A WIDOW has criticised the firm where her late husband was employed after an inquest concluded 'on balance' he developed a fatal condition through work.

Jeff Miles, 57, suffered years of ill health that forced him to give up his job with GE Thermometrics (now Amphenol Thermometrics), in Priorswood, Taunton, where lack of protective gear left him exposed to white spirit and benzine, the hearing was told.

Mr Miles, of Larch Close, had bowel problems, tender fingers and thumbs, facial redness, skin irritation and breathlessness for several years leading up to his death in September last year.

As well as not wearing gloves and other protective clothing, he worked in an unventilated room with no windows, where the temperature was too high, leaving him "significantly disabled and psychologically traumatised".

Mr Miles worked for GE Thermometrics from the age of 29 to 43, where his role involved fashioning wire for inserting in cards by dipping them in a liquid containing white spirit and benzine for 12 hours a day, four days a week, last Thursday's inquest heard.

He was diagnosed with progressive systemic sclerosis, which, on the balance of probability, was triggered by his work, according to respiratory expert Dr Robert Stone, who is based at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital.

He claimed part of Mr Miles's hand was coated in white spirit, while he also inhaled significant amounts of its vapour.

He was unable to walk a mile without stopping by the time his condition forced him to stop work in September 2000.

A report from the Control of Hazardous Substances Hazardous to Health said: "After 13 years' repeated exposure to white spirit, it is possible it might lead to an auto-immune disease such as systemic sclerosis in a few cases."

Somerset's senior coroner Tony Williams said the cause of Mr Miles's death at Musgrove Park Hospital was respiratory failure with scleroderma with pulmonary fibrosis.

He said: "I'm satisfied on balance that the industrial disease came about as a direct result of the workplace exposure to white spirit - physical exposure and inhalation - for a period of 13 years.

"His work resulted in him developing a fatal systemic sclerosis."

Mr Williams is to write to GE Thermometrics to see what action the company has taken or intends to take in connection with the exposure of employees to white spirit.

He is also contacting the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to find out the current position as regards white spirit and its possible links to systemic sclerosis.

After the inquest, Mr Miles's widow Brenda said: "It should never ever have happened - if they had put the correct procedures in place as the coroner stated, I wouldn't be here (at the inquest) and neither would my family."