These must be the "frivolous asbestos claims" Bush has been talking about:
W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of the corporation's executives were indicted Monday for engaging in a long-running conspiracy to "knowingly release" hazardous asbestos fibers that placed the entire town of Libby, Montana, "in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury," the Justice Department announced.
The indictment says for many years company officials knew, and tried to hide, the dangers to the community of 8,000 residents from its hazardous mining operation. Prosecutors say 1,200 residents of Libby have suffered lung diseases and related pleural abnormalities from exposure to tremolite asbestos. The document says more than 20 town residents suffered "an extremely rare and fatal form of cancer in humans known as mesothelioma."
Or maybe he's talking about these:
The Halliburton Company settled legal claims with about 120 families of asbestos victims in the Pacific Northwest this week, agreeing to pay out $30 million and to create a fund for future victims of the deadly fiber.
The local settlement was part of a $4.3 billion national settlement involving about 250,000 plaintiffs who had sued the company in connection with exposure to asbestos products distributed by Halliburton subsidiaries.
Matthew Bergman, attorney for the local families and one of seven lawyers involved in negotiating the settlement, said today that Dresser Industries, a Halliburton subsidiary, knew since the 1930s that asbestos was harmful, yet issued no warnings. Locally, asbestos products were widely used in shipyards, pulp mills and power plants.
Many of Bergman's clients worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, he said. Some were civilian workers and others were sailors, some of whom remember sleeping in bunks beneath pipes insulated with asbestos, he said.
Thank goodness Bush is finally getting serious about stopping those dirty trial lawyers from forcing giant corporations to compensate the people they knowingly kill. It's about time.
What a disingenuous post. You might as well be Peter Jennings claiming "Hey, no bias here!"
From a 2002 Rand Corporation analysis of asbestos litigation:
Asbestos litigation is an immense problem, recognized not only by President Bush but by the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly called on Congress to solve this problem in its Fibreboard and Ayers opinions.
I'd further urge you to take a look at who voted "yea" on the class-action bill this week.
Posted by: Karl Maher | February 18, 2005 at 03:29 PM
Yeah, it's not too frivolous to us who are suffering from it either. mesothelioma is a horrible disease and it hurts so much to see Bush declare my pain, suffering, and eventual death as "frivolous".
Posted by: Sufferer | June 16, 2005 at 06:34 PM