Asbestos: Worse Than We Thought?

March 2000 - Asbestos: Worse Than We Thought?

by Sam N. Gregorio and Richard H. Middleton, Jr.

A series of articles by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Boston Globe, together with several court cases against asbestos makers, have brought the current dangers of consumer asbestos use to light.

Americans have known for years that asbestos endangered builders and miners in shipyards, steel mills and other work environments, as well as in asbestos mines. Recently, we learned that more people have been exposed to asbestos than previously known.

"Environmental Protection Agency investigators are scouring store shelves to see if consumers are unknowingly buying asbestos, and the lethal fibers have turned up in some of the products they have tested," begins a Feb. 14, 2000, article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

It seems that some producers of consumer products, like potting soil and house insulation, used asbestos in their products without notifying consumers, and, in some cases, the workers who manufactured those products.

But wasn't the use of asbestos banned? The answer is "yes" and "no." Several government entities including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have the authority to regulate products that contain asbestos. From 1979 to 1989, the EPA worked to craft a comprehensive ban on asbestos products. But the ban was only in effect for a short time.

Members of the asbestos industry challenged the ban in the courts. In 1991 the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned most of the ban, allowing production of many asbestos products.

That ban wasn't all the asbestos industry fought. Producers like W.R. Grace Co., the specialty-chemicals company featured in the book and movie, "A Civil Action," opposed the placement of warning labels on products that contained asbestos.

"We believe that a decision to affix asbestos warning labels to our products would result in substantial sales losses," says one internal Grace memo written in 1977. Until 1984, Grace sold loose-fill insulation under the product name "Zonolite," a product used in hundreds of thousands of homes.

It is unclear what health costs consumers will pay as a result of using asbestos-laced products. The EPA says more testing is needed to determine the extent of the problem. We do know that asbestos exposure causes these diseases: pleural disease, a thickening of the lining of the lung; asbestosis, a scarring of the lung tissue; mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen; and lung cancer. All of these diseases are devastating. Most are fatal.

Richard H. Middleton, Jr., president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is a partner in the Savannah, GA, law firm of Middleton, Mixson, Orr & Adams.

Sam N. Gregorio, president of Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, is a sole practitioner in Shreveport.

Reprinted with permission of Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, P. O. Box 4289, Baton Rouge; (225) 383-5554 or (800) 354-6267.