Relief for Mesothelioma Victims

To the relief of thousands of mesothelioma victims and their families and to the dismay of thousands of corporations accused of exposing their employees to the lethal, naturally occurring mineral asbestos, the U.S. Senate failed to pass the controversial Hatch Asbestos Trust Fund bill, designed to cap the monetary recovery for asbestos-related disease victims, in early May 2004. The bill, a revised version of last year's bill that also failed, received only 50 of the 60 votes it needed to pass and avoid a filibuster.

Introduced by Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R., TN), the bill was widely criticized for being unfair. Under the legislation, lung cancer victims who were smokers would only receive $25,000 and lung cancer victims who were nonsmokers would be compensated only $225,000 - before lawyers' fees. Further, the fund reportedly was not large enough to cover all potential claimants.

Trust fund advocates, most of whom believe that the payouts to asbestos victims are large enough to have serious, negative effects on the U.S. economy, plan to negotiate a compromise with Senate democrats who are against the legislation.

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