News and Opinion
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Debate Revives as 9/11 Dust Is Called Fatal | |
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| | In the cold, clinical language of the autopsy report of a retired New York City detective that was released this week, there were words that thousands of New Yorkers have come to anticipate and to fear. "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," stated the report from the medical examiner's office in Ocean County, N.J. That "reasonable degree of medical certainty" — coroner language for "as sure as I can be" — provides the first official link made by a medical expert between the hazardous air at ground zero after the trade center collapse and the death of someone who worked in the rescue effort....The autopsy report went further than any other medical document to link a death to the dust, but it by no means provides conclusive proof of the dust's general toxicity and its impact on other workers at the site. That, experts generally agree, may take 20 years to play out, depending on the latency period for many cancers and other diseases that could be linked to exposure to the toxic materials....Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg noted that a law was passed last year allowing city workers who got sick after responding to the trade center site to qualify for full disability pensions, even after they retire....Toxic substances known to cause cancer, like benzene and asbestos, take decades to develop the disease. Mr. Worby said the doctors and scientists he had consulted believe that the complex mixture of chemicals that resulted from the collapse of the two towers — along with everything in them — may have created a compound that acts as an accelerant, vastly increasing the speed by which known carcinogens trigger cancer. | |
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| | NY Times, April 12, 2006 | |
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Autopsy Confirms NYPD Detective Died From Work at Ground Zero | |
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| | Much the same way the U.S. government denied the chemical defoliant Agent Orange was the cause of widespread deaths and cancer among military personnel returning from Viet Nam, the City of New York and the New York City Police Department have repeatedly refused to recognize that hundreds, if not thousands, of rescue and recovery workers, who toiled at Ground Zero, are now seriously ill or dying from the effects of exposure to the toxic cloud that hung over the area for weeks following the terrorist attacks 9/11. Any such admission by the City and the NYPD would have far reaching effects since it would potentially force the re-classification of disability pensions and death benefits due to the injured police officers or their survivors....That autopsy found that Detective Zadroga died as a direct result of respiratory failure brought on by the exposure to toxic substances and fine particles that he inhaled while working for some 470 hours at Ground Zero....Regardless of whether some degree of liability is found on the part of the City of New York or any governmental agency, there seems to be little doubt that the number of victims of 9/11 will continue to climb for years or decades to come and that the full extent of the injuries and deaths caused to those who lived, worked, responded to, or were born near Ground Zero may never be known. The Zadroga autopsy may have supplied the first hard evidence of the connection. | |
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| | News Inferno, April 12, 2006 | |
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Policeman's Death Linked to Post-9/11 Work | |
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| | The death of a 34-year-old detective who developed respiratory disease after working at ground zero is directly related to the Sept. 11 attacks, a coroner said in the first known ruling that attributes a death to recovery work at the World Trade Center site. James Zadroga's family and union released his autopsy results Tuesday, saying they are proof of the first death of a city police officer related to the response effort after the terrorist attacks....Doctors running health screening programs, including a city registry following tens of thousands of people, say it will take decades to assess the health effects of working at the trade center site. | |
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| | Associated Press, April 12, 2006 | |
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C.P.M.V. Featured in New Union Newletter | |
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| | The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims, with its AsbestosTruth.org and WorkersforAsbestosTruth.org websites, was featured in the inaugural issue of the new online labor newsletter, Unions.org. The campaign to stop the asbestos trust fund bill was cited as a "Hot Topic," and readers were urged to visit the websites and get involved. The "Find a Union" feature at Unions.org is the Internet's largest Union directory, offering over 10,000 free web pages to local Union organizations. | |
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| | Unions.org, February 14, 2006 | |
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Reid Will Block Vote on Asbestos Act | |
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| | Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged Jan. 30 to use a parliamentary objection to block Senate debate on a bill (S. 852) that would create a $140 billion trust fund for workers who were exposed to asbestos. The Senate is expected to begin debate on the bill Feb. 6. "This bill is simply not ready for consideration by the full Senate," Reid said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).
"Please be advised that I intend to oppose the motion to proceed to the asbestos litigation." It takes the support of 60 senators to waive such an objection. It is unclear whether the current bill has the 60 votes to overcome a
likely filibuster or a budget point of order. | |
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| | B.N.A., Jan. 31, 2006 | |
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Senators Should Oppose Asbestos Act | |
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| | As it currently is structured, the fund doesn't have enough money to take care of the health care needs of everyone who is now sick and will be sick in the future. This means future sick people who could have been taken care of through the courts will not be able to get help from the trust fund. Who will pay for the medical care? Will the taxpayers be left with the bill? Everyone who is currently in the court system, even those with settled agreements that are not yet paid, would be forced to start all over again in the fund, delaying for years the help they were promised for their medical bills. Many will die waiting....This cookie-cutter approach to individual needs is a recipe for disaster. Senators Lincoln and Pryor should oppose it. | |
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| | Baxter (Arkansas) Bulletin, Jan. 26, 2006 | |
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Specter: Two Weeks of Asbestos Debate Coming | |
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| | The Senate will commence at least two weeks of debate Feb. 6 on a bill (S. 852) that would create a $140 billion trust fund to compensate workers who were exposed to asbestos, bill sponsor Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said Jan. 24. Under S. 852, in exchange for the no-fault compensation system, workers exposed to asbestos would no longer be able to sue their former employers for their exposure. The highest award under the trust fund, set at $1.1 million, would be given to workers with mesothelioma, a lethal form of lung cancer linked directly to asbestos exposure. Manufacturers that could be liable for asbestos lawsuits and the insurers covering them would pay into the fund for up to 30 years. The approaching debate on the bill, which most observers predict will be contentious, has become even more volatile in the wake of the recently disclosed lobbying irregularities conducted by Jack Abramoff, a former Republican lobbyist and Capitol Hill aide. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to several criminal charges related to his lobbying activities and has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors who are investigating possible misconduct on the part of several lawmakers. | |
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| | B.N.A., Jan. 25, 2006 | |
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Asbestos Bill Makes GOP Situation Worse | |
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| | When the Senate gets back to normal business the first week of February, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has scheduled debate on an asbestos reform bill....Senator Frist should pull this bill from consideration for a two reasons. The first reason is that putting this bill on the legislative dockett first plays into the Democrats hands....When lobbying reform and scandal are all the media want to talk about don't you think there could be a better bill to lead off with?...Aside from the political consideration, there is the issue of the substance of the bill itself. Because the bill does not set proper criteria standards for who can receive funds, it is, according to many experts, more likely than not that in a matter of years the fund will run dry. If and when that fund runs dry, guess who is going to be on the hook for continued coverage? The taxpayer. While the goal of asbestos reform is legitimate, the political timing is terrible and the substance of the current legislation is inadequate. Many conservatives, wary of potential increased government spending wish Senator Frist would pull the bill and rework it. Doing so would also avoid giving Democrats yet another talking point. | |
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| | Townhall.com, Jan. 24, 2006 | |
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Senate Asbestos Debate Starts Feb. 6th | |
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| | Legislation to create a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund will come to the Senate floor for debate on February 6, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said on Tuesday....While the bill is intended in part to help lift the threat of litigation from companies, it has stirred controversy in the business community as elsewhere. Small to medium-size companies say they would have to pay too much to the fund while bigger companies would get a break from asbestos liabilities....Many insurers are worried too. The American Insurance Association wrote to Senate Majority Leader Frist to complain that the legislation as written does not provide insurance companies with "certainty" and "finality" at a cost they can afford. | |
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| | Reuters, Jan. 24, 2006 | |
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Asbestos Bill Passage "Perhaps a Miracle" | |
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| | The Senate will begin floor consideration Feb. 6 of legislation that would create a trust fund to compensate victims of asbestos exposure, Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Tuesday....But how long the bill will hold the floor is uncertain...."It's going to be perhaps a miracle" if the bill passes, Judiciary Committee Republican John Cornyn of Texas said....Specter and Leahy face an uphill battle attracting supporters on both sides of the aisle. Many conservatives remain concerned that taxpayers will wind up footing the bill if the $140 billion that would be paid into the trust fund by corporate defendants and their insurers proves insufficient. Budget Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and ranking Democrat Max Baucus of Montana expressed similar concerns last summer....But while the bill has idled, a coalition of small- and mid-size companies that would pay into the fund has lobbied vigorously against it. Trusts representing bankrupt asbestos companies have joined in, arguing that taking their assets without their consent would be unconstitutional. | |
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| | C.Q. Today, Jan. 24, 2006 | |
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Asbestos Bill Denies Louisiana Funds | |
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| | In the last few decades, nearly 123,158 TONS of asbestos has been shipped into Orleans Parish, some only blocks from where school children play. Twenty-six tons arrived in the 200 block of Camp Street just days prior to Hurricane Katrina, an area surrounded by neighborhoods and restaurants frequented by many. Add that to the fact that the post-storm rehabilitations of homes, the related large scale demolitions, or even ubiquitous roofing jobs underway on Orleans Parish houses will involve exposing thousands of people to asbestos in ways unprecedented in urban American history. Despite these dangers, a new bill now before Congress would prevent someone who gets cancer due to asbestos exposure post Katrina from getting relief from the Asbestos Trust Fund....Neither Senators Vitter or Landrieu have taken a stand on the legislation, and a major effort is underway by local advocacy groups urging their opposition. The coalition of environmental and neighborhood activists also includes small business groups in the state who argue that the legislation is too weighted in favor of large chemical companies like W.R. Grace, Halliburton, and Honeywell — with compliance costs that could force many small and medium sized companies into bankruptcy. | |
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| | Louisiana Weekly, Jan. 21, 2006 | |
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Asbestos Developments Add Controversy Over Bill | |
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| | Progress in curbing asbestos suits at the state level and fewer claims at one of the biggest existing trusts has some questioning the need for a $140 billion national compensation fund. While U.S. lawmakers have haggled for years over creating an asbestos fund, laws were passed in Texas, Ohio, Florida and Georgia that impose medical criteria on asbestos lawsuits and make it harder for unimpaired claimants to sue. Other states have cracked down on out-of-state residents "forum shopping" for favorable venues and Manville Trust, the largest of the corporate trusts set up in bankruptcy to compensate victims, tightened its medical criteria in 2003 and its claims have since plunged. "With all this going on now, why would you take the tremendous leap to enacting the bill?" said Tom O'Brien, spokesman for the Coalition for Asbestos Reform, a group of companies and their insurers that oppose the Senate bill. But supporters of a national fund that may come to the Senate floor next month are adamant that the measure remains essential to stop lawsuits from clogging the courts and forcing companies to seek bankruptcy protection. | |
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| | Reuters, Jan. 20, 2006 | |
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Portland Leaders: Reject Asbestos Bill | |
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| | Never shy about wading into national policy debates, the Portland City Council is asking members of Congress to oppose an attempt to shield companies that produce asbestos from full financial liability. In a letter mailed last week, Mayor Tom Potter and his City Council colleagues asked Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith to oppose the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act." That measure would shield manufacturers that expose their workers to asbestos from further lawsuits. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised to bring it up for a vote when Congress returns next month to Washington, D.C. | |
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| | Oregonian, Jan. 17, 2006 | |
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Frist To Bring Up Asbestos Bill in 2006 | |
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| | Legislation to create a $140 billion fund to compensate asbestos victims will be one of the first legislative issues before the U.S. Senate next year, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said on Wednesday. The Senate bill would end hundreds of thousands of asbestos injury lawsuits and create a privately funded trust to compensate victims harmed by exposure to the fibrous mineral. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the asbestos legislation was not acceptable in its current form. "It's not even close," he said after Frist spoke. Reid, already known as an opponent of the legislation, said he was concerned over the viability of the fund and whether it would place too big a burden on some businesses required to help finance it. The legislation has divided the business community as well as senators in both parties and struggled to gain support. The bill was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in May but amid doubts about whether it has 60 votes needed in the 100-seat chamber to overcome procedural hurdles, Frist has not brought it to the Senate floor. On Monday, leaders of the Senate Budget Committee asked for the legislation to be further delayed, saying they were worried the proposed compensation fund would run short of money and taxpayers would have to pick up the bill. | |
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| | Reuters, Nov. 16, 2005 | |
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Plant Employees At Risk For Asbestos Illnesses | |
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| | The report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says 200 to 450 former Grace plant workers — and their family members — need to see a physician as soon as possible because they could be suffering from such asbestos-related diseases as asbestosis, the rare lung cancer mesothelioma or other forms of lung cancer. The report adds another chapter to a West Dallas history already tainted by the former RSR Corp.'s smelter emissions of toxic lead, arsenic and cadmium. People who lived or worked near the plant — which operated from 1953 to 1992 on Manila Road — also could have been exposed to asbestos through emissions and stockpiles of waste rock, the report said....In the four decades it operated, the Dallas plant used vermiculite to produce soil mixtures and building products. It processed nearly 400,000 tons of the ore, which burst like popcorn during a heating process known as exfoliation. That process produces asbestos fibers, too tiny to be seen, that can lodge in the lungs. It can take as long as 20 years for disease to develop. | |
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| | Jim Getz, The Dallas Morning News, Oct. 5, 2005 | |
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Newark (CA) Factory Exposed Workers to Asbestos | |
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| | A former Newark insulation factory and 17 other defunct plants nationwide could trigger asbestos-related cancer and lung disease in former workers and possibly neighbors, federal health authorities said. W.R. Grace's factories processed shiny, golden vermiculite ore dug from a company mine in Libby, Mont. Out of dozens of such factories in 22 states, only one handled more of the asbestos-contaminated vermiculite than the Newark plant named California Zonolite and Diversified Insulation. In almost 30 years, workers at the corrugated aluminum factory baked 300,000 tons of the ore....The agency's recent reports on 18 of the largest W.R. Grace plants could prove politically difficult for federal lawmakers as Congress considers removing asbestos lawsuits from the courts and creating a massive trust fund for asbestos victims. If plant workers became ill, they would have to compete for compensation on less-certain terms than traditional asbestos workers....Former workers and close neighbors to the Newark plant can contact the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry toll free at (888) 422-8737. | |
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| | Staff Reports, Inside Bay Area (CA), Sep. 28, 2005 | |
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White County (Georgia) Asbestos Sites Stir Concern | |
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| | An environmental group has sounded the alarm about several naturally occurring asbestos sites in White County that, it said, could pose serious health risks for cancer. Naturally occurring asbestos includes fibrous minerals found in certain types of rock formations. Natural weathering or human disturbance can break the asbestos down to microscopic fibers, easily suspended in air, the U.S. Environmental Protection Department said. When inhaled, these thin fibers irritate tissues and resist the body's natural defenses. Asbestos, a known carcinogen, causes cancers of the lung and the lining of internal organs, as well as asbestosis and other diseases that inhibit lung function...."The U.S. Geological Survey in July issued a report that highlighted 52 sites in Georgia containing naturally-occurring asbestos, a well-known carcinogen linked to (mesothelioma) a fatal form of lung cancer," Susan Vento said. Vento is the Chair of the Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV) and widow of the late Minnesota Congressman, Bruce Vento, who at age 60 died from mesothelioma....To find the asbestos sites, you can visit the U.S. Geological Survey website. | |
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| | Catherine Gibbs, White County (Georgia) News Telegraph, Sep. 28, 2005 | |
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Asbestos Factory Workers Warned (Ohio) | |
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| | Residents here in Wilder, as well as those in neighboring cities who worked at or lived near Newport's Zonolite Co., should see a physician about potential asbestos exposures, according to new warnings issued by a federal agency. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, located within the Department of Health and Human Services, issued warnings recently saying that residents in nine cities throughout the country, including Walton, should consult a physician and learn more about asbestos-related diseases and symptoms. Zonolite — formerly known as the W.R. Grace Plant — located at 112 North St. in Wilder, processed more than 173,000 tons of asbestos ore for more than 40 years before ceasing production in 1992. Asbestos exposure can lead to several ailments, including asbestosis, a crippling lung disease, and mesothelioma, a rapidly advancing cancer of the lungs....To read a copy of the exposure evaluation report for the site, visit the Phillip N. Carrico Branch Library, 100 Highland Ave, Fort Thomas; or go to www.atsdr.cdc.gov/naer/wilderky/. | |
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| | Ryan Clark, Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, Sep. 29, 2005 | |
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An Asbestos Bust | |
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| | Could the Senate's asbestos-trust-fund proposal eventually cost taxpayers tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars? That's the question that should be on lawmakers' minds if and when the Senate votes
on it this fall. Evidence keeps mounting that the trust fund will go bust in a few years and leave taxpayers on the hook for huge sums of money....Just about every precedent to the asbestos fund is discouraging. Claims against the Johns Manville bankruptcy fund, an infamous effort to solve asbestos-injury claims, outstripped resources by a factor of 20....With a massive budget deficit, ongoing expensive commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and now a huge commitment to finance Hurricane
Katrina relief, the last thing the country needs is an exhaustively expensive solution to the asbestos mess. A few bold Republicans in the Senate must tell Mr. Specter they will not vote for the trust fund unless its problems are fixed. | |
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| | Editorial, Washington (D.C.) Times, Sep. 26, 2005 | |
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Workers at Nine Former Vermiculite Processing
Plants Were Exposed to Asbestos | |
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| | Workers that processed vermiculite from a mine in Libby, Montana at nine former plants located throughout the United States were exposed to asbestos and are at increased risk for developing asbestos related health problems, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Their family members may also be at risk. The plants that processed Libby vermiculite are located in Dallas, TX; Ellwood City, PA; Honolulu, HI; Marysville, OH; New Orleans, LA; Newark, CA; New Castle, PA; Portland, OR; and Wilder, KY. Today's releases bring to 21 the number of public health consultations completed in a series of 28 evaluations being conducted at sites across the United States that received and processed vermiculite mined in Libby, MT. The vermiculite from Libby contained asbestos. While exposure to asbestos does not mean a person will develop health problems, ATSDR has linked some exposures to Libby vermiculite to respiratory illnesses. | |
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| | U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Sep. 22, 2005 | |
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Asbestos Trust Fund May Fall Short
Congressional Budget Office Report | |
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| | A congressional proposal to establish a national trust fund for asbestos victims may fall short of covering all the claims, the Congressional Budget Office has reported. The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005 is designed to raise a maximum of $140 billion over the next 50 years. But the fund's actual revenues could vary widely, going as low as $120 billion but no higher than $150 billion, the Congressional Budget Office stated in its Aug. 25 report. The most likely figure, according to the report, would be $132 billion. | |
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| | By Matthew Korade, Anniston (AL) Star, Sep. 14, 2005 | |
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C.B.O. Issues Asbestos Report
Report Not Helpful to Bill's Backers | |
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| | Congressional Budget Office last week issued its report on the costs of the huge asbestos liability legislation that [Senator Arlen] Specter has cobbled together and passed out of his committee in mid-June with the hope that it will pass the full Senate this year. The CBO report was not that helpful. The bill would establish a federal fund with outlays of about of $140 billion over 30 years that would pay claims to victims of asbestos as well as shield insurers and manufacturing firms from further legal action. The legislation anticipates that insurance companies and manufacturers facing current liability claims would generate most of the revenue for the fund, but the CBO report estimated that it would increase the national debt by $6.5 billion over the next 10 years. | |
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| | By Terence Samuel, U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 31, 2005 | |
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On Deadly Ground
Abandoned Mines Could Pose Asbestos Risk | |
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| | Some Cherokee County residents might want to tread lightly these days, as a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) denotes they could be walking around on top of deadly deposits of naturally-occurring asbestos. The July issued report highlighted eight sites in South Carolina as containing asbestos, a well-known carcinogen linked to a fatal form of lung cancer called mesothelioma. | |
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| | By Scott Baughman, Gaffney (SC) Ledger, Aug. 26, 2005 | |
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Q & A: Naturally Occurring Asbestos
Health Risks Explored | |
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| | Naturally occurring asbestos is located in communities and parks across the country. The US Geological Survey recently released a report about sites existing in areas on the East Coast. To find these sites located on the east coast you can visit the news section of www.asbestostruth.org or the U.S.G.S.. | |
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| | By Anthony Pollina, Equal Time (Vermont) Radio, Aug. 24, 2005 | |
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Report Finds Asbestos Risks in 15 States
Natural Occurrance in 324 Locations in East | |
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| | Federal geologists have identified 324 sites in Maryland and 14 other Eastern states that may contain naturally occurring asbestos, a well-known carcinogen that can also cause fatal lung disease. The report by the United States Geological Survey comes at a time of growing medical concern about quarries, mines and other places where asbestos may be present. Asbestos has long been identified as a hazard in workplaces where there are heavy concentrations in the air. But there's evidence that former mines, inactive quarries and ground containing asbestos might be hazardous if rocks and soil are disturbed. | |
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| | By Andrew Schneider, Baltimore Sun, July 31, 2005 | |
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Asbestos Causes Cancer (new video)
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| | Vermont and Wisconsin visitors especially will want to view this latest video on the connection between asbestos and cancer (avi format). | |
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| | April 25, 2005
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Opposition to Asbestos Trust Fund Bill in Oakland, CA
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| | Television report (Windows Media format) from reporter Heather Donald about opposition to Asbestos Trust Fund bill by Oakland City Council member Nancy Nadel, Don Bechler of Health Care for All, and others because California has the highest rate of asbestos-related mortality in the nation. | |
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| | KRON-4 TV, April 4, 2005
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Asbestos Issue Is Coming to a Head | |
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| | As victims of asbestos-related ailments commemorate Asbestos Disease Awareness Week, Congress returns next week from a two-week recess either on the cusp of a compromise over a controversial measure to deal with thousands of asbestos lawsuits or confronting a failure that could doom the entire process. The Senate set aside yesterday as Asbestos Awareness Day, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., still is struggling to find consensus for compensating victims that would satisfy Republicans, Democrats, victims, manufacturers, insurers and lawyers. Specter — himself fighting Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, and receiving chemotherapy every two weeks — has said finding a resolution to what has been called the "asbestos litigation mess" won't be easy. But he said the decades-long process is now at a critical juncture. Yesterday, victims of asbestosis — encompassing not only cancer but also a variety of debilitating and fatal illnesses — and supporters gathered in Washington for what is becoming a week of commemoration. They plan to wrap it up by encouraging candle-lighting ceremonies at 6 p.m. Thursday, in honor of an estimated 200,000 fatalities caused by asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma. | |
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| | By Ann McFeatters, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 2, 2005 | |
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Advocates Mark 'Asbestos Awareness Day;' Protest Trust Fund Bill | |
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| | Advocates for workers injured by asbestos exposure April 1 are slated to mark the first annual "National Asbestos Awareness Day" by protesting a Senate proposal that would compensate those individuals through a private, no-fault trust fund. "We have every interest in an expedited process, just not one that sells us down the river," said Susan Vento, who chairs the Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims, in an interview. Vento's husband, former Rep. Bruce Vento (D-Minn.), died in 2000 of mesothelioma, a lethal form of lung cancer directly linked to asbestos exposure. Rep. Vento was exposed to asbestos while working in a plastics factory before he was elected to Congress in 1976, she said....Vento said her group finds unacceptable a provision in the draft bill that would halt asbestos settlements that are on the verge of being finalized. The provision would require families of workers with mesothelioma to "start over" in a different legal environment, she said. "I can't imagine" the stress involved, she said, particularly for families that are coping with the grief and shock of a new mesothelioma diagnosis. Vento also said the bill would make it more difficult for people to seek compensation for exposure to asbestos in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City. | |
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| | By Fawn H. Johnson, BNA Daily Labor Report (subscription service), April 1, 2005 | |
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"Keep Me In Your Heart" slideshow | |
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| | The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization has just released the "Keep Me In Your Heart" slideshow, featuring the song of the same name by singer Warren Zevon, who died in 2003 of mesothelioma caused by asbestos exposure. "Keep Me in Your Heart," from Zevon's Grammy-winning album "The Wind" (awarded posthumously), narrates the slideshow, which alerts viewers to the dangers of asbestos. Many of the photographs in the slideshow are from photographer/producer Bill Ravenesi's award-winning exhibit, "Breath Taken: The Landscape and Biography of Asbestos." To see the slideshow, please visit: http://adao.corefusion.net. ADAO seeks to give asbestos victims and concerned citizens a united voice to help ensure that their rights are fairly represented and protected, while raising public awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure and deadly asbestos-related diseases. ADAO is an independent organization funded through voluntary contributions and staffed by volunteers. | |
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| | Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, March 24, 2005 | |
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Into Thin Air: Senate Bill Threatens Protections for California's Terminally-ill Asbestos Victims | |
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| | The U.S. Senate's latest scheme to limit the liability of asbestos makers with a national victims' trust fund would override special protections in state law for hundreds of Californians who are dying from the most lethal type of asbestos diseases, according to an analysis of federal data by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund. Current California law ensures that the most severely ill asbestos victims get fast track priority access to the courts. As the Senate tries for the third time to pass an asbestos trust fund bill, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chair of the Judiciary Committee, is pushing a plan that will almost certainly strip hundreds of Californians with the fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma of their right to a speedy trial — and for hundreds of other unfortunate victims diagnosed with the disease at the wrong time, leave them with no chance at compensation. The state law applies to all terminally ill plaintiffs, but is particularly relevant to victims of an asbestos-related cancer called mesothelioma. Once a person is diagnosed with mesothelioma, median life expectancy is only 14 months. | |
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| | Environmental Working Group (EWG), March 15, 2005 | |
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Advocates Hope W.R. Grace Indictment Emboldens Other Prosecutors | |
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| | While environmental and occupational health and safety advocates are applauding the federal government's recent indictment against W.R. Grace, they'd like to think it's just the tip of the iceberg. "It's a great first step, but our position is every one of the executives at every one of these asbestos manufacturers should all be indicted on criminal charges," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy organization. "There's no difference between what they did and what W.R. Grace officials did." W.R. Grace, according to a Feb. 7 indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Montana, allegedly put untold numbers of former workers and residents in the Libby, Mont., area at risk of asbestos-related diseases via its vermiculite mining and processing there. W.R. Grace, headquartered in Columbia, Md., "categorically denies" the charges. Although Wiles made it clear he's galled by the alleged hubris of W.R. Grace officials — who in the federal indictment are accused of conspiring to conceal the results of several damning internal studies of the toxic nature of tremolite asbestos — he said it's the "exact same behavior" exhibited by other asbestos manufacturers, many of whom have filed bankruptcy under the weight of billions of dollars of lawsuits. | |
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| | Occupational Hazards, February 11, 2005 | |
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Indictments Stir Emotions in Asbestos-Riddled Mine Town | |
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| | Zonolite Mountain was very good to Libby, or so it once seemed. It was also a killer. Now that the federal government has indicted seven mining executives on allegations of deliberately concealing that second part, this northwestern Montana town is full of people who are angry, shocked, sickened, betrayed. They just can't agree on why. For many here, where the population has been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases at more than 40 times the national average, the grand jury's charges last week against W.R. Grace & Co. have only amplified the deep revulsion they feel for the Zonolite mine's owner. "How could human beings do this to other human beings?" said Les Skramstad, 68, a former sweeper and dump boss at the vermiculite mine, who describes his lung-impairing asbestosis this way: It's like someone put a plastic bag over his head and sealed it with duct tape, leaving only a tiny slit for air. "How could they poison miners, their wives, their children?" Federal prosecutors said they did it for money — $140 million in after-tax profits — and were so efficient they even got rid of the mine's scraps. Grace donated those dusty tailings to the town, which used them to pave the Libby High School track and create the foundation for an ice-skating rink at Plummer Elementary School. | |
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| | By Sam Howe Verhovek, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2005 | |
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Connection Between Mesothelioma and 911 Disaster | |
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| | The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) released an alarming research report on the effects of 911. The report concludes that more than one hundred thousand individuals present in Manhattan during and immediately after the collapse of the Twin Towers are at risk to become future victims of the terrorist attack. Using published private and government sources, MARF's report demonstrates that the air was heavily contaminated with asbestos after the collapse. It shows further that many local residents, rescue workers, and tower survivors were exposed to dangerously high doses of asbestos and are thus at risk for developing mesothelioma.... MARF is therefore recommending that Congress take action now to prevent further suffering and death from the terrorists' despicable act. To spur development of effective mesothelioma treatments, MARF is calling on Congress to establish a national Mesothelioma research and treatment program with funding of $28 million per year. | |
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| | Cancer Weekly, via NewsRx.com and NewsRx.net, February 22, 2005 | |
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W.R. Grace: Now, Individuals Must Answer | |
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| | Without prejudging the case, there is ample cause to welcome this week's criminal indictment of seven W.R. Grace executives in the public health catastrophe their company visited on a small Montana town.... Like other industry giants, Grace has gone into bankruptcy to save itself from lawsuits demanding compensation for this suffering. (These would be the "frivolous asbestos claims" cited by President Bush in his State of the Union address.) But the indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Missoula is the first to seek a different sort of sanction against this industry — one that can't be ducked by shielding assets, writing checks or waiting for the compensation-capping settlement that Congress is trying to complete. Its 10 counts state clearly that what Grace and its top decisionmakers did in Libby were crimes, punishable by prison terms as well as fines. | |
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| | Minneapolis Star-Tribune (editorial), February 11, 2005 | |
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Victims Group Cites Grace Case
In Push To Alter Asbestos Bill | |
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| | A group representing asbestos exposure victims is citing recent indictments of W.R Grace executives in opposing draft Senate legislation for a compensation trust fund, arguing that the bill would ease the company's liability for the pollutant. The indictments are a result of EPA enforcement actions against the company for allegedly obstructing federal environmental cleanup efforts at a Montana mine. The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims sent a Feb. 7 letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) seeking broad changes to draft asbestos legislation unveiled earlier this week.... The group's letter questions the basis for creating a trust fund, and instead recommends the establishment of a medical ailments threshold and a national registry to limit complaints.... The group claims independent studies have shown that a medical threshold requirement would weed out 90 percent of asbestos claims. | |
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| | Inside EPA, February 10, 2005 (private newsletter service) | |
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Environment for Justice | |
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| | It's years too late for many victims, but federal prosecutors will do what they can to bring justice out of the environmental disaster in Libby, Mont. A little more than five years after the first reports of widespread illness and death from asbestos-contaminated ore originating in a Libby mine, a grand jury has indicted W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former officers. The indictments charge that the company knowingly concealed health dangers associated with the vermiculite ore.... As proposed EPA budget cuts show, the Bush administration could do more to protect the environment and people. Asbestos regulation remains inadequate. Insulation with Libby vermiculite is in many homes. But in attempting to establish accountability, the federal government is exercising its responsibilities properly. The victims are receiving the kind of respect they deserved all along. | |
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| | Seattle Post-Intelligencer (editorial), February 9, 2005 | |
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W.R. Grace Indicted Over Mine's Asbestos
Medical Criteria Are Outdated and Incomplete | |
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| | W.R. Grace and Co. and seven high-ranking employees knew a Montana mine was releasing cancer-causing asbestos into the air and tried to hide the danger to workers and townspeople, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday. More than 1,200 people became ill, and some of them died, prosecutors said. The asbestos was naturally present in a vermiculite mine operated by Grace in the small town of Libby for nearly 30 years. The federal grand jury said that top Grace executives and managers kept secret numerous studies spelling out the risk the cancer-causing asbestos posed to its customers, employees and Libby residents. The indictment also accused Grace and Alan Stringer, former manager of the now-closed mine, of trying to obstruct efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the extent of the asbestos contamination beginning in 1999, when a study by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer linked asbestos from the mine to nearly 200 deaths and hundreds of illnesses. | |
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| | By Bob Anez, New York Newsday, February 8, 2005 | |
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Frist Asks Specter To Hold Off
Introducing Asbestos Measure | |
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| | Senate Majority Leader Frist has asked Judiciary Chairman Specter to hold off on introducing asbestos legislation, further delaying the long-stalled bill and prompting Specter to become impatient. Specter conceded Monday that asbestos legislation is being stalled, as he introduced a 291-page "draft discussion" into the Congressional Record instead of introducing a finished bill. Specter said he has been planning to formally introduce a final bill, but Frist last Thursday asked him to hold off for a week or more. Allowing Specter to circulate his discussion draft more widely will allow rank-and-file members to review the legislation, Frist said. The bill under discussion would establish a $140 billion trust fund to compensate victims of asbestos-related diseases. It also would specify medical criteria victims would have to meet, and it would set awards based on the severity of the disease. | |
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| | By Emily Heil, CQ Today (Judiciary), February 7, 2005 (private newsletter service) | |
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Rocky Road for Asbestos Trust Fund
Legislation Gets Even More Difficult | |
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| | Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Monday that his top legislative priority to create an asbestos trust fund has encountered major problems. Specter's assessment came after he gave a floor speech in which he said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, had asked him to delay formally introducing the bill for a week. There also are signs that support for the asbestos trust fund bill is eroding among conservatives on the Senate Judiciary panel. The bill would remove asbestos lawsuits from the courts, creating a trust fund to pay claimants exposed to the fiber. The fund would get billions of dollars from businesses, insurers and trusts representing bankrupt asbestos manufacturers. All would be shielded from future lawsuits related to asbestos, but not from litigation based on exposure to other particulates such as silica. | |
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| | By Seth Stern, CQ Today (Health), February 7, 2005 (private newsletter service) | |
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Trust Fund Bill Excludes Asbestos Victims
Medical Criteria Are Outdated and Incomplete | |
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| | Mick Mills endures the agony of full-blown asbestosis. The 72-year-old former safety manager for a lumber company, part-time helicopter medic and passionate photographer of Glacier National Park is shackled to an oxygen tube, which helps him breathe.... Congress has spent four years struggling through often rancorous debate to get federal legislation that would help people like Mills and those with asbestos-caused cancers that kill far more quickly.... [To] those suffering with the disease and to the physicians treating them, the most important deficiency in the bill was the medical criteria that controlled who would get help and who wouldn't. | |
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| | By Andrew Schneider, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 2003 | |
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Daschle Asks for "Genuine Compromise"
On Unresolved Issues in Asbestos Measure
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| | Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) asked Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) for recommendations Oct. 6 that reflect "genuine compromise" on a proposal to create a multibillion-dollar private trust fund to compensate workers who were exposed to asbestos. The one-page letter responded to a letter Frist sent to Daschle last week rejecting Daschle's proposal that certain personal injury cases involving asbestos exposure be allowed to continue in court after the bill's enactment. Instead of allowing those cases to continue, Frist had suggested giving those claimants preference in the no-fault trust fund. A spokeswoman for Frist said it was too soon to comment on Daschle's letter. | |
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| | By Fawn H. Johnson, BNA Daily Report for Executives, October 7, 2003 (private newsletter service) | |
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Asbestos Victims Speak Out
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| | Video featuring Susan Vento, who lost her husband to mesothelioma, and Susan Lawes, whose mesothelioma can be traced back to her childhood forty years ago, when her father came home with asbestos on his clothing. | |
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| | Video news release, April 15, 2004
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Investigative Report: "Asbestos: Think Again" | |
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| | A six-month Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund investigation into asbestos in America uncovered an epidemic of asbestos disease and mortality that affects every state and virtually every community in the country. Asbestos kills 10,000 Americans each year, 2,500 more than skin cancer, and that number appears to be increasing. While most of these individuals are workers exposed decades ago, asbestos is not yet banned and more than 1 million people are currently exposed to asbestos on the job. Millions more are exposed to asbestos in the environment. As long as asbestos continues to be used in consumer products and remains available for dispersion in millions of buildings and homes where it was used liberally for half a century, it will continue to kill and injure thousands of innocent people for decades to come. | |
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| | Environmental Working Group Action Fund, March 4, 2004 | |
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Television Report on Maine Asbestos Victims
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| | Video featuring Pam Murphy-Ewers and other relatives of asbestos victims from Maine. | |
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| | NewsCenter 6, Portland, Maine, March 2, 2004
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Radio Report on Asbestos Victims from Maine
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| | Audio from "Maine Things Considered" radio program | |
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| | Maine Public Radio, March 2, 2004
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Asbestos-Reform Bill Seeks A Spot on Senate Calendar | |
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| | Congressional leaders set their legislative agenda upon returning to Capitol Hill the week of Jan. 19, but asbestos reform — a bill that could impact insurers by more than $100 billion — isn't yet scheduled on the agenda. Late last year, before Congress adjourned, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., vowed to get an asbestos bill to a vote by late March (BestWire, Dec. 31, 2003). Frist reiterated that upon returning to Washington, but the Senate calendar has a number of other issues lined up already: highway funding, higher education, class-action and medical-malpractice reform, and gun liability. The bill, S.1125, would require asbestos companies and their insurers to contribute roughly $110 billion to a fund for asbestos victims. Neither insurers nor the manufacturers are solidly behind the bill, because the fund amount isn't set, and there is no provision to keep insurers or asbestos companies from having to continue to pay claimants in the future...The earliest an asbestos bill could come to the floor is sometime well after March 3, when the Senate calendar has three days of debate scheduled for bill limiting liability suits against firearms manufacturers and dealers. (paid subscription needed for complete text) | |
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| | By Chris Grier, BestWire, January 22, 2004 | |
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Asbestos victims watch lawsuit cap battle
Widow describes husband's long fight for survival | |
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| | James Jackson spent 30 years in the dark, nasty engine rooms of Navy ships. When he retired from the Military Sea Lift Command in November 2001, he had planned a trip to the Florida Keys with his wife, and more time to fish and hunt with his family and friends. Instead, by May 2002 he was dead at age 64, a victim of mesothelioma. He never made it to the Keys. | |
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| | By Brian Hicks, Charleston, S.C. Post and Courier, June 19, 2003 | |
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