The Issue
Asbestos
EWG research showed that 10,000 people die each year of asbestos-related diseases and unearthed documents showing that corporate executives concealed for decades the dangers of making or handling asbestos-containing materials.
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The Latest on Asbestos
As if enough weren't wrong with Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination, Reuters reports that Miers spoke to several groups last spring to garner support for Sens. Specter and Leahy's ailing asbestos trust fund bill.
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W.R. Grace strikes again, the Dallas Morning News reports, with news that up to 450 employees of the company's West Dallas plant and their families are at risk from asbestos-related illnesses.
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W.R. Grace has taken the power of positive thinking too far, attempting to cure the Libby, Mont., residents the company knowingly poisoned for decades with toxic vermiculite just by saying it isn't so.
Read MoreMore and more groups are examining the Senate asbestos bill called FAIR and finding it doesn’t keep its promises – to anyone. Environmental Working Group’s research has shown that the Senate’s answer to the asbestos epidemic is inadequate for the millions who will suffer from exposure to this toxic mineral.
Read MoreAsarco, a subsidiary of mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, leaving taxpayers holding the bag on an estimated $1 billion in environmental cleanups in a dozen states that the company has dragged its feet on for more than a decade. The copper mining company has also been implicated in 95,000 personal-injury asbestos lawsuits.
Read MoreJudge Edward Becker of the U.S. Circuit Court in Philadelphia was asked by Senate leaders to oversee negotiations around a compromise asbestos trust fund bill.
Read MoreMore than 10,000 people a year die from asbestos disease, 5,000 of them from asbestos-caused lung cancer.
Read MoreAn EWG Action Fund analysis of the Specter/Leahy asbestos bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee today finds that the legislation delivers unusually harsh treatment to people dying of asbestos-caused lung cancer.
Read MoreAccording to The Associated Press, documents show that fundraisers for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) routinely identified legislative actions that would interest possible donors.
Read MoreIn the wake of the W.R. Grace indictment for asbestos poisoning in Libby, Mont., Australian building products company James Hardie Industries is working hard to make sure it escapes responsibility for asbestos building products and brake linings it exported to the U.S. from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Read MoreHundreds of Texans Die from Asbestos Each Year
Read MoreTexas legislature is poised to consider legislation limiting the ability of the sick or dying to get their medical bills covered by the asbestos companies.
Read MoreResearchers at the University of Missouri have discovered a possible link between asbestos and autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Read MoreNewly uncovered documents from W.R. Grace show that the company exposed workers in at least 14 of its insulation factories around the country to lethal asbestos dust at levels above those in the now notorious Grace-owned mine in Libby, Mont.
Read MoreThe AFL-CIO expressed its dissatisfaction with the end of negotiations seeking an agreement between asbestos companies, insurers and those sick or dying from the harmful material.
Read MoreThe Republican Senate leadership's asbestos bailout bill appears dead for now, after negotiations stalled May 7. The bill would have denied thousands of Americans their day in court, reduced damage awards to victims of asbestos diseases, and run out of money well before the epidemic of asbestos deaths peak.
Read MoreAs U.S. Senate leaders negotiate a trust fund for Americans sick or dying from asbestos, new facts are transforming the debate. Despite what many Americans believe, asbestos is still being used, and continues to cause new public health problems.
Read MoreA six-month 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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