Legal Issues

This is the only type of cancer described on this site where you are going to see a page dedicated to the legal issues of the disease. This is because mesothelioma is so intimately linked with use of and exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos use and Abuse

Unfortunately, the effects of asbestos on the human body were known to be deadly for years by the companies who employed the generation of workers with greatest exposure. These companies made hundreds of millions, if not billions, from the work of exposed employees. However, instead of taking simple steps to alleviate the problem and save the lives of thousands of their workers, they choose to do nothing and continue to make a 'healthy' profit with a 'deadly' product. Many even went so far as to hide the truth from their workers and their families. And because the normal latency period for Mesothelioma (The time from exposure until the patient falls ill) is 15 to 20 years, many got away with this for years. We are only now beginning to see the full effects of the disease, and feel the terrible outcry of the people against those who put profits before human lives to a degree that is simply unfathomable.

History:

The first article linking mesothelioma with exposure to asbestos was published by Wagner et al in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1960, based on a study of 30 workers in South Africa. This was followed in 1962 by a paper by McNulty who reported the first diagnosed case of malignant mesothelioma in an Australian asbestos worker who had worked at the asbestos mine in Witternoom from 1948 to 1950. Wittenoom has become something of a cause celebre in terms of Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure. Despite proof that the dust associated with asbestos mining and milling causes asbestos related disease, mining began at Wittenoom in 1943 and continued until 1966. It is difficult to understand why the mine and mill was allowed to initially open and operate without adequate risk control measures; and why nothing was done to force the owner (CSR) to clean them up, adopt safer work practices or close down their operations. In the town of Witternoom itself, asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds and in 1965 a further article in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine established that people who lived in the neighbourhoods of asbestos factories and mines, but did not work in them, had contracted mesothelioma.

In 1974 came the first public warnings of the dangers of blue asbestos and in 1978 the Western Australian Government decided to phase out the town of Wittenoom, following the publication of a Health Dept. booklet, "The Health Hazard at Wittenoom", containing the results of air sampling and an appraisal of worldwide medical information. By 1979 the first writs for negligence related to Wittenoom were issued against CSR and its subsidiary ABA and the floodgates of asbestos-related litigation were opened.

Legal Issues in the USA

In the United States according to a study by the RAND corporation the average mesothelioma-related settlement was $1 million; for cases that go to trial awards averaged $6 million; however only a fraction of the thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits in the United States every year are related to mesothelioma. A few attempts have been made to pass asbestos litigation reform bills in the US senate, but they have failed thus far. However, a separate bill introduced on March 17, 2005, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005 (FAIR act of 2005), seeks to ensure a set amount of compensation dependent on the symptoms of the victim. The range is from Medical Monitoring for victims with Asbestosis or Pleural Disease to $35,000 for victims with Mixed Disease With Impairment all the way to over $1,000,000 for Mesothelioma victims and nonsmoking Lung Cancer victims. In the USA, key asbestos lawsuits have included; Bell v. Dresser Industries Inc., Borel v. Fibreboard Corporation, and Waters v. W. R. Grace.

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice has recognized that asbestos litigation is the longest running mass tort in U.S. history. Recent sharp increases have been confirmed in the rate of filing asbestos claims in the United States, as have concomitant increases in the number and types of firms named as defendants, and also an escalation in the costs of the litigation to these defendants. (Analysts have estimated that the total costs of asbestos litigation in the USA alone will eventually reach $200 billion.)