A CORONER has recorded an open verdict on a joiner from North Yorkshire who was said to have been exposed to asbestos during his work.

York Coroner Donald Coverdale said the death of Robert Driffield, 45, from mesothelioma - a tumour mainly linked to asbestos - could not be proven to have been caused by exposure to asbestos.

Mr Driffield, of West Terrace, Husthwaite, died in St Leonard's Hospice, York, in April after being operated on twice in Hull for the mesothelioma.

His mother, Ida Driffield, of The Village, Wigginton, told the hearing her son had worked for building firm Shepherd on York's university and district hospital in the early 1970s and worked for eight other firms before becoming self-employed in 1983. As an apprentice he had told her about being exposed to asbestos.

She said when her son was treated at Castle Hill Hospital in Hull, he was told his condition was asbestos-related, that he would never work again. When a post-mortem examination was carried out on Mr Driffield no asbestos fibres could be seen, though fibres of brown asbestos were discovered when tissue was sent for specialist tests.

But the amount of fibres found were discovered to be within the level of asbestos fibres present in most people's lungs.

Dr Christine Bates, a consultant pathologist at York District Hospital who carried out the post-mortem, said it was "more probable than not" that Mr Driffield's condition had been caused by exposure to asbestos, but it could not be proved on the evidence.

Updated: 11:26 Wednesday, August 22, 2001