Senator Edward Kennedy Issues A Statement Regarding Asbestos Mesothelioma Litigation

The real crisis regarding asbestos exposure in the workplace is not potential litgiation but the number of victims who contract the deadly disease Mesothelioma.Supporters of the bill propose to set up a $140 billion dollar asbestos compensation fund, but it is doubtful if even an all out effort that week will bring the bill to a vote on the floor of the US Senate.As Kennedy states victims suing the companies who exposed their loved ones to that disease did not create the costs.
The costs, which include lost productivity, medical, care, along with payments to provide basic living needs for family members who died years before their time.A shifting of financial burden to the victims and their families is, according to Kennedy unacceptable.Kennedy recognizes the efforts by Senators Specter and Leahy who are in favor of passage of the bill. That said it has several fundamental flaws, which make it an unreasonable soltuion to the pending crisis.Kennedy states our first obligation is to do no harm. Argument that there is certain inaedquacies regarding how current asbestos litigation is handled should not be the major thrust toward passage of that bill.Government intervention is the concern voiced across the nation by potential victims of that deadly disease. If the fund were to liquidate over time all poetntial damages would be in question. What rights would vcitims have in a legal setting to seek compensation from the offending companies?