Fact Sheets on Asbestos Poisoning

Top 10 Hurdles Raised Against Victims

The Specter-Leahy bill asks asbestos victims to bear the risk of an inadequately funded, unfairly structured and untested new compensation program that is not even a "no fault" system. In fact, victims must surpass huge new hurdles to prove their asbestos exposure and that it is the cause of their illness. Based on the current version of the bill, it will be impossible for them to do so. Read more.

Asbestos in Home Attics, Apartments, Office Buildings, and Imported Products

Even today more than one million workers are annually exposed to asbestos. Asbestos is pervasive throughout America, embedded in different products from roofing compounds to brake linings. The U. S. Geological Survey reports that over 136 million pounds of asbestos were imported into the U.S. since 2000; and estimates that 29 million pounds were used in industrial products as recently as 2001. Read more.

Asbestos Dangers from September 11th

Millions of New Yorkers, including law enforcement and rescue personnel, were exposed to asbestos dust when the World Trade Center towers fell on September 11, 2001. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health have warned that no amount of asbestos or length of exposure is safe, and any exposure can lead to progressive, incurable asbestos disease. Read more.

Proposed Asbestos Bailout Bill is Taking Away Veterans' Rights

Veterans, like all Americans, have always had the right to go to court to hold accountable the companies that knowingly poisoned them. Now, asbestos companies, their insurers and some Senators want to take that right away with a bill that shortchanges asbestos victims and rewards companies that poisoned them. Read more.

W.R. Grace and the Poisoning of Libby, Montana

Six years after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer documented the tragedy of Libby, Montana, the U.S. Justice Department has finally issued criminal indictments against the WR Grace company and seven of its executives for knowingly poisoning the residents of that small town. More than 200 people have died and more than 1200 have become ill, out of the town's total population of only 2,700. Read more.