Asbestos in Scotland

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in Scotland, by T. Gorman, R. Johnston, A. McIvor, et al (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2004).

The study

• Authors: T. Gorman, R. Johnston, A. McIvor, A. Watterson
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2004;10(2):183-92
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

This paper outlines the asbestos hazard in Scotland and draws upon a systematic oral history project to analyze from the workers' perspective the nature of exposure, the limitations of government regulatory initiatives, and the ramifications of contracting asbestos-related diseases for sufferers and their families. Current issues are investigated, stressing the agency of workers, trade unions, sympathetic local councils, and, especially, the victims' pressure groups. The occupational and environmental health threats of asbestos in Scotland remain significant, although recent E.U.- and U.K.-based decisions to ban further use of asbestos together with active campaigning by local activist groups have helped to reduce them. Mesothelioma mortality rates remain high, due to historic exposures, and much work remains to be done to reduce the number and plight of asbestos-exposed workers.

In plain English

This article was a historical and policy review of asbestos in Scotland. It drew on documents and on interviews with over 30 asbestos-disease sufferers, many from Clydeside shipyards, insulation work and asbestos factories. It cited official HSE Mesothelioma Register figures: in the last quarter of the twentieth century, Scotland's mesothelioma rates ran 31% higher than the U.K. average, and Clydebank's mesothelioma mortality was the U.K.'s highest. Interviewees described asbestos dust coming "down like snow" in engine and boiler rooms. The authors reported that workers were assured their work was safe and that, before the mid-1960s, masks were rarely provided. They wrote that the oral testimonies of industrial disability sufferers indicated that contracting a progressively debilitating and potentially life-threatening asbestos-related disease invariably resulted in relative poverty. Only a small minority obtained civil settlements significantly improving their quality of life, and it was still extremely unusual for a mesothelioma victim's civil damages to be settled while alive. The authors concluded that asbestos threats in Scotland remained significant, though bans and campaigning had helped. They noted that data on current Scottish asbestos disease were incomplete.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Historical and policy review (narrative article) drawing on documentary evidence and an oral history project with asbestos-disease sufferers
• Who was studied: Asbestos-disease sufferers in Scotland, especially Clydeside; over 30 were interviewed in the oral history project the article draws on
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure in shipyards, marine engineering, insulation (lagging), asbestos-cement and other asbestos factories, and building and stripping work, plus home exposure from washing work clothes. Blue and white asbestos are mentioned.
• Main results:
  • Background figures cited from the official HSE Mesothelioma Register, not produced by this article: in the last quarter of the twentieth century, mesothelioma rates in Scotland ran 31% higher than the U.K. average, and Clydebank recorded the highest mesothelioma mortality rate in the U.K.
  • The authors reported that workers were assured their work was safe, and that before the mid-1960s masks were rarely made available
  • Interviewees described heavy dust exposure. A ship's plumber with pleural thickening said asbestos in engine and boiler rooms fell like snow.
  • According to the authors, factory management misinformed workers that white asbestos was harmless
  • The authors wrote that the oral testimonies of industrial disability sufferers in Scotland indicated that contracting a progressively debilitating and potentially life-threatening asbestos-related disease invariably resulted in relative poverty (social exclusion). This was their interpretation of the interviews, not a measured rate.
  • Only a small minority of sufferers obtained civil compensation settlements that enabled them to significantly improve their quality of life. It was still extremely unusual for a mesothelioma victim's civil damages to be settled while the victim was alive.
  • Figure cited from an earlier West of Scotland study, not produced by this article: asbestos was responsible for an estimated 5.7% of lung cancers in men registered in the West of Scotland between 1975 and 1984, some 1,081 cases
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that occupational and environmental asbestos threats in Scotland remain significant. In their view, E.U. and U.K. bans should help reduce those threats, and campaigning by victims' groups, unions and councils has helped sufferers. They also concluded that much work remains to be done.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors state that comprehensive data on current Scottish asbestos-disease figures are not readily available, and that past data lacked accuracy and completeness

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Mesothelioma in Scotland — J. McEwen, A. Finlayson, et al. (1970)
• Asbestos and lung cancer in Glasgow and the west of Scotland — H. De Vos Irvine, D.W. Lamont, et al. (1993)
• Confronting the continuing problem of asbestos in Scotland: report on a Scottish public sector initiative for the 21st century — T. Gorman, A. Watterson (2004)
• Asbestos banned in Argentina — E.J. Rodriguez (2004)
• Asbestos dispatches — L. Kazan-Allen (2004)
• The phase-out of asbestos in the Australian manufacturing environment — D.A. Vallance (2004)

Browse more research in International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, or return to medical research.