A factory worker died from a lung condition caused by workplace mould exposure, after his employer admitted it had breached its duty of care. Lee Walker, 58, a forehearth specialist at a Rotherham glassworks, died in 2025 from hypersensitivity pneumonitis, an interstitial lung disease triggered by repeated inhalation of hazardous particles. The mould responsible – Aspergillus – had contaminated the company’s water systems, and spores were released into the air as vapour during his routine daily work.
Mr Walker started at the glassworks in 2008, aged 50, helping to maintain machinery that shapes molten glass into bottles and jars. By 2017, he developed severe breathing problems, extreme fatigue and violent coughing fits that at one stage broke a rib. His wife, Lisa Walker, said simple tasks such as carrying shopping home became impossible. In 2019 his health had deteriorated so badly that he was forced to retire. The couple moved to Cleethorpes by the sea in an attempt to ease his symptoms, but his condition worsened until turning over in bed left him breathless. He died from a severe chest infection just months after the family received a six-figure settlement from his employer.
What caused the illness: hypersensitivity pneumonitis and Aspergillus
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is an immune system disorder that causes inflammation in the lungs after repeated inhalation of irritants such as moulds, bacteria, animal proteins or chemicals. In Mr Walker’s case, the irritant was Aspergillus, a common mould found in many indoor environments including damp housing, older buildings and air conditioning systems. The fungus releases spores into the air; while these spores do not affect everyone negatively, they can cause serious health conditions in susceptible individuals. The condition caused by these spores – aspergillosis – affects between 3,288 and 4,257 people a year in the UK and can be fatal, according to research from the University of Manchester.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH), Aspergillus is classed as a hazardous biological agent. The regulations require employers to assess and control worker exposure to its spores. A report commissioned by Beatson Clark – the glassworks’ owners – in 2018 showed that the company’s water systems had been contaminated with dangerously high levels of Aspergillus. Mr Walker was not made aware of that report at the time. According to his lawyers, he was never given a health risk assessment or personal protective equipment (PPE) while working, meaning he was exposed to the spores over many years.
Legal claim and admission of liability
Mr Walker and his wife launched a legal claim against Beatson Clark. In December 2024, the company admitted it had breached its duty of care and paid the family a six-figure settlement. Alison Gregory, of Thompsons Solicitors, who led Mr Walker’s case, said the company should have risk-assessed the water systems and provided protective equipment. “Given that we’re working with water systems, there was no testing of the water when he was working there. There’s just no end of failings, quite frankly… massive failure,” she said.
Thompsons Solicitors, which has run more industrial disease cases than any other law firm in the UK, described the death as entirely preventable. Philip Liptrot of the firm said: “This is yet another example of a devastating and entirely preventable death. Mr Walker was exposed to dangerous conditions at work and paid the ultimate price, and his case sadly reflects the wider human cost of industrial disease which extends far beyond the individual worker.” The firm noted that in 2021, an estimated 12,000 workers in the UK died from lung diseases linked to workplace exposure. Other occupational lung conditions include silicosis, caused by inhaling crystalline silica dust – a hazard in industries such as construction, pottery, ceramics and glass manufacturing.
Beatson Clark, which has operated from its Greasbrough Road site in Rotherham since 1751 and is now part of the Newship Group, is the UK’s largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical glass containers. Eddie Pickering, the company’s managing director, said: “Our deepest sympathies remain with Lee Walker’s family and loved ones, and we recognise the profound impact his death has had on them. This was an isolated case and we have not received any other claims of this nature. The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce is our highest priority. We maintain stringent safety procedures and continue to invest in improvements and innovations designed to protect our colleagues.”
Wife’s grief: ‘I’ve lost him because of a job he loved’
Remembering the days before his death, Lisa Walker said she always messaged him at night. On the Friday night before he died, she did not get a reply. The next morning she drove straight to the hospital.
“When I got there, nurses were fussing round him, and he kept saying, ‘I’m going, Lisa, I’m going,’ ” she said. He told nurses, “I don’t want to be in any pain. I don’t want to be gasping for breath. Just put me to sleep.”
A year on, Ms Walker said she feels Beatson Clark robbed her and her husband of their future. “It’s so maddening that this man, you know, he’s gone to work and he’s provided for his family, all his life. You know, from leaving school, he’s worked all his life, and then for him to go into a job he loved so much, and to get this illness, that, you know, ultimately killed him, it’s just so maddening. It just makes me so mad that I’ve lost him because of doing a job that he loved.”
“I feel absolutely robbed… he was 58, it’s no age, you know. I see other couples, you know, older couples, and I look at them, and I could just cry because they just think that should have been Lee and me.”
