Asbestos and the law

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Care should be taken to distinguish between several forms of relevant diseases. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), these may defined as:-

asbestosis (which is a slowly developing fibrosis of the lung caused by the inhalation of high concentrations of asbestos dust and/or long exposure),

lung cancer, or “bronchial carcinoma” which can result from occupational exposures to certain substances, including asbestos fibres (even without co-existing asbestosis) and,

mesothelioma which is a malignant tumour of the pleura or peritoneum.

The WHO states that the latter is normally a very rare type of cancer (typically less than 0.04% of all deaths in the general population). A higher incidence of mesothelioma has nearly always been related to the inhalation of mineral fibres, and in the majority of cases to ccupational asbestos exposure.

In order to not present an over-long article here, currently only specific examples regarding the situation in Britain and the USA are included. (links to resources regarding the situation in other countries are listed below).

Regarding asbestos-related diseases in general, and Asbestos-Related Malignancies in particular, the British Government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states (2004) that "At least 3500 people in Great Britain die each year from mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer as a result of past exposure to asbestos. Annual numbers of deaths are predicted to go on rising into the next decade".

Other sources suggest other figures. The TUC states that "Around 5,000 people die each year from mesothelioma and asbestos related lung cancer - 13 people for every day of the year. These figures are rising and it is predicted that by 2010 some 10,000 people in Britain will die every year from exposure to asbestos, more than twice the number of road accident deaths. Before the death rate declines, up to a quarter of a million people in Britain may have died from asbestos exposures. There are up to six million tonnes of asbestos in schools, hospitals, ships, offices and factories - and the homes we live in. The importation, supply, and use of all asbestos throughout Britain is prohibited".

The mineral (asbestos) has now been banned in all of the leading European countries, and the year 2005 is the deadline for bans by countries in the European Union. Having virtually no internal market for asbestos, Canada (one of the world's largest producers) exports 97 percent of all asbestos mined (mostly to Asia).

The HSE also provides futher "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) on the subject in which it states "There is a lack of scientific consensus as to whether there exists a threshold of exposure to asbestos below which a person is at zero risk of developing mesothelioma. However, there is evidence from epidemiological studies of asbestos exposed groups that any threshold for mesothelioma must be at a very low level – and it is fairly widely agreed that if a threshold does exists then it cannot currently be quantified. For practical purposes HSE does not assume that such a threshold exists".

It is generally well-accepted that mesothelioma is almost always associated with asbestos exposure. The fact that, in such cases, the disease usually only occurs between 20-40 years after exposure to asbestos, however, has lead to very real difficulties in unambiguous quantitative diagnoses and much controversy regarding compensation and liability disputes. (It has a very poor prognosis, with most patients dying within 2-4 years of diagnosis)

Rightly or wrongly, financial settlements have been juridically enforced at a level which has bankrupt some industrial companies and threatened some of the World's largest insurance companies (BBC report on Lloyds), and even so this has resolved only some of the growing number of outstanding asbestosis-related claims. Growing disputes are forseen for the coming decades as current trends indicate that the rate at which people are diagnosed with the disease will most probably increase very significantly.

In her article "Equitas warns on asbestosis" of 22/06/2002, Helen Dunne, The British Daily Telegraph's Associate City Editor reported; "Equitas, the reinsurance vehicle which assumed the liabilities that once threatened to overwhelm Lloyd's of London, warned yesterday that asbestosis claims were the "greatest single threat" to its existence.", and "Equitas increased gross undiscounted provisions for future asbestosis claims by £3.2 billion in the two years ending March 2001, but has decided that further reserves this year are unnecessary.". This could be considered to indicate that appropriate financial previsions have now been made to address the issue, in this case (though this is not yet universally accepted).

A more recent article reports, "Amicus, Britain's biggest private sector union, will today, 14/12/04, condemn insurers who are attempting to shirk their responsibility to compensate up to 75% of asbestos claims in a High Court challenge. Insurers are challenging the right for workers exposed to asbestos to claim compensation for pleural plaques, a calcification of the lungs that can be caused by exposure to asbestos. There are on average 14,000 pleural plaques cases a year. The test case being summed up in the High Court today involving Amicus members could have far reaching consequences for thousands of workers who have been exposed to asbestos over the past 50 years". This outlines the continuing discontent in some sectors of British society.

In the USA, key asbestos lawsuits have included; Bell v. Dresser Industries Inc., Borel v. Fibreboard Corporation, and Waters v. W. R. Grace. More information on these and other, asbestos-related issues in the USA are reviewed on the Asbestos Resouce Center website.

Some idea of the scale of the American problem is indicated by the fact that, regarding just one of many cases, on January 7, 1991 Eagle-Picher Industries also sought bankruptcy protection by filing Chapter 11 proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati. The company cited in its bankruptcy petition past payments totalling $600 million issued to 65,000 asbestos claimants and the inability to pay an additional $45 million in negotiated settlements.

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