Congress Seeks Asbestos Solution

Encouraged by American Bar Association support, Congress is again trying to limit economically crippling asbestos lawsuits without depriving hundreds of thousands of sick people of their day in court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was hearing testimony Wednesday from lawyers, lawmakers and victims on how to deal with more than 600,000 asbestos-related lawsuits and the economic fallout that has led to more than 60 bankruptcies since 2000 with a loss of some 60,000 jobs.

A senior Senate Republican, Don Nickles of Oklahoma, is pushing legislation that would require those seeking compensation to meet certain medical criteria using American Medical Association standards. It would also remove statute of limitations so those not yet with asbestos-related illnesses, which can take decades to develop, retain their rights of legal action.

Past congressional efforts to set up a fair legal process for handling the grievances of asbestos victims have failed because of difficulties in establishing medical standards and resistance from legal and victims groups.

But supporters of legislation got a boost last month when the ABA aligned with business and insurance groups in urging Congress to restrict who can sue over asbestos. The ABA plan would set medical standards for people who have been exposed to asbestos but do not have cancer.

Those seeking this approach were backed up by a study by the Rand Institute for Civil Justice last year, which found that 65 percent of the compensation paid in the last decade was to people with non-cancerous conditions that did not affect their daily lives.

Rand said that more than 600,000 asbestos-related lawsuits are clogging the nation's courts and could eventually cost businesses more than $200 billion.

"There is no single legal issue more potentially damaging to the U.S. business community and our country as a whole than asbestos litigation," U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue said in a recent speech.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral once commonly used for insulation and fireproofing in goods and buildings, causes respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and numerous other ailments.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., in testimony prepared for the hearing, cautioned against a "rush to address a real or perceived crisis in our courts" that he said could do "injustice to hundreds of thousands of injured people."

Baucus represents Libby, Mont., known for the vermiculite mine run by the now-bankrupt company W.R. Grace, which has been devastated by asbestos-related illnesses.

"Asbestos companies like W.R. Grace caused the death and serious illness of hundreds if not many thousands of people," Baucus said. "We shouldn't be overly concerned about protecting them."

Asbestos victim Melvin McCandless of Williamston, N.C., said the state had declared him permanently and totally disabled because of asbestosis, contracted over 35 years while he was working in a mill lined with asbestos containing insulation. His wife also has been diagnosed with asbestosis picked up from exposure to her husband's clothes.

McCandless said that even pushing the garbage from his house to the road makes him "short-winded and uneasy," but that under the Nickles bill or the ABA proposal, he wouldn't meet the medical threshold for going to court.