A local MSP has spoken of his personal family experience of the rare cancer, Mesothelioma.
During a Scottish Parliament debate to mark Action Mesothelioma Day 2025, Eastwood MSP Jackson Carlaw spoke of how his uncle passed away from Mesothelioma and after being exposed to asbestos whilst running a business in the retail motor industry.
Exposure to asbestos can result in small fibres finding their way into a person’s lungs to damage their organs over time but it can take decades for symptoms of Mesothelioma to emerge.
During the debate, the Eastwood MSP also pointed to research on Mesothelioma deaths in East Renfrewshire.
Research by the Asbestos Information Community Interest Company discovered that out of Scotland’s 57 UK Parliamentary constituencies, East Renfrewshire ranks as the joint fourth-highest on a measurement comparing Mesothelioma deaths to fatalities on the road.
The study found that for every one road accident fatality in East Renfrewshire, there were three Mesothelioma deaths.
Scottish Conservative MSP for Eastwood, Jackson Carlaw said:
“My uncle Alan Carlaw was in the motor industry, as was I, and those businesses, like many others, were housed in architecture that was built at a time when asbestos was a prevailing building material.
“Many people in different industries who built Scotland were doing so in environments that would subsequently kill them and that is a huge tragedy.
“Dying in the manner that my uncle did was such an unjust way for anyone to end their life and like so many other people, the pleural plaques did not manifest, as part of the disease, until he was much older.
“I was in the motor industry too and so I may also have the pleural plaques – I just do not know.
“Based on the findings of an asbestos study, East Renfrewshire where my constituency of Eastwood lies, has the joint fourth-highest ratio of Mesothelioma deaths to road traffic fatalities in Scotland.
“However, the public focus on road traffic deaths, road traffic management and road traffic accident prevention is huge and this is not the case with Mesothelioma.
“There needs to be a renewed national effort to significantly increase public awareness of the disease and to ensure that appropriate research is undertaken with the aim of getting to the point where a cure for Mesothelioma can be discovered.”
