Articles Posted in Asbestos

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued new guidance rules for asbestos as part of the latest updates to the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which could potentially have a large impact on future asbestos production in the United States. The new rules, referred to as significant new use rule (SNUR), would allow the agency to prevent new uses of asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral directly linked to deadly cancers such as mesothelioma.

If adopted, the proposed rule would require the EPA’s approval before any products containing asbestos could be manufactured, imported, or processed in the U.S. and would further grant the agency the authority to prohibit or limit the use of asbestos. While the proposed SNUR is encouraging for many activists, it still remains the first instance the EPA has proposed such an action and those same groups remain skeptical that the agency will follow through with the proposal.

“These actions provide the American people with transparency and an opportunity to comment on how EPA plans to evaluate the ten chemicals undergoing risk evaluation, select studies, and use the best available science to ensure chemicals in the marketplace are safe,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “At the same time, we are moving forward to take important, unprecedented action on asbestos.”

Kansas state lawmakers recently took up debate in the legislature’s upper house over the passage of House Bill 2457, a law that could end up imposing serious restriction on the legal rights of asbestos cancer victims to recover vital compensation following a mesothelioma diagnosis. If approved, the bill would require mesothelioma patients to undertake a lengthy administrative and investigative process that could go beyond the time they have left.

In February 2018, the Kansas State House of Representatives passed their version of the bill with a 77-40 vote over the objections of advocates who claim the bill is necessary and places roadblocks to justice. House Bill 2457 is Supported by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, a statewide business and industrial coalition in the state of Kansas that often creates pro-business legislation.

If passed, House Bill 2457 would require asbestos cancer victims to file all possible claims against other defendants in a 30-day window, allowing a jury to consider shared liability among sources of asbestos exposure. Often times, this includes filing administrative claims with asbestos bankruptcy trusts in lieu of formal lawsuits against solvent companies still doing business.

An intermediate appeals court in New York recently denied a motion brought forth by a group of asbestos product related companies attempting to challenge the types of damages cancer victims can recover and the state’s special asbestos court system as a whole. The appeal comes a year after the courts modified their case management orders to allow plaintiffs to recover punitive damages in mesothelioma cancer lawsuits and less than one month after a state jury handed down a record breaking $60 million plaintiff’s verdict.

The special asbestos court, known as the New York Court of Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL), is one of the country’s largest backlog of asbestos cancer cases and has created its own unique rules to help move along cases on the docket. One of those case management orders was an agreement with defendants to defer punitive damages in exchange for waivers of due process rights to allow cases to move more quickly through the courts.

Punitive damages are a special type of award meant to punish defendants for especially egregious conduct and serve as a type of warning to prevent other entities from engaging in similarly reckless behavior. The agreement between the asbestos companies and the courts had remained in place for almost two decades until 2014 when punitive damages were reintroduced by a Manhattan Supreme Court justice.