FOR half a century Herbert Golton devoted his life to Rowntrees unaware that the work he was doing for his employers was killing him.

Today his family - who have concerns for their own health - are considering legal action after a coroner finally concluded that his job had proved to be the death of the York man.

An inquest yesterday heard how Rowntrees - renowned for looking after its workers - failed to protect Mr Golton from repeated exposure to deadly amounts of asbestos dust while working as a pipe lagger. He finally died, aged 84, after developing the devastating asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma.

His daughter, Jackie, said today that she felt her father, of Sixth Avenue, Heworth, had been betrayed by Rowntrees.

"I am angry because it was known in the 1930s that asbestos was a dangerous substance," she said.

Herbert joined the company in 1933 just as the Government of the day began warning about the dangers of asbestos.

However, the family man did not start working with the deadly material until more than a decade later when in 1945 he became a pipe lagger.

Mr Golton's son, Ken, told the inquest that his father used to bring his dusty overalls home to be shaken and then washed in the kitchen by his mother.

He said the clouds of dust used to fly everywhere, and a "fibrous scum" was left in the sink after the overalls were washed.

He said his father had talked openly to the family about the asbestos dust he encountered at the factory. He had said no protection was given by the company until the 1970s, although he had sometimes tied a scarf or handkerchief around his mouth. However, the air was sometimes so thick with dust that it was almost impossible to breathe.

A letter from Nestl UK, described by the York Coroner, Donald Coverdale, as "open and honest, decent and helpful," confirmed that Mr Golton had worked with asbestos materials without appropriate respiratory equipment, which was only provided from the early-mid 1970s.

Mr Golton's daughter said afterwards that the authorities had known since the 1930s that asbestos posed health risks, and she was angry that her father had been put in such danger.

She said Rowntrees had been known as one of the best places to work.

"It cared for the workers. It sent them to a convalescent home when they were ill, but it allowed my father to be exposed to so much danger."

She said her father's illness and death had been horrific. "It was terrible to see."

She also spoke of her concerns about the risks she and her brother, Ken, had been exposed to as children.

The coroner recorded a verdict that Mr Golton died from the industrial disease mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer.

The family's solicitor, Howard Bonnett, of York firm Corries, said he was investigating the possibility of legal action against Nestl Rowntree.

He also warned that, while workers at York Carriageworks were long known to have been put at risk by asbestos, an increasing number of illnesses were also happening as a result of exposure at other locations in the city.

A Nestl spokeswoman said: "Our deepest sympathies are with the family of Herbert Golton. Health and safety are of paramount importance to Nestl and we take this matter extremely seriously indeed.

"We will now be reviewing the findings of the inquest and we will be responding accordingly."

Another inquest heard how Peter Henry, 86, of Woodthorpe, York, who was a plumber at the former York Carriageworks train factory, was exposed to large amounts of asbestos dust.

Mr Henry's death was the third to be linked at an inquest so far this year to asbestos exposure at the carriageworks. The inquest heard that he had worked with blue asbestos over a 30-year-period.

Again Mr Coverdale recorded a verdict that he too had died from the industrial disease mesothelioma.

Updated: 09:59 Friday, February 11, 2005