Asbestos-related condition 'a good thing', says lawyer

Published on Tuesday 2 September 2008 22:27

AN INSURANCE lawyer yesterday claimed an asbestos-related condition was a "good thing" because it proved the body's defences were in good working order.

Dr Pamela Abernethy, of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, was giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament about draft legislation intended to help people with pleural plaques, a condition related to asbestos but not itself a disease.

The legislation was criticised by the insurance industry which said it would send out the "wrong message".

Dr Abernethy told Holyrood's justice committee: "The consensus is that pleural plaques are simply the body's physiological response to the presence of foreign fibres."

Insisting she was repeating claims made in the House of Lords, she said the fibres are then "walled off", adding: "The body's defence system is operating to prevent them from causing harm. My submission is that plaques are a good thing – they don't cause harm. Harm is something which is pathological in the body, when you get damage and you usually get symptoms. These plaques are markers of exposure to asbestos."

Pressed on her statement, she said the presence of the condition was unreliable because people without plaques could develop illness.

Dr Abernethy appeared at Holyrood with insurers to give evidence to MSPs about a bill which aims to reverse a decision by the House of Lords that people with the condition cannot claim compensation.

Defenders of the proposed Holyrood legislation say the benign scarring on lungs indicates past exposure to asbestos and could point to a higher risk of developing mesothelioma, a form of cancer.