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Frequently Asked Questions
The Asbestos Trust Fund bill is a flawed bill that is opposed by the Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims and many others. Here are questions and answers that highlight the problems with the bill:
Does the Asbestos Trust Fund bill cover all who should be covered?
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No. The "exposure criteria" detailed in the asbestos trust fund bill defies the scientific literature, and exclude many victims. For example, many legitimate claims would be precluded by the exposure criteria which discriminates against those who were exposed after 2001. This is unrealistic because it assumes that asbestos exposure is no longer a problem in the United States. Asbestos remains legal in the U.S. and federal agencies have determined that millions of people are still being exposed and may become sick as a result 10 to 50 years from now. The EPA has determined that as many as 35 million homes, schools and businesses are currently contaminated with asbestos containing Zonolite insulation. According to OSHA, 1.3 million workers are currently being exposed to asbestos.
In addition, the trust fund ignores victims who became sick while doing home repairs and remodeling as well as their own automotive maintenance. Thus the American family who practiced self-reliance and unwittingly exposed themselves to asbestos will be denied access to compensation if they become sick. |
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Does the Asbestos Trust Fund bill really speed compensation to the victims, as supporters of the bill claim?
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No. The asbestos trust fund will delay recovery for all asbestos victims. And in the case of a disease such as mesothelioma, where victims usually die within two years, justice delayed is justice denied.
On the day they begin work, each Special Asbestos Master will have more than 20,000 claims on their desk. There has never been a federal compensation program that has had to process such a vast number of claims upon inception. A terrible logjam is inevitable, delaying for years compensation to those whose claims are currently pending.
Moreover, many of these pending and future claims (including virtually all lung cancer as well as take home and neighborhood exposure cases) must be individually reviewed by a medical claims panel, creating yet another logjam. Compensation values for lung cancer victims, victims with limited evidence of asbestos exposure levels, or other exceptional circumstances will require more detailed, and therefore, longer review. |
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If the victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos-caused diseases do not benefit from the Asbestos Trust Fund Bill, then who stands to gain?
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The Asbestos Trust Fund creates a financial windfall for asbestos companies and others who knew decades ago that asbestos causes cancer and who are therefore being sued in a number of courts. These asbestos company defendants have pending settlement agreements with asbestos victims. They have reviewed their liability and agreed to global settlements worth billions of dollars. Under the Asbestos Trust Fund bill, these settlements are void. All cases in trial are halted, all jury verdicts suspended, all payments due under final agreements voided.
The bill was written by the industry and its insurers for the benefit of the industry and insurers. Their bill will only serve to bail out an industry that has killed or injured over a million Americans and will kill or injure more than two million more. |
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If the Asbestos Trust Fund bill passes, will the Trust Fund established under the bill be adequately funded?
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No. The Trust Fund is NOT adequately funded, particularly in the early years, to pay all the pending claims because annual contributions to the Fund are capped at levels too low to pay anticipated claims. Many of the flaws in the bill result from the artificial limit of $140 billion in funding. This arbitrary level was selected not because it reflects an amount needed to fairly compensate victims; rather, it is the sum the insurers and defendants are willing to pay. |
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What happens if the $140 billion promised by business and the insurance industry to victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases under the Asbestos Trust Fund Bill runs dry?
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If the system fails, victims will face the option of returning their claims to the court system. This poses major logistical problems for claimants, and forces them to endure financial costs that will result. In addition, if the system fails, victims will have to face new litigation restrictions in the court system. |
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Paris Jenkins
Charleston, South Carolina, 1989 |
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| Mr. Jenkins, another victim of an asbestos-related disease, was a boilermaker at the Charleston Naval Shipyard. Charleston is the home of a major asbestos textile manufacturing plant and also home of many shipyards. Today, the Charleston area has a significantly greater incidence of lung cancer than the rest of the United States. Photograph and excerpted text from Breath Taken, © Bill Ravanesi 1991. |
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Elizabeth Clancy
Houston, Texas, 1999 |
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| In the words of her father, 23-year-old Elizabeth Clancy was "beautiful inside and out." Only a year after graduating from college, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, and the surgeon removed her right lung. Elizabeth and her parents searched for hope, for effective treatment, and found none. Elizabeth tried to work and to fight the disease, but she developed severe swelling, fatigue, and a violent cough. She died in her parents' home in Tennessee at the age of 23. more |
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Factory workers covered with asbestos dust
Waukegan, Illinois, 1987 |
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| Many mesothelioma victims have no known exposure to asbestos except the dust carried home on the work clothes of a husband, father, or brother. This photograph was taken by photojournalist Bill Ravanesi, whose father died of mesothelioma in 1981. Anthony Ravanesi's fatal cancer was caused by his past exposure to asbestos as a shipyard worker in Boston during World War II. Photograph © Bill Ravanesi 1991. |
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Father Richard Pankowski
Maryknoll Seminary, New York, 1986 |
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| Richard Pankowski was born in Manville, N.J., in 1950. In 1985, he was diagnosed as having pleural mesothelioma. This is an invariably fatal tumor of the delicate membrane that encases the lungs, and it ultimately crushes the lungs so that the patient cannot breathe.
It usually takes at least twenty-five years to develop after the onset of exposure to asbestos, so Pankowski's exposure may have begun when he was a child. Richard Pankowski's father worked in an asbestos plant for more than 30 years. He often came home covered with asbestos dust, and died from asbestosis. Richard's mother, Mrs. Carol Pankowski, also died of asbestosis.
This photograph shows Father Pankowski as he is about to give a video-taped deposition. At the time, he refused pain-killing medication so that he could be alert during cross-examination. The mesothelioma can be seen protruding through the rib cage on his right side. He died five months later. Photograph and excerpted text from Breath Taken, © Bill Ravanesi 1991. |
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