CREWE and Nantwich are reaching a peak in the cases of asbestos-related cancer.

The borough has the highest mortality rate in Cheshire from mesothelioma - a rare type of cancer affecting the lungs largely due to exposure to asbestos, readily used in railway engineering sites such as Crewe Works since the 1940's until it was banned in the UK during the 1980's.

The disease has a latency period and can take up to sixty years to develop which explains the steady rise in mesothelioma deaths in Crewe and Nantwich over the last 20 years.

The most recent statistics from the Health and Safety Executive reveal there have been 103 deaths in the borough from the industrial disease from 1985 to 2004, the 16th highest in districts across the UK.

Inquests recently into the deaths earlier this year of Crewe men, 82-year-old Leslie King of Heron Crescent and 90-year-old Leslie Bedson of Eastern Road, both former employees at Crewe Works, revealed they had died from mesothelioma.

Giving evidence, Joseph Chadwick, cousin to Mr Bedson's late wife, said Mr Bedson, a fitter at the railway works all his working life, told how he and his colleagues working nightshifts would sleep on pipes lagged with asbestos, ignorant at the time of the danger.

Mr King, a coppersmith for 49 years, also described in a letter written before his death of being unaware of the dangers involved with the killer dust and the lack of protection offered.

"Asbestos would be all around me, there was a sea of asbestos on the floor and in the air and men would throw it as snowballs," he said.

"Asbestos would fall to the floor and would be walked all round the shop, our overalls would be covered in white asbestos and there would be blue and brown asbestos on the floor.

"We were handling it on almost a daily basis, it was impossible to avoid but we weren't provided with masks until much, much later. No-one insisted we wore them and we were never told of the dangers at the time."

The Coroner for Cheshire Nicholas Rheinberg said he was entirely satisfied that exposure to asbestos led to the development of mesolthelioma in the two men.

A spokesperson for Mesothelioma UK said: "It has been a national epidemic for the last ten years and is about to peak but this should tail off as it is commensurate with asbestos use."

A spokesperson for Bombardier Transport, owners of the former Crewe Works, said: "Since the dangers of asbestos have been known we have introduced high levels of containment at Crewe and it is no longer a problem for our employees."

For further information about mesothelioma and making a compensation claim contact Cheshire Victims Asbestos Support Group on 01928 576641.