News Coverage
Environmental group study ranks Alabama 19th in asbestos deaths
Published March 4, 2004
An environmental group opposing federal legislation on compensating asbestos victims issued an analysis Thursday on the number of asbestos deaths and injuries, ranking Alabama 19th in the United States in deaths from two asbestos-related diseases.
|
The Environmental Working Group study says Alabama has had 741 deaths since 1979 from asbestos and 10,881 people have gone to court somewhere seeking compensation for injuries, including more than 3,000 cases in the Mobile County area.
California, with 4,273 deaths, and Florida, with 3,025, topped the list of states with asbestos-related deaths since 1979 as compiled by the EWG, based in Washington, D.C.
EWG spokesman Jon Corsiglia said the report puts a more precise figure on the "magnitude of the public health problem the country faces with asbestos." He said many people are still dying from asbestos-related disease - asbestosis and mesothelioma.
EWG says its report is the first analysis of federal mortality records from the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wiles said.
Attorneys familiar with asbestos litigation said the legislation opposed by EWG comes too late for many Alabama victims of asbestos-related disease because the state's Supreme Court in the 1980s blocked any suits.
Montgomery attorney Tom Methvin said the court ruled that asbestos had such a long latency period that, by the time a person found out about the injury, the legal deadline to file suit would have passed.
Some Alabama victims, however, were part of litigation in Texas, he said.
A $176,000 grant from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America paid for less than half of the EWG research, with private foundations paying the rest, said Richard Wiles, EWG's chief researcher.
The lawyers' association, ATLA, opposes a federal bill that would create a trust fund to compensate victims, calling it inadequate to cover claims. The lawyers also want to preserve the right to sue.
Michael Baroody, executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers and chairman of the Asbestos Alliance steering committee, said nothing in the report would eliminate the need for the federal trust fund.
The defunct New Jersey-based Johns-Manville Corp. was the world's largest producer of asbestos when it declared bankruptcy in 1982 after being flooded by asbestos lawsuits. A trust fund created by the company in 1988 has settled 570,000 damage claims for $3.2 billion, with 43,000 claims pending, according to reports.
"We don't claim to diminish the need for a trust fund. But whatever Congress does has to focus on the public health crisis of asbestos deaths and disabilities," Wiles said.
The EWG study says asbestos kills 10,000 Americans each year and, since it's not yet banned, will continue causing deaths and injuries. Since 1979, more than 43,000 Americans have died from asbestos-related diseases. The EWG study details for the first time the death toll in each state and county.
The Senate bill that would bar asbestos lawsuits would set up a 27-year industry-financed trust fund of $113 billion to pay claims. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Majority Bill Frist of Tennessee, both Republicans, proposed the bill. It also would ban asbestos, except for uses that aren't considered a serious risk to human health and for military applications.
Corsiglia said the proposed federal legislation is a "bailout bill" favored by asbestos manufacturers and their insurance companies. He said the measure could come up for a vote by the end of this month.
"We've done a report in the past on worker exposure to toxic chemicals, which is where we got our first data on asbestos. This is much bigger in scope than that, and the only one specifically targeting asbestos," Corsiglia said.
Carlton Carl, a spokesman for the trial lawyers association, said most asbestos injuries have occurred in either places where asbestos was mined or asbestos products were manufactured. Cases also have been reported in coastal areas related to shipbuilding and Navy operations.
On the Net: www.ewg.org.