News Coverage
Asbestos set to kill 100,000 Americans in next decade, warns research paper
Published March 4, 2004
Exposure to asbestos is causing a continuing public health epidemic worldwide, says a new US research paper, warning that current proposed US laws on asbestos litigation are inadequate.
In a report to be released today, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says asbestos exposure is still rampant in the US and is predicted to kill 100,000 Americans in the next decade. It calls for a ban on asbestos use in the US and says the proposed legislative solution of a Dollars 110bn (Pounds 59.8bn) trust fund would cheat future victims.
The report by the group, a non-profit think-tank, builds on previous asbestos research in the UK and Australia. It cites a British Medical Journal analysis estimating 100,000 deaths in the developed world from mesothelioma - lung cancer tied to asbestos - and predicting that the epidemic will peak in 2015-2020 with 2,000 deaths per year in Britain.
Other experts have predicted that asbestos exposure is a looming catastrophe in the undeveloped world, where it is still used.
Republicans in the US Congress have been working to pass legislation - with agreement from industry, plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers - for a US national settlement on continually rising asbestos liabilities.
The proposal is for a Dollars 110bn federal trust fund created from company funds to handle all future claims. Asbestos liabilities have been blamed for more than 60 corporate bankruptcies.
Companies blame trial lawyers for flooding courts with claims from people who are not sick. Attorneys say big corporations are looking for a bailout for grievous wrongdoing. The report says the debate has forgotten the continuing asbestos health problem. Government statistics, it says, estimate 1.3m Americans are still exposed to it at work.
The US death toll to asbestos is likely to peak in 2015-2020, with four primary asbestos-related illnesses potentially causing 100,000 deaths by then. An average of 10,000 US deaths a year over the next decade would be higher than skin cancer deaths and near to handgun fatalities, says the report.