Nellie Kershaw

Nellie Kershaw (1890 – 14 March 1924) was an English textile worker from Rochdale, Lancashire. Her death due to pulmonary asbestosis was the first such case to be described in medical literature, and the first published account of disease attributed to occupational asbestos exposure. Before his publication of the case in the British Medical Journal, Dr William Edmund Cooke had already testified at Kershaw's inquest that "mineral particles in the lungs originated from asbestos and were, beyond reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death". Her employers, Turner Brothers Asbestos, accepted no liability for her injuries, paid no compensation to her bereaved family and refused to contribute towards funeral expenses as it "would create a precedent and admit responsibility". She was buried in a family grave at Rochdale Cemetery; this grave is not marked with a headstone. The subsequent inquiries into her death led to the publication of the first Asbestos Industry Regulations in 1931.

Early life Nellie Kershaw was born to Elizabeth and Arthur Kershaw in Rochdale in 1891. In 1903 she left school, aged 12, to take up employment as a cotton rover in a cotton mill and 5 months later began working at Garsides asbestos mill. She was married to Frank Kershaw, a slater's labourer, and had at least one child, a daughter born in about 1920.

She is known to have written to Turner Brothers herself on at least one occasion, asking: "What are you going to do about my case? I have been home 9 weeks now and have not received a penny – I think it's time that there was something from you as the National Health refuses to pay me anything. I am needing nourishment and the money, I should have had 9 weeks wages now through no fault of my own."

There is no record that she received payments of any form from any official source between July 1922 and her death. She died at 6.30am on 14 March 1924, aged 33.

Inquest E. N. Molesworth, the coroner for Rochdale, was obliged to investigate all cases of "unnatural" death, and Dr Joss's diagnosis of "asbestos poisoning" led Molesworth to launch a formal inquest on 14 March 1924, which was adjourned awaiting an postmortem, to be conducted by F.W. Mackichan. Mackichan gave the cause of death as "pulmonary tuberculosis and heart failure" but a further adjournment was granted for microscopic examination of the lungs. When the inquest was resumed on 1 April 1924 Turner Brothers instructed a barrister, Mr McCleary, and their solicitor G.L. Collins, of Jackson & Co., to attend in order to represent their interests and to "evade any financial liability for Mrs Kershaw's death." Their subsequent report, Occurrence of Pulmonary Fibrosis & Other Pulmonary Affections in Asbestos Workers, was presented to parliament on 24 March 1930. It concluded that the development of asbestosis was irrefutably linked to the prolonged inhalation of asbestos dust, and included the first health study of asbestos workers, which found that 66% of those employed for 20 years or more suffered from asbestosis. The report led to the publication of the first Asbestos Industry Regulations in 1931, which came into effect on 1 March 1932.

Memorial In April 2006, a relative of Kershaw unveiled a memorial stone to asbestos victims worldwide in Rochdale. The memorial service was organised by the Save Spodden Valley campaign, an action group concerned about asbestos contamination on the former Turner's factory site where Kershaw had been employed.