Asbestos was once referred to as a miracle mineral' for its ability to withstand heat and it was used in thousands of products. But exposure to asbestos causes cancer and other diseases. As of the beginning of 2001, 600,000 individuals had filed lawsuits for asbestos-related diseases against...

The number of asbestos personal injury claims filed each year is in the hundreds of thousands and has been increasing rather than decreasing over time, even though asbestos stopped being used in the early 1970's. Eighty firms have filed for bankruptcy due to asbestos liabilities including 30...

This paper tackles basic issues that will face latent-disease cases involving emissions from 3D-printing technology by comparing those issues to those faced throughout the jurisprudence surrounding asbestos-related, latent-disease cases

Industrial innovation churns out increasingly unnatural products and technologies amid scientific uncertainty about their harmful effects. We argue that a quick regulatory response to the discovery that certain innovations are harmful is an important indicator for evaluating the performance of...

Asbestos liability has challenged the tort system since it became clear that exposure to asbestos caused serious, often fatal diseases. Professor Fraley in her Comment has, among other trenchant observations, nicely shown how information on the causal link was established

The article summarizes the diagnosis of the impact of socio-economic factors on the rate of removal of asbestos in Poland. It presents the basic statistics on the rate of accumulation and removal of asbestos from the territory of the country and an attempt to identify the causes of common...

The Table of Clearances to Combustible Construction, an American national engineering standard for the insulation of boilers and other heating devices, was established in 1943 as a collaborative project of the insurance industry, fire protection organizations,and the federal government. This...

This working paper presents arguments for a stronger policy to eradicate occupational cancer in Europe and globally. The cancer epidemic is a major public health concern all over the world. There is an increasing awareness of the role of working conditions as a central determinant of social...

Since 2005, take-home asbestos exposure claims have constituted a new wave of asbestos litigation. In contrast to employees exposed to asbestos at a worksite, take-home exposure occurred among those affected by employees who inadvertently carried asbestos home on their clothing or their tools....

I study firms with past asbestos ties that suffer from significant increases in legal liabilities after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1999. This event provides a natural experiment setting to estimate the indirect effects of financial distress on real activities. While direct litigation and...

Ship recycling is an important sector which interests many engineering disciplines such as naval architecture, environmental, metallurgical etc. Ship recycling, on the other hand, raises a lot of concerns since it is directly related to human safety and health and environmental pollution. There...

Executive Summary: This study addresses the legal and policy frameworks for compensation of occupational diseases attributable to asbestos exposure in five Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Ontario and Québec. It aims to describe and compare criteria applied by...

Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code was adopted to protect unknown future asbestos personal injury victims' rights and prospects for financial recovery. To serve these goals and satisfy the demands of due process, Section 524(g) provides two basic forms of virtual representation for future...

Commentary and analysis of the Supreme Court decision in Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., and reversing two decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In Ortiz, a 7-2 decision, the Court reversed the Fifth Circuit's affirmation of a Rule 23(b)(1)(B) mandatory global settlement of asbestos...

In this article, we argue that aggregate litigation and the court system can not only restore the protection of victims and the production of deterrence, but also play a pivotal role in stimulating regulatory innovation. This is accomplished through a reward system that seems largely to mimic...

Over a decade ago, the Federal Judicial Conference warned of an asbestos litigation “disaster of major proportions.” The Supreme Court of the United States has described the litigation as a “crisis.” According the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, by the end of 2000, more than 600,000...

Canada has long been viewed as a leader in matters of public health, human rights, and general public welfare. Recently however, the country has come under attack for its seemingly unreasonable and hypocritical trade policy concerning chrysotile asbestos. Chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen,...

Australia is considering a full-scale Free Trade Agreement with Japan. This gives added importance to the trajectory of Japanese product safety regulations, and consumer law more generally. Generally, Japan has been dismantling ex ante regulation while strengthening private liability regimes,...

The Fonds d'Indemnisation des Victimes de l'Amiante (FIVA), a French asbestos injuries compensation fund, went into operation in July 2002. Last April, the Asbestfonds-Fonds d'Amiante (AFA), a Belgian fund followed suit. This paper describes and compares both funds and evaluates a hypothetical...

This chapter considers the toxic chemical asbestos as a salient example of the ever-widening gap in achieving the paradoxical aspirations of ensuring a high-quality environment and a healthy economy espoused in the Agenda 21 principles arising from the Earth Summit in 1992. In particular, this...

Asbestos possesses excellent physical and chemical properties, viz., tensile strength, flexibility, resistance to heat and abrasion. Due to its excellent properties, it is used in the manufacture of asbestos-cement products, such as roofing sheets, boards and pipes as well as in products used...

The mesothelioma epidemic in the United States, which peaked during the 2000-2004 period, can be traced to high-level asbestos exposures experienced by males in occupational settings prior to the full recognition of the disease-causing potential of asbestos and the establishment of enforceable...