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References
First-century historians and authors Strabo and Pliny the Elder both observed adverse biological effects of asbestos in the lungs of slaves who wove asbestos into cloth. See Lee, DHK, Selikoff IJ, Historical background to the asbestos problem, Environ Res 18:300–314, 1979.
Murray HM: Departmental Committee on Compensation for Industrial Diseases—Minutes of Evidence. Appendices and Index. London: Wyman and Sons, 1907, pp. 127–28.
Cooke WE: Fibrosis of the lungs due to the inhalation of asbestos dust. Br Med J 2:147, 1924.
Merewether ERA, Price CW: Reports on effects of asbestos dust on lungs and dust suppression in the asbestos industry. H.M. Stationery Office, 1930.
W.C. Hueper, quoted in, Castleman B: Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, 4th ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1996, p. xvii.
36 Fed. Reg. 3031 (March 1971).
38 Fed. Reg. 8820 (April 1973).
40 Fed. Reg. 48299 (1975).
36 Fed. Reg. 10466 (May 1971).
51 Fed. Reg. 22615 (June 20, 1986).
Ibid., pp. 22628.
Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 821, 119 S.Ct. 2295 (1999) (stating that asbestos litigation “defies customary judicial administration” and “calls for national legislation.” It is important to note, however, that all proposed national legislative solutions to date have been sponsored by manufacturing defendants and have been woefully inadequate in their terms in compensation to diseased individuals.)
Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Products Corp., 493 F.2d 1075 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 869 (1974).
Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 750 F.2d 1314, 1335-36 (5th Cir. 1985) (en banc).
Henderson, James A. Jr. and Aaron D. Twerski, Stargazing: The Future of American Products Liability Law, 66 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 1332, 1336 (1991).
198 W. Va. 1, 4–5, 479 S.E.2d 300, 303–04 (1996).
State of West Virginia v. MacQueen, _ W. Va. _, _ S.E.2d _, W.L. 770899 (July 6, 2001) citing H.R. Comm. on Judiciary, The Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act: Hearings on H.R. 1283, 106th Cong. (July 1, 1999).
Georgine v. Amchem Products, Inc., 157 F.R.D. 246 (E.D.Pa. 1994).
Amchem Products v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997).
Plevin and Kalish, What’s Behind the Recent Wave of Asbestos Bankruptcies?, Mealey’s Litigation Report: Asbestos, April 20, 2001.
-, Ibid. (noting that the stay is subject to a number of exceptions specified in the statute itself, such as regulatory actions by the government. See 11 U.S.C. § 362(b). The bankruptcy court can also terminate the stay, or modify its coverage, upon motion of a party in interest in the bankruptcy case. See 11 U.S.C. § 362(d).)
Insurance Day (September 13, 2001).
Paul Brodeur, The Asbestos Industry on Trial, New Yorker, June 17, 1985 at 45, 75.
Letter from F. H. Zimmerman, Director of Safety, National Gypsum Co., to C. L. Sheckler, Manager, Occupational Environmental Control, Johns-Manville Corp. April 17, 1968.
Motley, Ronald and Anne Kearse, Decades of Deception: Secrets of Lead, Asbestos, and Tobacco, Trial Magazine (October 1999), citing Asbestos Textile Institute, Minutes of the Air Hygiene and Manufacturing Committee March 7, 1957.
-, Ibid. (which references further example that, in 1950, the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, whose members included Canadian asbestos mining companies, contracted with Saranac to determine whether asbestos caused cancer. A 1952 report, which was never published, showed increased cancer in mice and suggested further study. In 1957, the Canadian association contracted with the Industrial Hygiene Foundation of American to study asbestos and cancer. The resulting report concluded that those with asbestosis had an increased occurrence of lung cancer. Nevertheless, attorneys and doctors hired by the Canadian association recommended those conclusions be omitted from the final report. The 1958 published report concluded that asbestos exposure did not lead to an increased statistical occurrence of lung cancer).
Letter from F. H. Zimmerman, Director of Safety, National Gypsum Co., to C. L. Sheckler, Manager, Occupational Environmental Control, Johns-Manville Corp., April 17, 1968.
Mathew M. Swentonic, Presentation by the Asbestos Information Association/North America to the Asbestos Textile Institute (June 7, 1973).
D. Ozonoff, Report concerning Medical Literature Review (1981).
W.C.L. Hemeon, Report of Preliminary Dust Investigation for Asbestos Textile Institute (Industrial Hygiene Foundation, 1947 unpublished).
Deposition of K. Smith in Louisville Trust Co. v. Johns-Manville Corp., No. 174–922 (Jefferson Cir. Ct., 7th Div. Ky., April 21, 1976).
Castleman B: Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1986, pp. 164–79.
Memorandum from W.B. Hofferth to J.E. Zeller, January 17, 1962.
Ad Hoc Committee of the Scientific Assembly on Environmental and Occupational Health: The diagnosis of nonmalignant diseases related to asbestos, Am Rev Respir Dis 134:363, 367, 1986.
Guidelines for the use of the ILO international classification of radiographs of pneumoconiosis In: Occupational Safety & Health Series No. 22 (rev.) Geneva: International Labour Office, 1980.
Compare Jones Pleural Plaques, In: The Biological Effects of Asbestos (Bogovski, ed.), Lyon: IARC Scientific Publication No. 8, 1972, pp. 243–48, with Schwartz: Determinants of restrictive lung function in asbestos-induced pleural fibrosis, J App Physiol 1932–37, 1990; Bourbeau: The relationship between respiratory impairment and asbestos-related pleural abnormality in an active work force, 142: Amer Rev Respir Dis, 837–42, 1990. Recent studies on the significance of pleural disease indicate that pleural thickening and plaques are not as benign as previously thought. They are associated with an impairment of lung function and they may predict future cancers. See Selikoff, IJ: Predictive significance of parenchymal and/or pleural fibrosis for subsequent death of asbestos-associated diseases. Exhibit 124A. Entered into OSHA docket at hearings. OSHA’s Proposed Standard for Occupational Exposure to Asbestos, Tremolite, Anthophyllite, and Actinolite, January 1991. Washington, D.C.
Churg A: Pathology of Occupational Lung Disease, New York: Igaku-Shoin, 1988, pp. 251–253
Andrion A: Pleural plaques at autopsy, smoking habits, and asbestos exposure, Eur J Respir Dis 65:125–30, 1984.
Surgeon General, The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cancer and Chronic Lung Disease in the Workplace, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1985, pp. 241–254.
-, Ibid, pp. 241.
See cross-examination of Dr. Edwin Holstein in Kulzer v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas, No. 87-386T, p. 351 (W.D.N.Y., Rochester Div., April 24, 1990).
51 Fed. Reg. 22621 (June 20, 1986).
Ibid. pp. 22616–17.
Pneumoconiosis Committee of the College of American Pathologists and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: The pathology of asbestos-associated diseases of the lungs and pleural cavities: diagnostic criteria and proposed grading schema, Arch Pathol Lab Med 106: 554, 559, 1982.
Churg:supra note 42, p. 260.
Ibid.
Ibid., pp. 262–263.
Ibid., pp. 262.
Ibid., pp. 262.
Ibid., pp. 285.
Doll R, Peto J: Asbestos: Effects on Health of Exposure to Asbestos. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1985, p. 32. The idea that ⋯ asbestos-induced cancers occur only secondary to the fibrosis of asbestosis has sometimes been expressed. The idea originated in the days before the discovery of DNA, when cancers were not thought to result from genetic variation in somatic cells, but from the repair of tissue damage that was macroscopically visible. In light of modern knowledge of carcinogenesis, such an idea does not seem plausible. No threshold for the carcinogenic effect of asbestos has been demonstrated in humans or in laboratory animals and, in the absence of positive evidence for a threshold, we have followed standard scientific practice and assume that none exists. One possible reason for thinking that asbestos-induced cancers might be secondary to asbestosis is the high incidence of cancer in the similar condition of cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis. As, however, the aetiology of this disease is unknown, the argument by analogy does not carry much weight and we have ignored it.
Warnock ML, Isenberg W: Asbestos and the pathology of lung cancer, Chest 89:20–26, 1986.
Selikoff I, Hammond E, Seidman H: Cancer Risk of Insulation Workers in the United States, IARC Scientific Publication No. 8, Lyon, 1972.
Hendry NW: The geology, occurrences, and major uses of asbestos, In: Biological Effects of Asbestos, Ann NY Acad Sci 132:12–19, 1965.
Peto J: Asbestos: Effects on Health of Exposure to Asbestos. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1985 Doll and Peto: supra note 57, p. 17.
Report by Dr. Ronald Dodson, Dept. of Cell Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, May 27, 1988.
Report by Dr. Fred Pooley, Dept. of Mining and Minerals Engineering, University College, Cardiff, Wales, June 23, 1988.
Report by Dr. Victor Roggli, Dept. of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, December 4, 1987.
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As stated by Doll and Peto: “It is not practicable to remove tremolite from chrysotile for commercial purposes and any distinction between the effects of chrysotile and tremolite may, therefore, be considered academic, unless supplies of chrysotile can be obtained in which little or no tremolite is present.”Peto J: Asbestos: Effects on Health of Exposure to Asbestos. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1985 Supra note 57, p. 17.
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51 Fed. Reg. 22615 (June 20, 1986).
54 Fed. Reg. 19461 (July 17, 1989).
Selikoff: supra 78.
Ibid.
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Motley, R.L., Patrick, C.W., Kearse, A.M. (2004). Medicolegal Aspects of Asbestos-Related Diseases: A Plaintiff’s Attorney’s Perspective. In: Roggli, V.L., Sporn, T.A., Oury, T.D. (eds) Pathology of Asbestos-Associated Diseases. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-21819-X_12
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