A PENSIONER'S death was most likely caused by exposure to asbestos during his working life, a coroner has concluded.

Norman Woosnam, died aged 81 at the Rhiwlas Care Home on Northop Road in Flint on November 10.

At an inquest into his death, held at County Hall in Mold, John Gittins, coroner for North East Wales and Central, said he had been advised by Mr Woosnam's doctor that he had been diagnosed "with an asbestos-related illness".

A statement submitted to the inquest by Mr Woosnam's solicitors, and written by Mr Woosnam himself, described his working life.

Originally from Birkenhead on the Wirral, Mr Woosnam worked for the Birkenhead Corporation in the 1950s and '60s as an electrician.

His job saw him "regularly exposed to asbestos" in the boiler rooms of public properties, where pipes were often lagged with asbestos and in "poor condition".

Mr Woosnam also worked alongside men who were mixing up new asbestos lagging and they would breathe in the dust around them.

He received similar exposure went he undertook electrical work at power stations in Blyth, Northumberland and Wirral Automation in Bromborough.

Mr Gittins said Mr Woosnam's cause of death was confirmed at Glan Clwyd Hospital as being due to malignant mesothelioma, an asbestos related cancer.

He said: "Bearing in my Mr Woosnam's illness was probably developed due to exposure to asbestos in the course of his working life, on the balance of probabilities I am recording a conclusion of death caused by industrial disease."