A PORTUGUESE man from South Littleton died as a result of spending seven years working at an asbestos factory in his home country, a coroner has ruled.

Vitor Batista-Pedro of Church Street, was 59 years old when he died of a malignant mesothelioma at Cheltenham General Hospital on January 26.

The inquest heard that Mr Batista-Pedro had been for histology test results but medics in Birmingham failed to tell him he had a mesothelioma.

Malignant mesotheliomas are effectively untreatable but it is possible that Mr Batista-Pedro could have been made more comfortable before his inevitable death, the Gloucester inquest was told.

Mr Batista-Pedro had worked at a factory in Portugal where cleaned machines and was heavily exposed to asbestos.

Pathologist Dr Keith McCarthy said on examination Mr Batista-Pedro had evidence of renal failure, cardiac failure and his liver was congested.

Mr Batista-Pedro was found to have 182,418 asbestos fibres per gram of dry lung tissue. "This represents a significant exposure to asbestos," Dr McCarthy said.

He said the cause of death was pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis that was caused by a malignant mesothelioma.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore said: "This is a case where there are all the classical signs that the malignant mesothelioma has developed because of an exposure to asbestos in the industrial workplace.

"Around 37 years after he stopped working at the factory in Portugal he began to show symptoms typical of malignant mesothelioma, " he said. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease.