A YORK man who played childhood games of snowballs using asbestos dust from a nearby factory died years later from the asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, an inquest heard.

John Stead, 75, of Riverside Crescent, Huntington, died in June. He was born in Leeds and from 1927 until 1943 lived in Armley, yards from the JW Roberts asbestos factory.

Mr Stead wrote a statement recalling his childhood two days before he died, which was read out at the inquest into his death at York Coroner's Court.

He said the family home was 150 yards from the factory and his school was also close by.

"The school always had fibrous dust in the playground which my friends and I used to make snowballs with. We played with the dust which was on the ground."

He said they also played on bales of asbestos fibre near the factory.

"They were great for jumping on," he said.

During the summer when it was hot, the factory took the glass off the windows.

"I remember my mother constantly cleaning and dusting the house to clear dust from the surfaces. I now believe that dust to have been asbestos." In 1943, Mr Stead joined the Royal Navy and lived away from home. Shortly after being discharged in 1946 he left Armley. The only other time in his life when he could have come into contact with asbestos was while working for Leeds City Tramways, and this would have been when occasionally changing brake shoes, for which he always wore protective clothing.

He said he had given up smoking 40 years earlier. Mr Stead wrote the statement on June 26, two days before he died.

He was diagnosed as having mesothelioma in March and a post-mortem report found the cause of his death was a right pleural mesothelioma (asbestos related).

Coroner Donald Coverdale recorded a verdict of accidental death, the accident being environmental exposure to asbestos dust.

Updated: 15:17 Thursday, September 20, 2001