GRIEVING widow Sue Smith has criticised an open verdict at the inquest into her husband's death and is prepared to fight on to highlight the dangers of asbestos.

At an inquest on Thursday, deputy Gloucester coroner David Dooley said he could not be sure whether the lung disease which killed popular Bussage resident Trevor Smith earlier this year was caused by the asbestos he played with as a child.

Before he died in July, Mr Smith, 65, said in a statement that as a boy he used to play in an old stone quarry near his home in Chalford where local firm Fibrecrete regularly dumped asbestos.

"It was common for there to be asbestos chunks and dust in the road where I lived, which had presumably fallen from passing lorries," he said. "My friends and I used to play at the quarry as it was a public area."

Mrs Smith, 56, fears many in the Chalford area are living in 'blissful ignorance' of the fact that asbestos was once dumped there. "This is something that will go on for generations if something is not done about it" she said. "I am disappointed the coroner didn't come out with a cause of death."

She has asked her lawyers to pursue the case. Mr Smith, a sport-loving grandfather, first fell ill in early 2002 with breathlessness. After a holiday in the Dominican Republic he was admitted to hospital in July this year with palpitations and further breathing problems which worsened until he died on July 23.

The inquest heard how a post mortem revealed 195,000 fibres of asbestos per gram of dry lung tissue. Pathologist Dr Jeremy Uff said there would normally be in excess of 300,000 fibres per gram in cases where asbestos had proved fatal.

He said Mr Smith had died of bronchial pneumonia caused by obstructive lung disease and plural fibrosis but this could not be directly attributed to asbestos.

The coroner said he could not be sure that Mr Smith's death was due to natural causes, but was unable to rule that it was caused by asbestos.

Verdict: open.