16 January 2011
Cyril Benford
Other non-natural
A sound recordist for the BBC died 27 years after inhaling mustard gas while covering the war between Iran and Iraq.
Cyril Benford had been with colleagues in 1984 when an Iranian soldier had opened a shell releasing the gas. He died on 16 January 2011 and changes in his lungs were consistent with mustard gas damage.
Benford, who had worked as a sound recordist and cameraman for the BBC for 38 years, had gone to Iran in 1984 for Newsnight. As well as being near the shell that released the gas, he had also sat next to an Iranian soldier on a plane journey who was holding a jar of mustard gas, stoppered with cotton wool.
