Chris Wagner

Chris Wagner, who has died aged 77, was an outstanding international authority on asbestos-related cancer. In 1956, while working at the South African Pneumoconiosis Research Unit, he conducted an autopsy on a black African miner thought to have died from tuberculosis. He later wrote: "On opening the thoracic cavity, I was amazed to find a huge gelatinous tumour." The tumour was a mesothelioma, and further examination of the lung revealed clumps of asbestos bodies. It was a finding that influenced the rest of his life.

Wagner was born in Pretoria, the elder child of Percy Wagner, one of South Africas's most distinguished economic geologists. Chris was six years old when his father died, and, perhaps not surprisingly, spent his early years in his shadow. He was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal, and, in 1941, went up to the University of Natal. In 1942, he joined the South African army, fighting in North Africa and Italy. His memory of that time was indelible - in particular of the events surrounding the battle for Monte Cassino. Back home again, he returned to Witwatersrand medical school, from where he graduated in 1951.

After Chris diagnosed his first mesothelioma, he conferred with colleagues and discovered that a group of similar cases had occurred at a tuberculosis hospital in Kimberley. He hypothesised that asbestos could be involved, and soon made a link with exposure to blue asbestos (crocidolite). This required some detective work, as many of the patients had never worked with asbestos but lived near the asbestos fields; others had left the areas while they were still children.

In 1959, Chris presented his findings to the pneumoconiosis conference in Johannesburg, where the audience included John Gilson, then director of the Medical Research Council's pneumoconiosis research unit (PRU) in Penarth, south Wales. Chris took Gilson to visit the mines and deposits in South Africa, and Gilson recognised Chris's exceptional knowledge of the asbestos then being imported into Britain.

The publication, in 1960, of his seminal paper, Diffuse Pleural Mesothelioma And Asbestos Exposure In North-Western Cape Province (written with CA Sleggs and P Marchand) became the most cited work in the field of industrial medicine, and put Chris firmly on the asbestos research map. It also led to his doctorate from the University of Witwatersrand in 1962.

That same year, at the invitation of Gilson, Chris moved to the PRU, and together they set about stirring up interest in the asbestos problem, an activity that culminated in a ground-breaking conference on the biological effects of asbestos, convened by the New York Academy of Sciences in 1964. Contrary to expectations, the British asbestos industry co-operated fully.

Chris was the first person to emphasise the association between blue asbestos and mesothelioma, and to set up a programme of research to investigate asbestos-related cancer. There were a few earlier case reports suggesting a possible link, but no one had attempted further investigations or considered the type of asbestos involved. Indeed, Chris had to work hard to persuade his colleagues that his research would be worthwhile. He succeeded and went on to prove that different fibre types, in different doses, have different effects on lung tissue. This research was pivotal in the introduction of safety standards and the banning of blue asbestos in Britain.

Chris liked nothing better than to collaborate with colleagues. His research workers were very proud of him, and he, in turn, was fiercely loyal to them. At the PRU, he contributed to projects in other fields and made original observations on the pathology of coalworkers' pneumoconiosis. He was a dominant, if unconventional, figure at research meetings, where he delighted in discussing his research with the international academic community.

Despite dyslexia, Chris had 85 original research articles published, along with many book chapters and reviews - though notwithstanding his success, he had dark moments of despair. Fortunately, he was widely read, and had both a prodigious memory and a talent for making lifelong friends, qualities which helped him to retain his equilibrium.

He received numerous accolades, including, in 1985, the Charles S Mott prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for "the most outstanding recent contribution related to the causes and ultimate prevention of cancer".

In 1985, Chris and his wife, Margaret, retired to Dorset, where he indulged his love of old stones, becoming a respected member of the Dorset Archaeological Society. He had a logical mind, a brilliant sense of humour and a zest for life. More than that, he left the world a safer place for the rest of us.

He is survived by Margaret, a son, two daughters and two granddaughters.

John Christopher Wagner, research pathologist, born April 11 1923; died May 25 2000

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKaVrMBwfo9pZ2iipaF8cX2OoKyaqpSerq%2B7waKrrpminrK0fQ%3D%3D