“The real crisis which confronts us is not an asbestos litigation crisis, it is an asbestos-induced disease crisis.”
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
People suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases have lost a friend and advocate in the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy.
For example, the Senator was instrumental in preventing the passage of the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2006, a bill introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would have locked the doors of justice to people with asbestos-related disease. The bill provided for a trust to pay out pre-determined amounts to victims, leaving asbestos manufacturers and insurance companies off the hook. Further, the amount proposed for the fund fell short of what many think will be needed by those suffering asbestos-related disease.
On February 6, 2006, Senator Kennedy spoke to the Senate:
“Mr. President, the real crisis which confronts us is not an asbestos litigation crisis, it is an asbestos-induced disease crisis. Asbestos is the most lethal substance ever widely used in the workplace. Between 1940 and 1980, there were 27 million workers in this country who were exposed to asbestos on the job, and nearly 19 million of them had high levels of exposure over long periods of time. That exposure changed many of their lives. Each year, more than 10,000 of them died from lung cancer and other diseases caused by asbestos. Each year hundreds of thousands of them suffer from lung conditions which make breathing so difficult that they cannot function at all. Even more have become unemployable due to their medical condition, and because of the long latency period of these diseases, all of them live with fear of premature death due to asbestos-induced disease. These are the real victims. They deserve to be the first and foremost focus of our concern.
“As this chart indicates, asbestos mortality will likely peak around 2015, reflecting the heavy exposures in the 1970s. We are going to see this is not an issue that is going to diminish, in terms of the impact on the workers, workers’ lives, their families, and their communities, but is actually going to increase in terms of those who are going to be adversely impacted and affected.
“All too often the tragedy these workers and their families are enduring becomes lost in a complex debate about the economic impact of asbestos litigation. We cannot allow that to happen. The litigation did not create these costs; exposure to asbestos created them. They are the costs of medical care, the lost wages of incapacitated workers, and the cost of providing for the families of workers who died years before their time. Those costs are real. No legislative proposal can make them disappear. All legislation can do is shift those costs from one party to another. Any proposal which would shift more of the financial burden on to the backs of injured workers is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to every one of us.”
