Mesothelioma victims group opposes Specter plan

A mesothelioma victims group expressed concern today that it would be impossible to design and implement a national asbestos trust fund in a way that provides the needed protections for persons exposed to asbestos. The group is responding to efforts by Senator Arlen Specter and others who want to ban asbestos class action lawsuits and strike a deal with all parties involved by creating a fund to compensate victims.

The Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims (CPMV), which was formed shortly after Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) effectively ended negotiation with organized labor and others earlier this year by announcing his plan to remove asbestos litigation from the nation's court system, now believes that the better option for victims is a medical criteria/registry approach. While individual program details differ, medical criteria/registry approaches require those seeking to sue for asbestos injury to first be screened under medical criteria determined by a third party. In this case, Congress has already agreed to a set of criteria. Those not meeting the qualifying threshold established by the criteria do not lose their legal right, but instead their right is preserved should their condition advance to a higher criteria level.

Although the medical criteria/registry bill requires individuals to meet qualifying standards to get into court, the Committee favors the idea because it preserves individuals' rights to have their day in court. However, it is a policy generally favored by the business community because it has the ability to heavily reduce the volume of litigation. Experts have estimated that the medical criteria/registry approach can reduce asbestos court cases by 90 percent.

The medical criteria/registry approach has become the most popular solution to the asbestos problem on the state level having been adopted in a number of states including Ohio, West Virginia and New York. Mesothelioma is one of the more deadly asbestos-related cancers, attacking the lining of the lungs and typically resulting in death within a year of diagnosis. Committee spokesperson Sue Vento, the widow of U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento, who died of mesothelioma in 2000 after 24 years in Congress, said the medical criteria/registry approach offers more protection for both current and future victims of asbestos then the "trust fund." Vento said she favors the system over the trust fund because it protects victims' rights while addressing the central concern of the business community: the high volume of asbestos cases. "And I want to personally thank Billie Speicher for putting a face on this awful disease and the need for extensive research for a cure. I also agree wholeheartedly with him when he states, like all victims, he doesn't want to lose his right to have his day in court.

"If Congress is going to act at all," continued Vento, "We prefer the medical criteria/registry approach over the trust fund because we don't trust a new huge federal bureaucracy to help the very sick, we don't trust that it will protect victims rights, and we certainly can't trust that the fund will have enough money … because asbestos is not banned in this country, and who knows how much liability will eventually exist?"

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