Asbestos-related diseases strike at whole communities - Robert Brown

12.00.00am GMT Wed 19th Nov 2008

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has backed the Scottish Parliament's new law restoring the right of damages to people exposed to asbestos who have suffered from pleural plaques. The Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Bill is designed to overturn a legal decision by the House of Lords last year which denied the right to damages which had existed for 20 years for people with pleural plaques.

Pleural plaques does not itself cause any symptoms but has been described as the "calling card" for the development of more serious asbestos related diseases.

Robert Brown, who is a member of the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament, has been working with campaigners from Clydeside Action on Asbestos and other campaigners to secure the legal change.

Robert Brown said:

"The House of Lords' decision was a grave blow to many close-knit local families and communities. Asbestos-related conditions often strike at and affect whole families and communities, partly because two of the main industries involved are shipbuilding and construction.

In these industries, brother has followed brother and son has followed father in contracting asbestos-related diseases; wives and girlfriends who washed overalls have been exposed; and the main disease - mesolethioma - is nastier and more certainly terminal than almost every other.

The Bill has now passed its first Parliamentary hurdle and this is good news for many claimants in communities across the West of Scotland, including Rutherglen and Cambuslang. It will restore claimants' rights in Scotland as they were understood for the last 20 years or more.

The Justice Committee found that the risk of people with pleural plaques developing mesolethioma is many times greater than that in the general population and the resultant effect on people's wellbeing is substantial and adverse.