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Hairdryer dust led to woman's asbestos death
Bride-to-be died day before wedding Amy Binns A HAIRDRESSER died the day before her wedding of asbestos-related cancer after years of inhaling the dust from old-fashioned hairdryers.
Janet Watson's fianc Neil Holdsworth said she was exposed to the deadly dust from the lining of hood hairdryers for more than 12 hours a day for almost 10 years.
Mr Holdsworth said: "Janet started work as an apprentice in a hairdresser's in 1960 when she was just 15.
"For the next nine years she worked in an environment where they would put on the hairdryers as soon as they walked in on a morning, and generally they would only then be turned off when they finished for the day.
"When the girls used to go in on a morning when the weather was cold, they used to turn on the dryers on full speed to warm the room up.
"Janet said herself it was quite common to see the dust in the room being moved around, there were half-a-dozen of these things blowing away. In the winter they could have been left on for more than 12 hours every day, six days a week.
"It's upsetting to know that for nine years she was operating in a timebomb environment."
Mr Holdsworth said Mrs Watson, who had a daughter from her first marriage, left the salon in 1969 to set up her own business.
Although she continued to use similar old-style hairdryers for some years after, it is believed her constant exposure to asbestos between 1960 to 1969 was the main cause of her death.
An inquest in Bradford this week heard that asbestos fibres found in her lung were over and above the normal background levels, and that she had died of mesothelioma. A verdict of industrial disease was returned.
Mrs Watson, of Long Lee Lane, Keighley, died aged 59 on September 17 last year, the day before she was to marry Mr Holdsworth.
He said: "One of her last wishes was that we would get married. We'd been together such a long time but we'd never got around to it because we thought we had plenty of time. I'd actually bought her the outfit two years earlier."
He said he hoped the case would highlight the dangers.
He said: "I just hope that other women who may have been exposed realise and are aware so they can make the most of what time they have left. Unfortunately that's something that Janet never really had."
The general secretary of the National Hairdressers Federation said hairdressers and customers should not panic.
He said: "Asbestos is not used in modern hairdryers and has not been used in any European models since the end of the Second World War.
"Any hairdryers after that point containing asbestos will have been imported from the Far East, although the British Government disallowed the import of these since the 1960s.
"The equipment Ms Watson was using would have been quite old and worn, she also had a very unusual and expensive method of warming the salon and, because of this, would have had a lot more exposure than any other hairdresser.
"I do not want hairdressers or any customers to alarmed by this as any normal risk would be very minimal."
amy.binns@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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