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Story: Workplace safety and accident compensation

Victim of asbestos poisoning

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Victim of asbestos poisoning

Wellington man Robin McKenzie, seen in hospital with his wife Shirley in 1990, was exposed to asbestos while working as an electrical engineer on power stations in the 1950s. Later he developed mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by breathing in asbestos fibres, and died in 1994.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1990/1381/13-F

by Mark Round

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Hazel Armstrong, Workplace safety and accident compensation – Workplace health and safety, 1990s and 2000s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/23282/victim-of-asbestos-poisoning (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Hazel Armstrong, published 2 March 2010.