Contaminated washing may have caused Thatcham woman's cancer

An alternative scenario, that Myra Sloan’s tumour was triggered by radiation treatment for a prior bout of breast cancer, was deemed unlikely by Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford.
The hearing in Newbury Town Hall last Week was told that the 88-year-old, who lived at Oak Tree Road, died of the disease at home on May 14 this year.
Mr Bedford said that Mrs Sloan had no history of work exposure to asbestos.
However it was possible that her late husband may have brought the contaminant into the family home on his clothes and that his wife may have inhaled the dust while washing them.
Mr Bedford said: “It’s one of the mysteries of mesothelioma that a person in daily contact with asbestos does not succumb but a person washing their clothes does.
It’s fairly unusual. “She was also treated for breast cancer and the possibility that radiation therapy caused mesothelioma cannot be excluded.”
However, in a narrative verdict Mr Bedford concluded: “The time-frame makes this possibility less likely.”