Australia’s James Hardie Industries has announced that their exposure to claims from future asbestos victims may be considerably less than earlier estimated, with an unexpected decline in reported cases of the cancer mesothelioma.
According to an article in The Australian, the announcement was based on a new actuarial report that ran counter to predictions which stated that malignant mesothelioma was on the rise in Australia.
The report also noted that asbestos claims against Hardie over the next 40 years should total about $1.4 billion, considerably lower than the original estimate of $1.6 billion. KPMG, the company that compiled the report, stressed that there had been only 202 mesothelioma claims against Hardie’s former asbestos subsidiaries in the year to March, compared to 212 claims in the corresponding period in 2005-6 and 263 claims in 2004-5.
“However, it is not clear what the drivers are that have given rise to this somewhat unexpected trend,†KPMG said.
The actuaries took note of a recent study, known as the Clements Paper, which says mesothelioma claims in Australia will not peak until 2017. But KPMG says the Hardie subsidiaries cover a different grouping of victims, and sticks with its prediction of mesothelioma claims against Hardie peaking in 2010-11, the article pointed out.
So far this year, five large settlements of more than $1 million were granted to plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits filed by victims of the asbestos-caused cancer mesothelioma, which usually kills within a year of diagnosis.
