s clothes. She said that her husband came into so much contact with asbestos that it would gather in the turn-ups of his trousers.
Mr. Coster, who was at his wife’s inquest, told the court that she had also been exposed to the deadly substance when her father worked at Southampton’s old power station.
“I worked there too and that’s where we met,” he said.
“Everyone would go into the canteen at lunchtime with asbestos on their clothes, but at the end of the week they would clear away the tables and sweep the floor and hold dances every Friday and Saturday night that we would both go to.”
Pathologist Dr. Patrick Gallagher, who carried out a post-mortem, said there was no doubt asbestos had caused mesothelioma.
“She had eight times the amount that a normal person would have after living in Southampton,” he said.
Coroner Keith Wiseman recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease and said that although a wife’s death from washing her husband’s work clothes seemed unusual it was not unknown.
“In Southampton and with the docks I often see cases like this before me,” he said.
Diane McLellan, who runs Hampshire Asbestos Support and Awareness Group said the death of a relative from exposure to asbestos is likely to become more common.
“Figures are still expected to rise and are expected to reach their peak between 2010 and 2020. It is very sad for families to go through this when a woman dies simply for washing her husband’s clothes,” Diane added.
