WHAT a very poor call by the City of Glasgow City Council (“Asbestos charity hits out at council for ‘cynical’ rebuff over funding bid’”, The Herald, January 13). Action on Asbestos provides an extremely valuable service to all sufferers of asbestos related diseases. The team is customer-focused and in today’s world is an outstanding example of “can do – will do”.
There is information available showing that by the 1930s the asbestos industry knew about the health risks to its employees, and others, exposed to its products. Those at risk included workers in Clydeside shipyards, but their employers did not provide any protection from the deadly asbestos fibres.
The facts surrounding the product responsible for workers developing conditions including pleural plaques, asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma are available in the public domain. However, for those who suddenly learn they have developed a work-related health condition late in life there is an immediate need for specific information and support.
Action on Asbestos is a charitable organisation providing those services, but it requires funding to continue its vital work.
Having regard to the foregoing, perhaps the council’s decision makers could consider reviewing the recent application made by Action on Asbestos with a view to granting its funding bid. Having learnt two and a half years ago that I have lost 10 per cent of my lung function due to asbestosis the writer is one of Action on Asbestos’s grateful clients.
Ian Mackay, Kilmarnock.
Changing stance
GUY Stenhouse (“Climate change is inevitable – we should plan for it accordingly”, Herald Business, January 13) says that climate change has always occurred and it is arrogant to suggest that humans are the main reason for the current changes. With the vast majority of climate scientists agreeing that humans are the main reason for the changes perhaps it is your columnist who is the one being arrogant. Alternatively, perhaps he has some knowledge which the experts lack. If this is the case I, for one, would be most interested in learning about his sources of information.
John Palfreyman, Coupar Angus.
The PC Oscars
THE outcry about the Oscar nominations and perceived lack of non-white and non-male candidates is disturbing (“McQueen blasts ‘all-white’ awards shortlist”, The Herald, January 14).
We seem to be approaching the stage where cinematic art will be judged on the colour of the skin or of the gender of the artist. It is almost as if artistic merit has become a secondary factor and some kind of ratio according to skin colour and sex is going to be imposed. Surely, if this happened, non-white, non-male winners would be forever devalued. It is misogyny and racism in reverse.
Alexander McKay, Edinburgh EH6.
O my ...
CURRENTLY engaged in clearing out the accumulation of many years from my bookshelves Rab McNeil’s finding that he had read very few of his discarded “hundreds” a second time finds me in a similar position, ("Reacher for the skies", The Herald, January 11).
Read first in 1957, and the other omnibus of 100 in 1960, I am nearing the end of a literary marathon of the short stories of American writer O Henry, and their diversity, characters, and surprise endings are as entertaining as ever.
With Mr McNeil’s PG Wodehouse and a few others they will be retained to be read hopefully a third time.
R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.
Polis call
DOUGLAS Hutchison (Letters, January 13) questions the need to add Gaelic signage to police vehicles. Why not just say “Polis”, as in Sweden, then everyone would know what it means?
Scott Simpson, Glasgow G12.
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