Limit needed on asbestos lawsuits, Bush says
President George W. Bush, wading into a decades-long debate, has called for a cap on asbestos lawsuits. He contends that too many frivolous cases have clogged the courts, unjustly bankrupted companies and kept legitimate victims of asbestos from getting compensation they deserve.
“The system is not fair,” Bush said during a speech in Detroit. “It’s not fair to those who are getting sued, and it’s not fair for those who justly deserve compensation. These asbestos suits have bankrupted a lot of companies, and that affects the workers here in Michigan and around the country.”
Congressional Democrats, however, say the president’s approach tilts too heavily toward relieving the distress of companies that made or sold asbestos (which has been proven to cause mesothelioma) and yet offers few guarantees that many sickened workers would be compensated.
“If it’s a one-sided approach that simply solves the problem of businesses being sued and does not compensate victims, I will oppose it,” says Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.
Any legislation must also ban the continued use and sale of asbestos, she contends. More than 30 million pounds of asbestos are imported into the United States each year. The European Union, on the other hand, recently concluded a five-year wait on an asbestos ban and it is now the law in all the countries making up the EU.