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Outlook darkens for asbestos reform in US Senate
27 Sep 2004 22:59:08 GMT
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(Updates with Frist letter to Daschle, paragraphs 2, 11-13)
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The outlook dimmed on Monday for establishing a fund to compensate asbestos victims this year after the Senate majority leader left it off a list of priorities for the few days left in the legislative period.
Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist offered to talk to the chamber's Democratic Leader Tom Daschle on key remaining differences over asbestos legislation.
Daschle earlier this month accepted Frist's proposal to cap the fund at $140 billion but Frist complained Daschle's ideas do too little toward taking asbestos claims out of the courts.
Frist wants the Senate to finish work by Oct. 8, so lawmakers will have time to campaign for Nov. 2 elections.
His priorities for the eight or nine remaining legislative working days are intelligence reform, spending bills and other bills already at the "conference" level of negotiations between the Senate and House, Frist told journalists.
Still, the Tennessee Republican declined a reporter's invitation to pronounce asbestos reform dead for the year. "I just don't want to rule it out," Frist said.
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s. Scientists say inhaled fibers are linked to cancer and other diseases.
U.S. companies have paid out tens of billions of dollars on hundreds of thousands of asbestos injury claims. Dozens of affected companies, like chemical producer W.R. Grace and Co. <GRA.N> and car parts company Federal-Mogul Corp. <FDMLQ.OB>, have filed for bankruptcy.
Daschle and Frist have been trying to set parameters of a fund, to be financed by asbestos defendant companies and insurers, that would compensate victims while ending their right to sue in court.
While "very close" to a deal on financing the fund, Frist said they had not agreed on how many existing asbestos injury claims could stay in court once the fund had been created.
In a letter to Daschle, released on Monday evening, Frist said Daschle was trying to keep thousands of asbestos suits in the courts -- "the very progeny of our deeply broken system." Frist said cases close to being finalized could stay in court, but the rest should revert to the fund.
Frist also criticized Daschle's proposal that the fund be able to pay claims within 90 days of a bill's enactment; otherwise cases would go back to court.
"Deadlines must be realistic, practical, and aimed at ensuring the viability of the fund, not its destruction," Frist wrote.
Frist suggested he and Daschle meet as soon as possible but observers say limited time and remaining disagreements make it doubtful a bill to establish the fund can be passed this year.
"I think it's virtually certain that this thing has played out ... between now and the election," said Patrick Hanlon, a lawyer who represents the Asbestos Alliance, a group affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers.
The issue could still be dealt with in a "lame duck" congressional session after the election, Hanlon noted, but said that also appeared unlikely.
"The clock is running out. Nothing has been done in the House (of Representatives). Labor is not supporting this. I'm assuming the trial bar will throw everything they've got at this bill, said Julie Rochman, spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association.
But, she added: "Both sides understand how important the issue is, and neither of them wants to say it's dead."
Back to Original Article on Mesothelioma
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No Role for Simian Virus 40 in Human Pleural Mesotheliomas Assays 26 Sep 2004 Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the chest cavity that kills about 2000 people a year in the United States.
No laurels for Hardie Richard Gluyas September 29, 2004 MEREDITH Hellicar, with tours of duty as a diplomat, Alan Bond's manager of corporate affairs and an AMP director, is a veteran of crisis management.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the chest cavity that kills about 2000 people a year in the United States. Seventy to eighty percent of patients with this rare cancer have had exposure to asbestos. It has also been proposed that simian virus 40 (SV40), a contaminant in some polio vaccines administered in the 1950’s and 1960’s, might be a cause.
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