A MOTHER who claims that damp conditions inside her council flat triggered her son’s asthma is taking her landlord to court in the first legal case of its kind.

Linda McKenzie is suing Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Housing Association after her son, Richard, 7, was reportedly exposed to high levels of the faeces of house dust mites, which she says caused him to develop the life-threatening illness.

Ms McKenzie, from Ibrox in Glasgow, is seeking £50,000 compensation from the council, her previous landlord, and the GHA, which currently owns her flat.

Her case, funded by legal aid, centres on the claim that the two authorities failed in their statutory duty of care under the Occupiers’ Liability Scotland Act, 1960.

Dr Stirling Howieson, an architect and engineer at Strathclyde University, has tested Ms McKenzie’s flat for a protein found in dust mite faeces which is associated with the risk of asthma.

A sample he took from the mattress surface in Richard’s bedroom found 1,400mcg of the protein per 1g of house dust — 700 times higher than the safety level set by the World Health Organisation.

Dr Howieson said the levels were the highest he had seen in seven years.

“One child in three in the UK now has asthma and it is often as a result of poor housing conditions. This case could be just the tip of the iceberg and if the link between dust mites and asthma is proved in court, it could really open the floodgates in terms of the claims against landlords,” he said.

Mike Dailly, a solicitor with the Govan Law Centre, said further immunological tests were being carried out on Richard, who uses an inhaler to control his condition.

“In the UK, we’ve been able to establish asthma can be exacerbated by damp living conditions but no one has been able to establish a causal connection between these conditions and asthma, but we’ve got the technology now to do that,” said Mr Dailly.

“We are trying to prove breach of contract by the landlord, that they failed to carry out repairs which could have improved conditions in the house and that they are therefore responsible for the child catching asthma.

The case follows the publication yesterday of a report which shows that Scotland has the worst level of asthma in the world.

The Global Initiative for Asthma study, released to mark World Asthma Day, found that 18.4 per cent of Scots are asthma sufferers.

Yesterday Ms McKenzie said that dampness was clearly visible on the walls and woodwork of her home. She said that Richard’s asthma made it difficult for him to play like other children.

“He’s very chesty. He cannot run about the same as other boys. He gets tired very quickly and gets frustrated because he cannot do things. I am convinced that the environment in here has prompted it.”

Yesterday legal experts said that if Ms McKenzie is successful in winning compensation from her landlord, the case was likely to lead to a flood of claims from asthma sufferers around the country.

In Glasgow alone four more cases where tenants claim that their housing conditions have triggered the illness are being investigated by Govan Law Centre.

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