Washington, DC, June 19--Asbestos victims and consumer and environmental groups unveiled a multi-state television ad campaign against a bill to curb asbestos claims on Wednesday as the proposal neared Senate committee action.
The advertisements, charging that the bill by Sen. Orrin Hatch is a gift to industry that limits compensation for victims of the mineral, were shown on Capitol Hill by the consumer group U.S. Action, the environmental group Friends of the Earth and several people ill from asbestos exposure.
The campaign appeared to be partly aimed at responding to recent television, radio and newspaper ads by a pro-business coalition calling itself Citizens for Asbestos Reform, urging Congress to act now to end the "asbestos litigation crisis."
Hatch, the Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee will ask the panel on Thursday to send his bill to the Senate floor. It would create a $108 billion national fund to pay asbestos claims and limit overall business and insurance liability to that amount.
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s, when scientists concluded that inhaled fibers could be linked to cancer and other diseases.
Hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims clogging U.S. courts have driven more than 60 companies into bankruptcy. Hatch's proposal would take claims out of courts and use the trust fund, supported by business and industry, to pay them.
Hatch introduced the bill last month over the objections of organized labor, limiting its appeal to Democrats. With controversy swirling around the bill, it was unclear whether the Judiciary Committee would give it final approval Thursday.
Brian Harvey of Marysville, Washington, who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, says Hatch's bill would not help him, because it subtracts insurance payments to victims from their allowed compensation.
"This bill really benefits the asbestos and insurance companies," Harvey declares in one of the new ads against Hatch's bill. "Innocent people like myself would be left out," while "victims are penalized for having health insurance."
The ads will run in six or seven states at a cost of about $500,000, said Jeff Blum, executive director of U.S. Action. The group gets part of its funding from trial lawyers, opponents of limiting asbestos lawsuits.
Blum said the campaign would be targeted at the states of "swing" senators that might vote either way on Hatch's bill.
