Metals, their Biological Functions and Harmful Impacts - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 491

Scientifi c data regarding the
dangers of asbestos were, for a
long time, ignored.

Unfortunately scientii c data regarding the dangers of asbestos were, for a long time,
ignored by many asbestos manufacturers and corporate users of asbestos materials.
Companies continued to use asbestos as a building material and in manufacturing processes.
Sometimes safer alternatives, such as i breglass insulation, were ignored in favour of less
expensive asbestos materials. Workers, their families and occupants of asbestos-containing
buildings have been needlessly exposed to asbestos, with some suffering damage to their
health or death as a consequence.
Today it is widely accepted that asbestos i bres can be associated with three diseases: asbes-
tosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Workers can be exposed to asbestos during mining,
milling and handling of ores containing asbestos or during the manufacture, installation,
repair and removal of commercial products that contain asbestos. Local populations can also
be exposed to asbestos i bres, either due to naturally occurring asbestos or due to building
materials containing asbestos from which i bres may be released and subsequently inhaled.
Not surprisingly then, asbestos has led to the longest and most expensive mass tort in US
history, involving more than 700,000 claimants and 8,000 defendants as of 2007 (RAND
2007). By some estimates the total costs of asbestos litigation in the USA alone will exceed
US$ 250 billion ( Case 11.3 ).
All asbestos-related diseases have a long latency period: it takes 20 to 40 years for the
i rst symptoms to appear. Hence the asbestos problem today is mostly with the old, poorly

All asbestos-related diseases
have a long latency period: it
takes 20 to 40 years for the fi rst
symptoms to appear.

CASE 11.3
No Win No Fee

Lawyers in the US and UK frequently deal with personal
injury claims with compensation on a contingency fee ('No
Win No Fee') basis: if the claimant wins the case lawyers
will recover their costs from the defendant; if the claimant
loses lawyers will write off their costs. Appointed lawyers
may also fund disbursements such as the cost of obtain-
ing medical records, a medical report and any court fees.
No wonder then that asbestos litigation has reached such
levels. And this 'elephantine mass [is] still growing' states
the Chicago Tribune in July 22, 2001.
The impact of asbestos litigation is vast and far-
reaching ( www.asbestossolution.org ). Hundreds of thousands
of claims are pending and new claims are accelerating,
including ones by people who are not sick. The fl ood of
claims and resulting settlements are forcing companies into
bankruptcy and putting at risk compensation for those
who are sick today or may become sick in the future.
'It's a - most of the asbestos producers are now
bankrupt so that lawyers target companies once considered
too small to sue, or once considered to be not really
directly involved with the manufacturing of asbestos.
Because there is nobody left to sue, they try to drag in
people that aren't directly involved with the manufacturing
of asbestos. … This is a national problem, as the Supreme
Court said, that requires a national solution. … There are
some principles which I think ought to govern Congress'

actions. First, funds should be concentrated on those who
are sick, not lawyers or claimants who are not ill' address
by US President George W. Bush to an audience in Clinton
Township, 2005.
'… [A]sbestos litigation - actually, asbestos exposure
has been a national tragedy, and more than 100,000
workers have died as a consequence of asbestos exposure.
But lawyers have taken this tragedy and turned it into
an enormous moneymaking machine, in which … base-
less claims predominate. In the year 2003, 105,000 new
claimants came into the asbestos litigation system. Each
claimant will sue 40, 50, 60, 70 different companies, so
we're talking about a total of 50 million, 60 million, 70
million new claims generated in the year 2003 alone. Of
the 105,000 claimants, approximately 10,000 are seriously
ill, some dying, some dead, because of asbestos exposure.
These are the malignancies' adds Prof. Brickmann, law
professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at
Yeshiva University, at the same meeting ( www.whitehouse.
gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050107-8.html ).
That said, the highly politicized controversy about
asbestos litigation should not overshadow the quiet, sad,
and directly related crisis in public health: an epidemic of
asbestos-caused diseases that was for a long time ignored
by many asbestos manufacturers and corporate asbestos
users and that reportedly claims the life of one out of

every 125 US American men who die over the age of 50
( www.ewg.org ).
Graphic: based on Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical
Technology published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.