THE work Alan Fletcher carried out as a plumber left a deadly legacy which was to take its toll many years later, an inquest heard.

Mr Fletcher (60), of Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe, had worked with asbestos, sometimes covered in clouds of the deadly material, at a time when its lethal potential was not fully appreciated.

Eventually, when he was succumbing to its effects, he compiled a graphic background of his experiences in his civil claim for disability allowance through mesothelioma, the asbestos-related cancer.

Bury District Coroner, Mr Barrie Williams, read out the statement as evidence. Mr Fletcher, who died in Fairfield General Hospital on New Year's Day, started work as an apprentice plumber and was employed by the Co-operative Society stripping out bakery ovens at Prestwich. He remembered using a sledgehammer and seeing the asbestos lagging flying. It floated in the atmosphere and covered him.

Finally in 1977, he established his own company and at this time, new materials were replacing asbestos and the effects of his early exposure did not enter his thinking until he started to become breathless in the middle of 1999, and hospital tests showed the malignant tumour mesothelioma. It was inoperative.

Mr Fletcher eventually died of broncho-pneumonia but this was only the terminal event and the true cause was the cancer.

Evidence of identification was given my Mr Fletcher's son, Derek.

Mr Williams, in recording a verdict of death due to industrial disease, said asbestos-related mesothelioma had a latency period of at least 20 years and in Mr Fletcher's case it arose most likely from exposure to asbestos during his early working life.