A retired electrical technician has died as a result of inhaling asbestos during 15 years' working at York Carriageworks, an inquest has heard.

In a statement to his solicitors before his death, Derek Wilson, 65, described how blue and white asbestos was thrown into the air by work on carriages at the British Rail Engineering plant on Holgate Road where he worked from 1973 to 1988.

He got so dirty from the dust, he needed to wash at the end of his shift.

The inquest at New Earswick Folk Hall heard that Mr Wilson, of Bellhouse Way, Foxwood, died at St Leonard's Hospice, York, on March 29, 2014.

A post mortem revealed he had asbestos fibres in his body and had died from malignant mesothelioma, a form of cancer commonly caused by asbestos which is recognised as an industrial disease. He had been diagnosed as having the disease more than a year earlier.

York coroner Donald Coverdale concluded he had died from an industrial disease and that the mesothelioma had been caused by inhaling asbestos dust during his work at the carriageworks.