Quoted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16033887

Legislation due on asbestos-related pleural plaques

December 5, 2011

People suffering from the asbestos-related lung condition pleural plaques will be able to seek compensation from next week due to new legislation.

 

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said the legislation to allow workers to pursue claims would become effective from 14 December.

The executive has already set aside £2.5m for claims.

The legislation reverses a House of Lords decision of 2007 which ruled victims could not claim compensation.

Similar legislation in Scotland was the subject of a long-running challenge initiated by insurers, which went before the UK Supreme Court.

On 12 October this year, the Supreme Court rejected the insurers’ claims that the legislation infringed their human rights and was outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

“The challenge to the corresponding legislation in Scotland cast a long shadow and I fought hard to get the Northern Ireland legislation through the assembly and submitted for royal assent,” Mr Wilson said.

“However, I always believed that the policy objectives of the act were just and fair and that belief has now been vindicated by the ruling of the UK Supreme Court in relation to the Scottish legislation.

“The 2011 act may be short and targeted, but it is a vitally important act, which seeks to ensure the continued availability of a method of redress for ordinary working men and women.”

Pleural plaques – small areas of benign scarring on the lungs- are not themselves a disease and have no symptoms, but the thickening of lung membranes is an indicator of past exposure to asbestos.

They signify an increased risk of developing the disease mesothelioma.

Quoted from http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Nurse-exposed-deadly-asbestos-hospital-tunnels/story-13712710-detail/story.html

Nurse exposed to deadly asbestos in hospital tunnels

Monday, October 31, 2011

Grimsby Telegraph

A NURSE who dedicated her life to helping others died from mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos lining the tunnels in the hospitals she trained in, an inquest heard.

Shirley Burns, 71, of Grimsby Road, Waltham, died in May at St Andrew’s Hospice, Grimsby, after doctors told her there was nothing they could do to help her beat the incurable lung disease.

1.  

The district coroner for North East Lincolnshire, Paul Kelly, overruled consultant pathologist Dr William Peters who, following a post-mortem examination, said the mesothelioma was the “rare and spontaneous” result of natural causes.

Instead, Mr Kelly, said he believed it was the result of exposure to asbestos – and therefore industrially related – after hearing Mrs Burns worked in the London training hospitals.

Mr Kelly said: “In the past two or three weeks, the link coroners throughout the country keep in touch with has been quite active with reports of people suffering from mesothelioma and it being traced back to some of the London teaching hospitals – in particular, the tunnels the staff used.

“There is a proven link between asbestos used in these tunnels and later incidents of mesothelioma.”

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202519467829&GAO_Reports_Shines_Light_on_Secretive_Asbestos_Trusts

GAO Reports Shines Light on Secretive Asbestos Trusts

Brian Glaser

Corporate Counsel

October 20, 2011

The Government Accountability
Office released a new report on Wednesday analyzing asbestos injury trusts,
shining some light on a multi-billion-dollar system of plaintiff claims and
payouts that operates largely in secret.

The report, Asbestos
Injury Compensation: The Role and Administration of Asbestos Trusts [PDF],
reviewed 52 asbestos-related bankruptcy trusts that “have paid about 3.3 million
claims valued at about $17.5 billion.”

The GAO found that while the
majority of the trusts made general data available, very few provide detailed
information about their activities without being directed to by a court of law:
“Most asbestos trusts we reviewed publish for public review annual financial
reports and generally include total number of claims received and paid. 
Other information in the possession of a trust, such as an individual’s exposure
to asbestos, is generally not available to outside parties but may be obtained,
for example, in the course of litigation pursuant to a court-ordered
subpoena.”

[Article continues at original source]