Consumer group rounds on US asbestos reforms.

(From Insurance Day)

Byline: Peta Miller

ADDING its voice to the chorus of opposition against the US Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution bill, USAction, a US consumer group, has argued that insurers and asbestos defendants will be let off the hook unfairly, to the detriment of workers exposed to the fatal fibre, if it passes.

The bill currently being amended in the Senate, which would set up a $108bn last-ditch trust fund to pay claims, with a $45bn contribution from the insurance community, has also been vociferously rejected by the trade union federation AFL-CIO, despite attempts by the bill's sponsor, senate judiciary committee chairman Orrin Hatch, to persuade it otherwise.

"Senator Hatch has proposed an asbestos 'trust fund', but his proposal betrays the trust of the people it is supposed to serve, and it does not provide adequate funds to compensate these victims' losses," said Jeff Blum, executive director of USAction. "It is only fair to insurance companies, and to the asbestos companies who knowingly poisoned millions of workers. It is brutally unfair to those workers and their innocent families and loved ones."

Specifically, USAction, which has launched an anti-bill advertising campaign across the US, said the trust fund was too small and would leave some victims short-changed when it runs out.

The group also pointed out that, as currently structured, victims could be waiting for eight to nine years before being compensated, and that injured ...