News Coverage
New report on effects of asbestos says deaths and related health-care costs expected to rise
Published March 5, 2004
KAI RYSSDAL, anchor: A new report says 10,000 Americans die every year from the effects of asbestos. Helen Palmer reports from the health desk at WGBH, that figure is likely to rise, along with the related health-care costs.
HELEN PALMER reporting: A Washington, DC, non-profit, the Environmental Working Group, wrote this new report. Lead author Richard Wiles says the industry has known how deadly asbestos is since the 1930s but it's not banned.
Mr. RICHARD WILES (Environmental Working Group): About 30 million pounds of asbestos are used in the United States every year in commercial products like brakes and roofing and insulation.
PALMER: It's also in some household products, like Kitty Litter and potting soil. A million workers are still exposed to asbestos each year. That's on top of 40 million more who've worked with it over the last three decades and risk cancers and other diseases. Congress is trying to set up a fund to compensate those who get sick. Wiles says the $114 billion the industry proposes to put into such a fund won\'t be enough. It will take several hundred billion more. Already 600,000 asbestos-related lawsuits have been filed. Lawyers estimate awards could reach $275 billion.
In Boston, I'm Helen Palmer for MARKETPLACE.