ASBESTOS FROM BRAKE PADS AT COLLEGE ‘PROBABLY’ KILLED FARMER DECADES LATER

A LIVESTOCK farmer who created a power generating weir dubbed an “infinity pool” on his Eryri (Snowdonia) farm has died.

Wyn Mostyn Lloyd Jones (pictured at the pool) died from cancer after inhaling asbestos at agricultural training college decades ago, an inquest in Caernarfon heard on Thursday.

Mr Jones had breathed in “clouds” of dust from replacing tractor brake pads in his youth, the hearing was told. But he suffered a deterioration in his health and died in a hospice on Holyhead on October 29 last year.

A coroner adopted a narrative conclusion that the probable cause of death was mesothelioma. Sarah Riley, assistant coroner for north west Wales, heard Mr Jones, originally from Llanrwst, had left school at 17 and trained in various aspects of farming at Coleg Llysfasi as a teenager. He worked on the family farm at Nant Peris.

But Mr Jones himself had prepared a statement, read out at the inquest, about how the repair and maintenance of tractors during the course exposed him to asbestos and affected his health.

He wrote that it would involve replacing brake linings.

He would remove a brake shoe from a drum and blow the dust away which could create a “visible cloud of dust”.

He would take a new shoe, fit it to the brake and attach it to the wheel.

There were no masks and he couldn’t help but breathe in the particles.

This practice would happen once or twice a week during his first year at college, according to his posthumous statement.

He also worked on his father’s diary and sheep farm in the mountains. In the 1960s an old building which may have contained asbestos collapsed. But he was never exposed to asbestos while working as a farmer, he wrote.

The inquest heard that from about 2001 Mr Jones had experienced a shortness of breath and weight loss. In the summer of 2021 his health declined and he suffered more breathlessness and fatigue.

Part of his farm covers 1,000 acres at the top of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon). Mr Jones said in his statement: “The other farmers laughed at my struggling to get up. That’s when I knew that something was wrong.”

He had tests and was diagnosed with mesothelioma in November 2021.

He was sent for chemotherapy but was having palliative care in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd by January last year.

In October last year he moved into St David’s Hospice in Holyhead to be given palliative care for malignant mesothelioma. But he died there on October 29.

The assistant coroner found he died from mesothelioma which was determined from biopsies during his care.

Giving a narrative conclusion, she said: “Mr Jones was exposed to asbestos whilst at college as part of his farming studies.

“Having considered the evidence that Mr Jones himself had provided and the details of his exposure to asbestos dust...I find it more likely than not that Mr Jones’ mesothelioma was caused by asbestos exposure.

“The exposure to that asbestos has probably caused his mesothelioma.”

In recent years The Daily Post reported on how Mr Jones had spent £400,000 into a green energy project and had to enlist the help of helicopters to build an electricity generating weir which was dubbed an infinity pool by Instagrammers.

He had intentionally not publicised its location.

It was a popular resting spot with walkers but its whereabouts became more widely known and became a “party spot” where revellers would leave a “disgraceful” mess behind, Mr Jones said in 2018.