Personal Stories
Congressman Bruce Vento
NOTE: On the third anniversary of the death of the late Minnesota Congressman Bruce Vento, his widow Susan Vento offers the following opinion editorial concerning asbestos litigation legislation currently being considered by the United States Senate. Bruce Vento died of mesothelioma October 10, 2000. Susan Vento is a field representative for Education Minnesota, an affiliate of the National Education Association and the American Federal of Teachers and AFL-CIO. She also serves on the board of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, the national nonprofit organization whose mission is to eradicate mesothelioma as a life-ending disease.
Asbestos: Big Business Attempt to Avoid Compensating Victims
By Susan Vento
When my late husband, Bruce Vento, announced that he was retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives, he quoted former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey who said: "The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."
Congressional leaders in Washington are about to fail Humphrey's test on all counts by pushing legislation that they claim will help solve the so-called "asbestos litigation problem." But, in fact, the Asbestos Trust Fund Bill won't solve anything, at least not for asbestos victims and their families.
While its proponents call it the FAIR (Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution act) Act, there's nothing fair about it. For example, the bill would put an end to all current and future lawsuits against companies who knowingly exposed workers to asbestos. It will also cancel all pending settlements for victims, and would void jury verdicts awarded to victims unless they have already been paid.
In exchange for being shielded from liability for their actions, asbestos manufacturing companies would be required to contribute to a fund that would be set up to compensate victims. However, the trust fund will simply not add up to adequately compensate all victims and their families - who frequently incur medical bills up to and exceeding a million dollars. In addition, the stringent and unrealistic medical criteria required to be eligible for compensation will prevent thousands of legitimate victims from receiving justice. Finally, the fund will be paid through a new and untested government bureaucracy that will take years to set up before the first dollar is paid to victims. As one CEO said, if this bill passes, asbestos companies will be "partying in the streets."
Most people don't know much about asbestos and how it can affect people's lives. And if they are like me until just a few short years ago, they've never even heard the word "mesothelioma." They don't know that asbestos will continue to harm innocent people for years to come. Asbestos is present all over the country in workplaces, homes, and schools. It is a poison, and exposure to it can cause serious illnesses, including a deadly form of cancer called mesothelioma.
The reality of asbestos hit home for me when Bruce was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January of 2000. Contrary to popular belief, mesothelioma is not a disease like lung cancer, which can be caused by a variety of factors, including smoking. It is caused exclusively by exposure to asbestos, and most victims die an extremely painful death within one year of diagnosis.
Bruce was a strong, healthy man so the diagnosis was a tremendous shock to our family and all of our friends. He was exposed to asbestos in the 1960s in a factory on the east side of St. Paul while working a summer job to save money for school. He was diagnosed 35 years later. Mesothelioma can lie dormant in the system for decades.
Family and friends watched as Bruce suffered through this debilitating disease. He had radical surgery to remove his left lung and part of his diaphragm. Aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed. Bruce deteriorated in a matter of months from an active father, grandfather, and Congressman, to an exhausted and devastated victim of asbestos.
Bruce's story is just one of hundreds of thousands of people — victims and their families — whose lives have been destroyed by asbestos. While the FAIR act's proponents like to say that the bill will help victims, it actually helps businesses who have exposed their employees to asbestos. More importantly, it hurts the victims of mesothelioma, who don't have years to wait for justice.
Another Minnesota leader — Bruce's good friend, the late Senator Paul Wellstone — once said: "Politics is what we create out of what we do, what we hope for, and what we dare to imagine." What I hope for and what I dare to imagine is that we live in a world that doesn't expose people to the risks of asbestos and doesn't leave the victims of diseases and their families without hope. I urge people to contact members of Congress, especially their Senators, and urge them to vote NO on the Asbestos Trust Fund Bill. It is a moral test.
Biography of Rep. Bruce Vento
Rep. Bruce Vento, a popular high school science and social studies teacher who went on to serve the people of St. Paul, Minnesota for three decades as a State Representative and Congressman, died on Tuesday, October 10, 2000 from what the press widely reported as "lung cancer."
On October 13, 2000, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) issued a statement clarifying that the cancer which took Vento's life was not lung cancer, but malignant mesothelioma.
While lung cancer is usually associated with smoking, mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure. The tumor aggressively invades the lining surrounding the lungs, heart or abdomen.
Vento did not smoke but was exposed to asbestos from his work as a laborer in his youth. Weeks before his death, he filed a lawsuit against 11 companies that allegedly supplied or installed asbestos products at job sites where he had worked as a state-paid laborer as a youth.
Bruce F. Vento was born October 7, 1940 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The second of eight children, Bruce took great pride in calling himself a lifelong resident of St. Paul's East Side. He was educated at Thomas College, Wisconsin State University, and the University of Minnesota.
Elected to the Minnesota State Legislature in 1970, Vento served three consecutive terms. In 1977, he was elected by the Fourth District for the state of Minnesota to the U.S. House of Representatives. Committed to improving the welfare of his fellow men and protecting natural resources and the environment, his work on behalf of the environment earned him the 1994 Ansel Adams Conservation Award from the Wilderness Society, honors from the Sierra Club, and the National Parks Conservation Association's Conservationist of the Year Award for 1987.
In June of 2000, Vento received special recognition from President Clinton for his years of work on behalf of America's homeless population. Bruce F. Vento worked alongside Stewart B. McKinney and was co-author of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, which created federal funding for support services, transitional housing, and emergency shelter grants for the nation's homeless.
Rep. Vento was first diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in January of 2000, when the tumor appeared in the lining surrounding his left lung. Despite aggressive treatment, he died nine months later. In some ways, his case demonstrates the lack of effective mesothelioma treatments, because he received some of the best care currently available at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
His surgeon, Dr. Dan Miller, recognized the inadequacy of current treatments and the need for high-level research funding. "We do not have a magic bullet for this tumor. We need to be able to treat the tumor systemically. Locally, we can surgically remove bulky tumor, but we need an agent that will attack the cells throughout the body. Vento's death underscores the need for our government to fund nationwide clinical trials using novel agents, such as angiogenesis inhibitors."
After being diagnosed with lung cancer, Congressman Vento decided not to seek another term. In a prepared statement announcing his decision, he quoted another Minnesota legislator, Hubert H. Humphrey: "The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."
Congressman Vento died at his home on October 10, 2000, three days after his 60th birthday, leaving his wife Susan and three sons.
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