The Watford Observer reports that a local man who worked for 30 years as an air conditioning engineer has died of mesothelioma, caused by on-the-job exposure to asbestos.

In a country plagued by an increasing rate of asbestos deaths, the case of Roger Keegan, age 64, is just another in a long line of casualties caused by England’s rampant use of the toxic material during the last five or six decades.

Keegan seemed to have no health concerns before he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, in the summer of 2004, his widow Pauline pointed out.

“He was a very fit and healthy man. That is why this is so hard to take,” explained Pauline. “He didn’t smoke and didn’t really drink either but we knew he’d been exposed to asbestos. We first knew he was ill when he started getting short of breath.”

“In older days, asbestos was used all the time,” she continued. “He could remember laggers’ mixing up huge dust bins of asbestos - nobody knew it was dangerous then.”

“But Roger kept going right to the end. I remember he gave up work for about two weeks before he told his oncologist he would go mad if he stayed at home any longer, so he went back.”

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