Bush Takes Aim at Asbestos Lawsuits

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON Jan 7, 2005 — Claiming that asbestos lawsuits clog the courts and hinder economic growth, President Bush is urging Congress to change the way people are compensated for diseases caused by the deadly material.

In his third event this week calling for legal reforms, Bush was to speak near Detroit to suggest ways lawmakers can tackle asbestos litigation reform an issue that has deadlocked Congress in recent years.
...
"The volume of asbestos lawsuits is beyond the capacity of our courts to handle, and it is growing," Bush said earlier this week. "More than 100,000 new asbestos claims were filed last year alone."

The American Trial Lawyers Association, however, says many of the companies that filed for bankruptcy were reorganized, not liquidated, and that few cases filed in court actually go to trial. Fifty to 60 cases have gone to trial annually in the past few years, Carl Carlton, a spokesman for the group, said Thursday.

"That's hardly clogging the courts," Carlton said. "Why isn't the president of the United States standing up for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who were poisoned by these companies that knew precisely what they were doing? They continued to expose their workers and their customers to this dangerous substance. Now the president wants to reward them."
...
Republicans say Democrats wouldn't let previous bills pass because trial lawyers don't want to lose the money they make from asbestos lawsuits. Democrats argue that the GOP bills didn't have enough money for victims and that Republicans are only trying to help their friends in the business and insurance communities by immunizing them from lawsuits.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=392132&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[MisterP]

1. you'll never guess what Halliburton subsidiaries are in trouble for!!!

[underpants]

26. Oddly it was the same acquisition that was used to do business with Iraq

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2361959

Halliburton inherited the claims when the company acquired Dresser Industries for $7.7-billion in 1998, during Vice President Dick Cheney's 1995-2000 tenure as CEO. Most of the asbestos claims were filed against a former Dresser subsidiary, Pittsburgh-based Harbison-Walker Refractories.


http://www.antiwar.com/orig/leopold.php?articleid=3767
The Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, UN records show. Ingersoll Dresser Pump also signed contracts – later blocked by the United States, according to the Post – to help repair an Iraqi oil terminal that U.S.-led military forces destroyed in the Gulf War years earlier.

[lfairban]

50. I have been collecting links on

Halliburton and Asbestos

[Richardo]

2. Direct benefit to Halliburton...

...who'da thunk? Nothing to see here.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. should that read: "Cheney's puppet, bush takes aim. . . "

Since it is Cheney's old company Halliburton . . .

These guys are getting more and more obvious .. . . to us anyway.

[goforit]

8. OMG!!!!...You mean Cheney is pulling the strings??? Whata a CHICKEN!!

[MaineDem]

4. Can this man get any more disgusting?

He's certainly taking care of all his business buddies, isn't he!

It's beyond disgusting.

[maddezmom]

5. yes

and I'm sure that he has lots more instore for us. :(

[Coventina]

6. Claiming that workers' rights and safety hinders economic growth...

Bush declared an end to them today.....


Bush, you are BEYOND contempt.

[fluter21]

48. Hmm.... Is OSHA stacked too?

Haven't there been many work-rules changes either dropped entirely or completely revised by OSHA in the last four years? I think I heard a story about this on "All Things Considered" in the last couple of weeks. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think some of those proposed rules pertain directly to asbestos.

[SariesNightly]

7. Might as well

let the killers and rapists go free too, for the prisons are indeed clogged for some time now.

[w13rd0]

9. An asbestos lawsuit...

...was the only way my uncle was able to afford the in-home care he needed to die with a shred of dignity, beside his family, at 43 years old, dying of asbestos-caused cancer.

[Skidmore]

10. Looks like Cheney's getting his "due"

finally.

[MaineDem]

11. "Claiming that asbestos lawsuits clog the courts"

Gee, imagine what the asbestos fibers do to a person's lungs!

This really pisses me off. No one is accountable for anything, is that the message he's sending?

[durablend]

14. It's that "ownership society" again

"Don't want to get asbestos poisoned--don't breath it in!"

"Oh you say you didn't know? Well you SHOULD'VE! Not our fault!"

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered

A National Scandal...by Andrew Schneider, David McCumber

This book is a must read...urge your senators and congresscritters to contact the authors. This book demonstrates not only the bad faith of the manufacturers, but the complicity of people such as Marc Racicot who sold out his own family in favor of a gov't coverup...it also details the slow miserable death caused by asbestos.

[chelsea0011]

13. Worst President EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bring back DDT and thalidamide.:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[malachi]

15. Mesothelioma, a lovely way to die. Slow painful suffocation. Can chimps

contract the disease? Another issus the Dems should be all over. Protecting the common citizen, most of whom that have this disease probably voted for the fuckhead. Pink tutu wearing shitheads won't do a thing.

[seemslikeadream]

16. Asbestos Bill Introduced: Murray's Floor Statement

Asbestos Bill Introduced: Murray's Floor Statement
Senator Murray Explains Her Bill to Protect Workers & Consumers

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, June 18, 2002

(Washington, D.C)- Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray introduced the "Ban Asbestos in America Act" (S.2641).

Below is Senator Murray's statement on the bill in the Congressional Record.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, today I rise and join my colleagues Senators Baucus, Cantwell, Dayton and Wellstone in introducing legislation to improve protections for workers and consumers against a known carcinogen: asbestos.

The primary purpose of the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2002 is to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the substance by 2005.

People Think It's Been Banned. It Hasn't.

Most Americans believe that asbestos has already been banned. People have this misconception in part because EPA tried to ban it in 1989, and the ban was well publicized. But what wasn't so publicized was the fact that in 1991, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned EPA's ban, and the first Bush Administration didn't appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. While new uses of asbestos were banned, existing ones were not.

People also believe asbestos has been banned because the mineral has been heavily regulated, and some uses are now prohibited. But the sweeping ban that EPA worked for ten years to put in place never went into effect.

As a result, products such as asbestos clothing, pipeline wrap, roofing felt, vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asbestos-cement shingle, disc brake pads, gaskets and roof coatings still contain asbestos today. Had EPA's ban gone into effect, these products would no longer be allowed to contain this deadly substance.

Victims of Asbestos Exposure

This morning I met with three people who wish there had been better protections in place against the dangers of asbestos years ago. I had the honor of meeting Mrs. Susan Vento, the wife of the beloved Congressman Bruce Vento from Minnesota who died from a disease caused by asbestos in October of 2000 at the age of 60. Rep. Vento was exposed to asbestos when he worked in factories in St. Paul during college.

I also had the privilege of meeting Lt. Col. James Zumwalt, the son of the legendary Navy Admiral Elmo Zumwalt who also died in 2000 of mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lungs and internal organs caused by asbestos. Like so many others who served in the Navy, Admiral Zumwalt was exposed to asbestos during his military service.

In addition, I had the pleasure to meet Mr. Brian Harvey, a former English teacher from Washington State University and a survivor of the deadly disease. Like Congressman Vento, Mr. Harvey was exposed to asbestos working summers during college -- only Mr. Harvey worked in a timber mill in Shelton, Washington instead of in factories in St. Paul. Mr. Harvey received aggressive treatment from the University of Washington, and his triumph over the deadly disease offers all of us hope.

You don't have to tell Mrs. Vento, Lt. Colonel Zumwalt or Mr. Harvey that asbestos can kill, or that it hasn't been banned. Unfortunately, they already know about asbestos.

Rudy Barber & Fred Mirante

I have also heard from other Washington state residents about the devastating effects that asbestos exposure can have on people's lives. I'd like to take a moment to tell you about an e-mail I received from two of my constituents, Mr. Charles Barber and his wife, Ms. Karen Mirante, who live in Seattle. They wrote to me last year to express support for my efforts on asbestos. Mr. Barber and Ms. Mirante had just recently learned that both of their fathers were diagnosed with mesothelioma, the same deadly disease that took the lives of Congressman Vento and Admiral Zumwalt.

Mr. Barber's father, Rudolph (Rudy) Barber, was a World War II veteran who worked at Todd shipyards. Then he worked for Boeing for 35 years building airplanes. According to his son, when Rudy served on a troopship during the war he recalled sleeping in a bunk under asbestos-coated pipes which flaked so badly that he had to shake out his sleeping bag every morning.

A few years after retiring from Boeing, Rudy Barber started to develop breathing problems. First he was told by one doctor that his disease could be cured with surgery, but it wasn't. After undergoing surgery, another doctor diagnosed him with mesothelioma. After a year and a half of suffering and of enduring repeated radiation and chemotherapy treatments, Mr. Barber died on April 28, 2002. According to his family, he never complained and continued to help his family and neighbors with maintenance and farm work for as long as he could.

Karen Mirante's father, Fred Mirante, was a retired truck driver who was active in labor issues. While the source of Mr. Mirante's exposure to asbestos is unknown, it is likely that he breathed in asbestos from brakes when he worked on cars. After receiving experimental therapies for the disease and after a two and one-half year battle, he died on June 4, 2002. June 16, last Sunday, was the first Father's Day that Mr. Barber and Ms. Mirante had to spend without their cherished, hard-working dads.

I mention Bruce Vento, Admiral Zumwalt, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Barber and Mr. Mirante to demonstrate that asbestos disease strikes all different types of people in different professions who were exposed to asbestos at some point in their lives. Asbestos knows no boundaries. It is still in thousands of schools and buildings throughout the country, and is still being used in some consumer products.

I first became interested in this issue because, like most people, I thought asbestos had been banned. But in 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer starting running stories about a disturbing trend in the small mining town of Libby, Montana. Residents there suffer from high rates of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. These findings prompted Montana Senator Max Baucus to ask EPA to investigate. The agency found that the vermiculite mine near Libby, which operated from the 1920s until 1990, is full of tremolite asbestos. EPA is still working to clean up Libby, which is now a Superfund site.

Asbestos From Libby Was Shipped Around the Nation

W.R. Grace, the company which ran the mine, had evidence of the harmful health effects of its product, but did not warn workers, town residents or consumers. Instead, the product was shipped to over 300 sites nationally for processing and then was used to make products such as home insulation and soil additives. EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) have determined that 22 sites are still contaminated today, including one in Spokane, Washington.

At many plants where vermiculite from Libby was processed, waste rock left over from the expansion process was given away for free, and people used it in their yards, drive ways and gardens. During its investigation into sites around the country which processed vermiculite from Libby, ATSDR discovered a picture taken of two darling little boys, Justin and Tim Jorgensen, climbing on waste rock given out by Western Minerals, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota sometime in the late 1970s. According to W.R. Grace records, this rock contained between 2 and 10 percent tremolite asbestos. This rock produced airborne asbestos concentrations 135 times higher than the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's current standard for workers. Thankfully, neither Justin nor Tim has shown any signs of disease, but their risks of developing asbestos diseases, which have latency periods of 15 to 40 years, are increased from their childhood exposures.

People may still today be exposing themselves to harmful amounts of asbestos in vermiculite. As many as 35 million homes and businesses may have insulation made with harmful minerals from Libby. And EPA has also tested agricultural products -- soil conditioners and fertilizers -- made with vermiculite, and determined that some workers may have been exposed to dangerous concentrations of tremolite asbestos.

As I learned more about Libby, and how asbestos has ended up in products by accident, I was shocked to learn that asbestos is still being used in products on purpose. While some specific uses have been banned, the EPA's more sweeping ban was never put into effect because of an asbestos industry backed lawsuit. As a result, new uses of asbestos were banned, but most existing ones were not.

Asbestos Is Still in Consumer Products

Asbestos is still used today to make roofing products, gaskets, brakes and other products. In 2001 the U.S. consumed 13,000 metric tons of it. Asbestos is still entering the product stream in this country, despite its known dangers to human health.

Other Countries Have Banned Asbestos

In contrast, asbestos has been banned in these 20 countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Now it is time for the United States to ban asbestos, too. According to EPA, 27 million Americans had significant exposure to the material on the job between 1940 and 1980. It is time for the sad legacy of asbestos disease we have witnessed during the 20th century to come to an end. I want to ensure our government does all it can to minimize future suffering and death caused by this substance.

Bill Summary

That is why today I am introducing the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2002. The legislation has four main parts.

First and foremost, this bill protects public health by doing what the EPA tried to do 13 years ago: ban asbestos in the United States. The bill requires EPA to ban it by 2005. Like the regulations EPA finalized in 1989, companies may file for an exemption to the ban if there is no substitute material available: if there is no substitute material available and EPA determines the exemption won't pose an unreasonable risk of injury to public health or the environment.

Second, the bill requires EPA to conduct a pubic education campaign about the risks of asbestos products. Within 6 months of passage, the EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission will begin educating people about how to safely handle insulation made with vermiculite. I believe the government needs to warn people that their insulation, if made with vermiculite, may be contaminated with asbestos. Home owners and workers may be unknowingly exposing themselves to asbestos when they conduct routine maintenance near this insulation. While EPA has agreed to remove vermiculite insulation from homes in Libby, the agency currently has no plans to do this nation-wide.

The legislation also requires EPA to conduct a survey to determine which foreign and domestic products being consumed in the United States today have been made with asbestos. There is no solid, up-to-date information about which products contain it, although EPA has estimated that as many as 3,000 products still do.

The survey will provide the foundation for a broader education campaign so consumers and workers will know how to handle as safely as possible asbestos products that were purchased before the ban goes into effect.

Third, the legislation requires funding to improve treatment for asbestos diseases. The bill directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, working through the National Institutes of Health, to "expand, intensify and coordinate programs for the conduct and support of research on diseases caused by exposure to asbestos."

The Ban Asbestos in America Act requires the creation of a National Mesothelioma Registry to improve tracking of the disease. If there had been an asbestos disease tracking system in place, public health officials would have detected the health problems in Libby much sooner, and may have saved lives.

In addition, the bill authorizes funding for 7 mesothelioma treatment centers nationwide to improve treatments for and awareness of this fatal cancer.

As was the case with Mr. Harvey, who received treatment from the University of Washington, early detection and proper treatment make the difference between life and death. This bill authorizes $500,000 for each center for five years. This means more mesothelioma patients will receive treatments that can prolong their lives.

In response to the EPA Inspector General's report on Libby, Montana, EPA committed to create a Blue Ribbon Panel on asbestos and other durable fibers. However, because of insufficient resources, EPA has now narrowed the focus of the Panel to address issues surrounding only the six regulated forms of asbestos. The bill requires EPA to expand its Blue Ribbon Panel on Asbestos to address issues beyond those surrounding the six regulated forms of asbestos.

The Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2002 expands the Blue Ribbon Panel's scope to include nonasbestiform asbestos and other durable fibers. The Panel shall include participation by the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In its response to the Inspector General, EPA was originally planning for the Panel to address implementation of and grant programs under Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, creation of a National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Pollutants under the Clean Air Act for contaminant asbestos, and other legislative and regulatory options for protecting public health.

The Administration also promised for the Panel to review the feasibility of establishing a durable fibers testing program within EPA, options to improve protections against exposure to asbestos in asbestos-containing products in buildings, and public education. The Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2002 requires the Panel to address these subjects as EPA originally planned.

The legislation also requires the Panel to explore the need to establish across federal agencies a uniform asbestos standard and a protocol for detecting and measuring asbestos. Currently, asbestos is regulated under at least 11 statutes.

There are different standards within EPA and across federal agencies, and agencies rely on different protocols to detect and measure the substance. This has led to widespread confusion for the public -- for example, in 2000, there were reports that there was asbestos in crayons.

There has also been confusion surrounding asbestos exposure in New York City following the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers. And in Libby, the EPA Inspector General's report cited split jurisdiction and multiple standards as one of the reasons EPA didn't do a better job of protecting the people of Libby from exposure to asbestos in the first place.

The Blue Ribbon Panel will also review the current state of the science on the human health effects of exposure to asbestos and other durable fibers, whether the current definition of asbestos containing material should be modified throughout the Code of Federal Regulations, and current research on and technologies for disposal of asbestos-containing products and contaminant asbestos products. The bill leaves up to the discretion of the Panel whether it will expand its scope to include manmade fibers, such as ceramic and carbon fibers. The Blue Ribbon Panel's recommendations are due 2 years after enactment of the Act.

Our federal agencies need to do a better job of coordinating and working together on asbestos, which will mean less confusion for the public and improved protection for everyone.

The toll that asbestos has taken on people's lives in this country is staggering. And while Senators Baucus, Cantwell, Dayton, Wellstone and I continue to mourn the loss of Congressman Bruce Vento, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, more than 200 people from Libby and thousands of others, today our message is one of hope.

Our hope is that by continuing to work together, we will build support for the Ban Asbestos in America Act. If we can get this legislation passed, fewer people will be exposed to asbestos, fewer people will contract asbestos diseases in the first place, and those who already have asbestos diseases will receive treatments to prolong and improve quality of life. I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.
http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=189107

[zbdent]

17. and hits medical malpractice victims instead

Kinda like taking aim at terrorists and going to war with Iraq . . .

[seemslikeadream]

18. W.R. Grace files for bankruptcy

Taxpayers may get cleanup bill for asbestos contamination

Tuesday, April 3, 2001

By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT

Because of the filing, taxpayers may get stuck with millions of dollars for cleaning up sites contaminated by the 150-year-old company.

Grace President Paul Norris said yesterday that his company has received more than 325,000 asbestos personal-injury claims, which have already cost the company nearly $2 billion.

The federal government has done health screening on 6,114 people or who live or lived in or near Libby. Analysis of the first 1,067 examinations showed that 30 percent of the people had signs of asbestos-related disease. With it often taking 20 years or more for the disease to become apparent, no one is willing to guess how many people will be sickened because of the exposure to asbestos in Libby and other sites that processed the vermiculite.

It is estimated that hospitalization, oxygen, medication and home care can cost a person between $300,000 to $500,000 during the course of the illness. Grace is the sixth major company to cite asbestos claims as their reasons for filing chapter 11 since January. Twenty-six companies have made such filings since 1982.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of pending asbestos suits are filed against multiple defendants. The litigation will often list 10, 20 or more corporations that either produced asbestos or used it in products they manufactured.

The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting investigations at 55 sites throughout the country where Grace ran expansion plants that turned the vermiculite ore into insulation and garden and construction products. Sixteen other sites have been identified as being contaminated enough to need cleanup.

"We budgeted between $14 and $16 million for this year, and it now becomes a problem of getting that money," Peronard said. "It's looking more and more like taxpayers will pick up what Grace drops."
EPA has been working closely with forensic accountants in the Justice Department to see whether the company has moved its assets to other, newly formed corporations.

more
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/grace03.shtml


U.S. Seeks to Intervene in W.R. Grace Asbestos Bankruptcy

LIBBY, MONTANA—June 14, 2002—On behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a motion to intervene in a bankruptcy action involving offshoot companies of W.R. Grace, a major asbestos defendant. The government charges that just prior to bankruptcy filing, W.R. Grace transferred funds to spin–off companies to hide assets and avoid liability for asbestos claims (Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, Kalispell, Montana, May 27, 2002). The company and 61 domestic subsidiaries had filed for bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in April, 2001.

W.R. Grace is the manufacturer of construction materials and chemicals and the former owner of an asbestos–contaminated vermiculite mine in Libby Montana. Vermiculite is an ore resembling mica that is used in housing insulation, soil conditioners, and fertilizers.

The United States is a Grace creditor and hopes to recover expenses for the environmental cleanup of Libby, which has been declared a Superfund disaster area. The company has received over 325,000 asbestos personal injury claims from Libby and elsewhere, according to a press release (see W.R. Grace web site, click on GRACE in the News, click on 2001 News Releases, then on April 2, 2001).

topAsbestos Insulation and Fireproofing
One W.R. Grace product, Zonolite insulation, often contains vermiculite that is contaminated with tremolite asbestos and derived from the Libby mines. The Environmental Protection Agency is removing Zonolite from homes in Libby, although it has no immediate plans to eliminate the insulation from millions of other residences nationwide (see article on Asbestos Zonolite Insulation in Libby).

more
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:_QRtYz5UJgsJ:www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_061402_wrgrace.htm+w.r.+grace+bankruptcy&hl=en


Grace told the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1998 that its liability for environmental cleanups was more than S230 million. But some EPA officials estimate the company's environmental liabilities to be "substantially greater," adding that it could be closer to $1 billion.
more
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FVP/is_22_2...


OMB and EPA squash the EPA Report

December 29, 2002
Bush administration squashes EPA public health warning that insulation in 15 to 35 million U.S. homes is probably contaminated with an extremely lethal form of asbestos.
According to the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Wichita Eagle, the Bush administration has squashed the release of an EPA public health warning that insulation in 15 to 35 million U.S. homes is probably contaminated with an extremely lethal form of asbestos. The warning was originally planned to be released in April 2002, along with a declaration of a public health emergency in Libby, Montana, where ore from a W.R. Grace vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families. Shipping records from W.R. Grace show that at least 15.6 billion pounds of vermiculite ore was shipped from Libby to 750 plants and factories throughout North America, with between a third and half ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools from the 1940s through the 1990s.

In early April 2002, the U.S. EPA had a public health warning ready to go: News releases had been written and rewritten, and lists of governors to call and politicians to notify had been compiled. But the declaration was never made - just days before EPA was set to make the declaration, the warning was squashed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), even though the EPA had already greatly watered down the warning at the direction of the OMB.

Both OMB and EPA acknowledge that the OMB was actively involved in quashing the warning, but neither agency would discuss how or why. EPA’s chief spokesman Joe Martyak said, "Contact OMB for the details," while OMB spokeswoman Amy Call said, "These questions will have to be addressed to the EPA." Both agencies have also refused requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to provide documents to and from OMB about the asbestos warning.
more
http://www.eces.org/articles/000256.php

[neverforget]

19. My dad got cancer from asbestos on the job. I hope these bastards

rot in hell. :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: Those evil trial lawyers got him some compensation for his injury. Of course, his injury will eventually kill him. :cry:

[gratuitous]

20. STILL think Bush is good for the nation's security?

C'mon freep types! Tell us all just how helping companies avoid responsibility for condemning hundreds of thousands of their employees to slow deaths, as well as unsuspecting consumers while the owners make $millions$ keeps the U.S. safer and stronger?

And how many affected workers do you think Bush talked to before coming up with this plan? Isn't he supposed to be the president of ALL the people, not just a favored few?

[ellie]

32. They just deny the facts, that's all.

The idiot freeper I work with said that asbestos doesn't cause cancer! I said, Oh really? I'll bring some over to your house so your baby daughter can breathe it. He just laughed like the idiot he is. He's the same genius who told me that the earth is only 5,000 years old.

[Undercover Owl]

39. why would god make asbestos if it were bad for you?

(sarcasm)

[NVMojo]

21. I hate this man, wish someone in his immediate family got lung disease...

NOW!!!

[seemslikeadream]

22. The NTSB report of the crash that killed the WR Grace employees

Joseph Spiak, general manager of specialty vermiculite (including the highly toxic asbestos containing Zonolite)
Paul Stidham, director of environmental health and safety
Richard Lyons, global health and safety manager
http://www2.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030110X0004...

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
the airplane's loss of pitch control during take-off. The loss of pitch control resulted from the incorrect rigging of the elevator system compounded by the airplane's aft center of gravity, which was substaintially aft of the certified aft limit.

Contributing to the cause of the accident were:

(1) Air Midwest's lack of oversight of the work being performed at the Huntington, West Virginia, maintenance station;

(2) Air Midwest's maintenance procedures and documentation;

(3) Air Midwest's weight and balance program at the time of the accident;

(4) the Raytheon Aerospace quality assurance inspector's failure to detect the incorrect rigging of the elevator control system;

(5) the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) average weight assumptions in its weight and balance program guidance at the time of the accident; and

(6) the FAA's lack of oversight of Air Midwest's maintenance program and its weight and balance program.


The full narrative:

http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2004/AAR0401.pdf

The FDR was sent to the Safety Board’s laboratory for readout and evaluation. The
fire and impact damage to the exterior of the FDR prevented the data from being extracted
in the normal manner. The solid-state memory module, which was in good condition, was
extracted from the crash-protected memory case, and a new connector was attached to the
module. The module was then inserted into a surrogate F-1000 FDR, and the data were
downloaded and decompressed using the manufacturer’s software. About 95 hours of data
were recorded on the FDR, including data from the accident flight. The FDR powered up
for the accident flight just before 0825:00, and the last valid data were recorded just
after 0847:28.

The elevator control cables generally had numerous bends and kinks. Two of the
elevator AND cable’s seven spirally wound strands were completely broken and
unwound, and one strand was partially broken and unwound. (These strands were located
near the trailing edge of the wing, where the fuselage had folded toward the right wing
tip.) The unwound sections of the cable were examined at the Safety Board’s Materials
Laboratory, and no evidence of fatigue cracking or a preexisting condition was found.

The elevator trim tab control wheel was intact and was attached in the cockpit. The
pitch trim appeared to be near the full AND position. The pitch trim control cables were
broken. The control cables were in the correct orientation. The left and right drums had
their respective cables wrapped around to the middle position.



Published on Friday, August 4, 2000 in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Cheney's Firm Backed Bill To Limit Asbestos Liability
by Andrew Schneider and Lise Olsen

Dick Cheney and the giant energy company he will leave to run for vice president have contributed more than $150,000 to members of Congress who sponsored legislation that would limit the ability of workers to sue companies for asbestos exposure.
The Halliburton Co., an oil-field services company based in Dallas, and its subsidiaries have had about 273,300 suits filed against them since 1976 by workers suffering from asbestos-related disease. Many of those suits were filed before Cheney became chairman of the board and chief executive officer in 1995.

At the end of 1999, 107,650 suits for damages were still pending, including 46,400 new suits filed against the corporation last year, according to the firm's annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cheney, 59, says he will resign Aug. 16 to concentrate on the Republican campaign.

Halliburton's political action committees and Cheney contributed $494,452 to congressional candidates from 1997 through mid-2000. Of that, $157,500 went to members of Congress who co-sponsored the asbestos legislation -- 59 Republicans and four Democrats. (See list of contributions)

Cheney, as an individual, donated $12,500 to members who sponsored or co-sponsored the asbestos bills.

The contributions from Cheney and the political action committees of Halliburton and its subsidiaries went to 49 of the 77 lawmakers who co-sponsored the Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act in the House of Representatives and 14 of 29 co-sponsors of similar legislation in the Senate.

Halliburton defended their contributions and noted that they were made in full compliance with campaign laws.

"Our PAC has made contributions without regard to the pending asbestos legislation. Any similarities between the supporters of such legislation and the recipients of contributions from our PAC is purely coincidental," Zelma Branch, a company spokeswoman, said today.

Dave Gribbins, Halliburton's vice president for government affairs, added, "We give money to candidates for a variety of reasons, usually to those who are supportive of the business agenda, the things that are important to us, like taxes, trade or something specific like this asbestos issue."
more
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080400-02.htm

[tmooses]

23. Okay, all you "moral" people-how does overturning worker rights

and safety regulations fit in to your holier than thou image of your "leader"?

[seemslikeadream]

24. On the verge of warning millions of Americans

The question about what to do about Zonolite insulation was not the only asbestos-related issue in which the White House intervened. In January, in an internal EPA report on problems with the agency's much-criticized response to the terrorist attacks in New York City, a section on "lessons learned" said there was a need to release public health and emergency information without having it reviewed and delayed by the White House. "We cannot delay releasing important public health information," said the report. "The political consequences of delaying information are greater than the benefit of centralized information management."

It was the White House budget office's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs that derailed the Libby declaration. The regulatory affairs office is headed by John Graham, who formerly ran the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. His appointment last year was denounced by environmental, health and public advocacy groups, who claimed his ties to industry were too strong. Graham passes judgment over all major national health, safety and environmental standards.

Thirty physicians, 10 of them from Harvard, according to The Washington Post, wrote the committee asking that Graham not be confirmed because of "a persistent pattern of conflict of interest, of obscuring and minimizing dangers to human health with questionable cost-benefit analyses, and of hostility to governmental regulation in general."

FAA Head Whitman, Horinko and some members of their top staff were said to have been outraged at the White House intervention. "It was like a gut shot," said one of those senior staffers involved in the decision. "It wasn't that they ordered us not to make the declaration, they just really, really strongly suggested against it. Really strongly. There was no choice left."

She and other staff members said Whitman was personally interested in Libby and the national problems spawned by its asbestos-tainted ore. The EPA's inspector general had reported that the agency hadn't taken action more than two decades earlier when it had proof that the people of Libby and those using asbestos-tainted Zonolite products were in danger. Whitman went to Libby in early September 2001 and promised the people it would never happen again. "We want everyone who comes in contact with vermiculite from homeowners to handymen to have the information to protect themselves and their families," Whitman promised.

A government analysis of shipping records from W.R. Grace show that at least 15.6 billion pounds of vermiculite ore was shipped from Libby to 750 plants and factories throughout North America.

In a confidential memo dated March 28, an EPA official said the declaration was tentatively set for April 5. But the declaration never came. Instead, Superfund boss Horinko on May 9 quietly ordered that asbestos be removed from contaminated homes in Libby. There was no national warning of potential dangers from Zonolite. And there was no promise of long-term medical care for Libby's ill and dying.

The EPA's files are filled with studies documenting the toxicity of tremolite, how even minor disruptions of the material by moving boxes, sweeping the floor or doing repairs in attics can generate asbestos fibers. Most of those who have studied the needle-sharp tremolite fibers in the Libby ore consider them far more dangerous than other asbestos fibers.

In October, the EPA team leading the cleanup of lower Manhattan after the attacks of Sept. 11 went to Libby to meet with Peronard and his crew. The EPA had reversed an early decision and announced that it would be cleaning asbestos from city apartments. Peronard told the visitors from New York just how dangerous tremolite is. He talked about the hands-on research in Libby of Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a pulmonologist who had worked for NASA and the Air Force on earlier projects before moving to Spokane, Wash. "Whitehouse's research on the people here gave us our first solid lead of how bad this tremolite is," Peronard said.

Whitehouse has not only treated 500 people from Libby who are sick and dying from exposure to tremolite. The chest specialist also has almost 300 patients from Washington shipyards and the Hanford, Wash., nuclear facility who are suffering health effects from exposure to the more prevalent chrysotile asbestos. Comparing the two groups, Whitehouse has demonstrated that the tremolite from Libby is 10 times as carcinogenic as chrysotile and probably 100 times more likely to produce mesothelioma than chrysotile.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/asbestos.nsf/0/D0064DBA4F46DAE386256CAD0076A1E9?OpenDocument

[SKKY]

25. Finally, Bush is doing God's work for the country...

...I was wondering when he would get off his lazy ass, quit playing around with this silly little war on terror, and take care of things that really and truly effect the country like Tort Reform and Asbestos lawsuits clogging our courts.

[underpants]

27. FYI-Halliburton just settled their asbestos claims on Monday

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2361959

January 3, 2005

Houston - Halliburton's $4.17-billion settlement of thousands of asbestos claims has been finalised, the company announced on Monday.

The Houston-based oil services conglomerate's construction and engineering subsidiary, KBR, and other subsidiaries that filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2003 as part of the settlement have emerged from Chapter 11.

[Dweezil44]

28. I think a curb is necessary

As an attorney who has been involved in many asbestos cases, I can assure you there is tremendous abuse of the system. The vast majority of plaintiffs in typical asbestos suits have no injuries. On a scale of zero to five, with zero being "no detectable injury" and five being "dead man walking", most have borderline zer/one X-ray reads. In otherwords, there is a question as to whether there is any injury present at all.

In addition to that question, many of these people are or were heavy smokers. So, there is a question as to what caused any injury to their lungs, even if an injury is present.

Why is this a problem? Because, by flooding the system with these kinds of cases, asbestos lawyers have driven many companies out of business. That means the TRULY SICK people, those who have mesothelioma (almost always caused by contact with asbestos - it's a cancer of the lining of the lungs) face the prospect of never recovering for their injuries because the potential defendants were bankrupted by people who can't even show any appreciable injury.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff's lawyers line their own pockets with frivolous suits.

It's a sad situation.

[Bridget Burke]

31. As an "attorney who has been involved in many asbestos cases"---

How much were you paid to defend the guilty companies?

[Dweezil44]

41. My hourly rate for the defense work was $175 per hour . . .

I only got paid a contingency fee (30%, usually) for plaintiff's work. My firm only handled serious asbestos cases, generally involving a form of mesothelioma.

[Rose Siding]

33. Egregious corporate acts SHOULD flood the system

It's a sad situation.

[Straight Shooter]

37. I'm sure Dweezil44, you've researched the history of asbestos knowledge

The companies knew, the companies did nothing. Asbestos as a danger to health was known for a long, long time. This is a common modus operandi of companies, to wait things out and settle one at a time until suddenly the flickering coals turn into a blazing bonfire.

But for bush and like-minded followers, it's all about f*ck the workers and blame them, isn't it?

I know all about those depositions, too, and who smoked and who didn't, and how dare you because you know damn well that smoking affects people in different ways. I don't even believe you're a lawyer, 'scuse me for saying so.

[Dweezil44]

40. Sigh. You don't want to discuss issues . . .

just curse and attack my integrity.

I AM a member of the bar, thanks, and I have done asbestos work -- both sides. I guess what you guys are saying is that you don't care whether the science, or the physical evidence, or even the plaintiff's own medical records say that there is an injury that was caused by asbestos -- you just want to give people the right to flood the system.

I'd tell that to my last client, who got NOTHING because of frivolous crap flooding the system and bankrupting the companies except I can't -- he is dead. He spent the last eight months of his life drowning in his own bed as the meso slowly ate up the lining of his lungs. 63 years old, and a damnably ugly way to die.

His family also got NOTHING because the sole contact he had with asbestos products was through his old employer, a sole proprietorship that closed down years ago, who used a single type of asbestos pipe insulation made by a company that went bankrupt twelve years ago.

Well, maybe his family didn't exactly get "nothing". They DID get to watch their loved one spend his last few months on earth in hellish pain, unable to even hold up a book and read without losing his breath. They got to listen to him moan in agony towards the end. And they got stuck with a good deal of debt they had accumulated through taking care of him in his final days.

But hey -- several of his neighbors, some of whom still go for long walks with their wives and grandkids, some of whom still enjoy going fishing (just like my client, until he had to give it up about a year or two before his death), some of whom still go to local high school football games -- THEY all got THEIR money, for injuries that are so questionable as to be laughable.

But hey -- who cares about this, right/ I mean, it's not about getting money damages for the truly sick -- it's about taking whatever you can for yourself and the hell with everyone else, right?

Damn. You sound like a selfish Repug puke, straight shooter. Your initials suit your attitude.

D--

[daleo]

53. You are turning this into a false dichotomy

I have a brother whose lungs have been damaged by asbestos, from working in the electrical trade. He isn't dying of mesothelimia (yet), but that doesn't mean his quality of life hasn't been seriously affected. Just because a person can still go for a walk or sit with a fishing line doesn't mean he hasn't suffered serious harm.

[spooked]

29. The War in Iraq HAS BEEN PAYING FOR Halliburton's Asbestos Settlements!

Asbestos & the Halliburton Connection

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1285225,00.html


"The United States army will withhold payment of up to $60m (£32.8m) a month on future invoices submitted by Halliburton, the firm formerly run by vice-president Dick Cheney, due to a continuing dispute over work done in Iraq...

The decision puts Halliburton under further financial pressure. The company needs cash to pay for a $2.3bn settlement of asbestos injury lawsuits stemming from a division acquired during Mr Cheney's tenure as chairman and chief executive."

[RetroLounge]

30. Wow, now this is a fucking Surprise!

not.

What's next bush** you POS asshat poor excuse for a human being?

How about Lead Paint manufacturers, I'm sure thay could use your help too.

RL

** Selected twice now...

[Megahurtz]

34. I wonder how much money

the asbestos corporations gave to Bush for his campaign?:eyes:

[jackofhearts]

35. How long will it take for people to wake up?

bush's Social Security fraud is all to help the stock brokers, the medical reforms is to help the drug companies, tort reform is to prop up the already huge profits of the insurance companies and now he wants to protect those that dumped asbestos on the public. Does he ever do anythig that is to help the average citizen in this nation? Anyone with a brain knows that his tort reform will NEVER result in lower costs for patients...only release the insurance companies from liability.

Every day these fucks launch a new attack from a different front upon the people of Amerika. The bush administration are doing more damage to the Amerkan public than OBL could ever do with a dirty bomb. When will we take up arms and fight back?

[daleo]

54. F911 (Bush, talking to crowd of very wealthy people) - "You are the haves

And the have-mores. Some people call you the elites, I call you my base."

One of the most enlightening moments in a film full of enlightening moments. Yet a significant part of the working class seems strangely drawn to him - a very strange phenomenon.

[LeftHander]

36. Prescott, HW Bush were wigs in Dresser and Harbison Walker...

Both firms ware the real source of Haliburton's asbestos woes.

When Dick aquired Dresser in 1999 Harbison Walker and Dresser were both doomed because of Asbestos.


Cheney knew this. As VP he he knew he could save Halliburton only by starting a long protracted expensive war with halliburton getting the bulk of military contracts.

These fucking crooks have all along been at this. They may have even LIHOP or MIHOP 911 as part of the paln to generate revenue for Halliburton.

Bush family has a long history with Dresser/Harbison walker. Poppy is wrapped up in Carlyle as well, which is making money hand over fist because of the War on terror.

THis is all baout preserving the Bush family wealth folks.

No question about that.

[kennetha]

38. The Saddest Part of This.

Is that the Republicans -- especially the House Republican Loonies - fierce and determined to reverse decades of social progress, will hang together and pass some truly frightening legislation. The Senate will moderate it just a tiny little bit. The Senate Democrats, determined to remain players, not be seen as obstructionist, get half a loaf rather than no loaf, will help the Senate Republicans. And some god awful bill on tort reform will pass. And we will get from our vapid ineffectual so-called opposition party the lame retreat that "it could have been worst" "we got the best bill we could get."


What the Senate Democrats need to do is what the Republicans did to the first term Bill Clinton. Make them do everything on their own, fight them at every term. Make Bush's next two years a catalog of failed attempts to move things in his (absurd) direction. The public has almost no ideology. But they love a winner and abandon a loser.


Remember the young Newt Gingrich and Lott and all those right-wing firebrands during back in the 80's. They weren't interested in trying to share in governance with the democratic house. They were interested in bringing down the institution of Democratic power. Similarly with the House impeachment loonies.

Have they paid any price for that "obstructionism" and resistance? Only the price of almost entirely consolidating their power. For a few brief shining moments, Clinton was able to fight them off when they overreached. But they astutely realized that that was only a temporary set back.


We need to have a party that will use everything in its limited but still real, given the rules of the Senate, power to bring down Bush and his minions.

But we won't get it. Instead, the clock will be turned back to 1950 or so in almost every sphere of our social and economic lives.

[Kimber Scott]

42. Always stumping for the corporation - as opposed to working for us. nt

[IA_Seth]

43. As opposed to Marijuana cases....

Which probably "clog up the courts" a hell of a lot more...

Marijuana is a choice that affects the individual being charged...Last I checked no one was choosing to inhale asbestos, but hey maybe that is just my liberal brain thinking again.

[Dweezil44]

44. I agree, but . . .

those criminal cases (at least, in this part of the country) are handled by district court judges who handle nothing but criminal cases. Asbestos claims are a civil matter in state court.

D--

[IA_Seth]

45. whoops...

Guess my pot-addled thoughts weren't all together now were they?

Regardless though, I don't see how we can try to tackle one aspect of a broken court system and not tackle the whole thing.

Thanks for the clarification!

[cosmicdot]

51. are the state courts clogged?

if corporations would try operating and managing 'the business' with integrity and some democratic principles instead of the good ol'boy mentality ... many of these 'issues' could be avoided ... they won't change with a slap on the wrist ... the lies Bush** are telling are only to help his corporate buddies ... he doesn't give a damn about the victims ... stand up for the victims ... let their cases be tried on their own merits ...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

46. hoooray!

go get those cancer sufferers! get em good! yeeehaw! Fascism is fun! God Bless Jesus hooray! Blessed are the asbestos companies!

[Princess Turandot]

47. My grandfather, 2 of my dad's brothers and my dad were all

'heat & frost insulators' aka 'asbestos workers'. They all died from cancer. One of my uncles was only 40 when he died. (My dad worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yards, building the landing craft for the D-Day invasion.) My father was only 61 when he died, although medical malpractice was also involved in his case. My sister, who is much older than me, had a very rare form of thyroid cancer in the 1950's, when she was 14, a type almost never seen in children. (She was lucky: we lived in NYC and she underwent then experimental radioactive iodine treatments at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She's now 60, and never had another medical problem after that.) My mother, who washed my dad's work clothing for years, developed both breast & uterine cancer. (Survived both.)

My father, who never even attended highschool, met and became very friendly with the doctor who initially raised concerns about the impact of long term exposure to asbestos back in the 1950's, a man named Irving Selikoff, who passed away a few years ago. (He kept a photo of himself and my dad on his office wall for decades, and ultimately got him a doctor who diagnosed his cancer, but by that time it was too late to be treated.)

So, we either had our own little cancer cluster in an apartment on the lower east side of NYC, or it was asbestos. I tend to think it was the latter, even if it is not officially linked to some of the cancers in our family.

My father did receive some $$ via worker's compensation, but this was before the class action suit stuff started. We did however get a malpractice settlement: his MD was becoming senile, which was crystal clear when he was deposed before the trial. There was no way they were going to put him on a witness stand and the insurance company quickly settled.

[lfairban]

49. I have been following asbestos issues for years.

I can't say I am surprised.

Check out my asbestos links.

[MADem]

52. You'd think the weecowboy would LOVE asbestos suits!!!

With the heat he's gonna take in the next four miserable years, I imagine he'll need a few. Let's hope his tailor learns to work around the bulges this time around....

[d_b]

55. How is Bush still.....

..yea.

[Amigust]

56. Helping out his major contributors

while taking money away from them damn Democratic lawyers that just give it to the Democratic Party.

[lovuian]

57. Isn't this what its all about!!! How Bush can bail US companies out

and be damned the people!!!