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Asbestos Watch Newsletter
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| Paul Safchuck, WLA President, stands beside his vandalized automobile |
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Since August, 1993, Paul Safchuck, WLA President, has been repeatedly attacked by vicious goons. The WLA has offered a $1,000.00 reward for information leading to the arrest and convictions of these goons.
It is 3 a.m. in the morning. Most families are sleeping peacefully, but a telephone is ringing in Paul Safchuck's house. Paul states "this is happening many nights during the week. You see they are just checking to see whether I am awake or not."
It started one morning in August when Paul came outside and found his van windows spray-painted. Since then, the vandals have spray-painted more of is van, written threatening messages on his shed and cut the wires to outdoor lights he hung to protect his family.
Paul has spoken out on behalf of asbestos victims in both the courts of Judge Weinstein and Judge Weiner. Paul has denounced settlements which have defrauded and delayed compensation to victims.
Paul has distributed information to asbestos victims so that they know their legal rights both with the asbestos companies and the insurance companies and their own lawyers.
The most recent attack came in early April while Paul was conducting an interview with "The Money Program" from BBC.
All members and friends of the WLA are asked to send their support and donations for additional security now being installed in the national office and the President's residence.
Throughout the country victims of mesothelioma frequently are awarded one million dollars or more by jury trials. Mesothelioma is a fatal cancer of the lining of the lung which is caused by all types of asbestos.
The settlement is not in the interest of asbestos victims because: it forbids them a jury trial, it projects the number of asbestos victims as far below what actually exists, it requires proof of 15 years exposure, it sets payments to victims far below average settlements, it drops all punitive damages, it forces many victims to be represented by attorneys who have already made agreements with CCR and it is being stuffed down the victims throats just like the Manville Trust was done.
Chase claims losses of 185 million and Chase has uncovered very damaging evidence against TN. The most damning of this evidence was the subject of a special British Broadcasting Corporation program. Copies of the BBC broadcast can be ordered from the WLA for $20.00 while they last.
Matthew Weaver sits at the computer and runs off banners and signs for the WLA demonstrations. He and Olivia Fite are teenage volunteers for the WLA. They have showed up for demonstrations--rain or shine--and helped make banners and posters asking for justice for those who have been wrongly treated by the system.
Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Matt's participation is that it is being done from a computer in John Hopkins Hospital where he is being treated for his leukemia. He has sympathy for the many asbestos victims who must endure countless medical procedures, take endless amounts of medicine and feel powerless to disease.Edith Ford has been selected by the Board for a special thanks for the volunteer work she donated to the WLA in the spring and summer of 1993. Thanks to all volunteers.
The Manville Trust, set up seven years ago to pay compensation to people who were injured and killed by John Manville Company asbestos, continues to dodge its responsibility to victims.
The Trust has agreed to pay over 10,000 claims at 77 cents on the dollar and offers to pay 10 cents on the dollar to everyone else.
The White Lung Association has opposed the Trust's secret deals with some lawyers and has opposed the Trust reorganization. The Trust is protected by Judges Lifland and Weinstein in the Federal District Court located in Brooklyn, New York.
The Trust has moved, its new address is:
Manville Trust
8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Dr.
Fairfax, Virginia 22031
Phone: (703) 204-9300
FAX (703) 205-6249
To submit a Proof of Claim:
Manville Trust
P.O. Box 426
Merrifield, VA 22116-0426
If you have a hardship you might get the Trust to pay you 10% of the value of your claim under the Exigent Health Claim.
The White Lung Association is currently preparing a report on the legal fees which have gone to attorneys and been approved by Judge Weinstein.
It was one of the fist things regulated under U.S. work place and environmental law.
The Asbestos Industry in the Unites States, including Owens Corning, Owens Illinois, Westinghouse, Metropolitan Life Insurance, W. R. Grace and others wants to evade the responsibility for sale of the deadly Chrysotile Asbestos. The Chrysotile Defense. This defense is based on the lie that Chrysotile asbestos is safe and only the other forms of asbestos are harmful.
The "Chrysotile Defense" has been raised for over thirty years and has been soundly rejected by OSHA, the EPA, the Consumer Product Safety Administration, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Justice.
There are millions of workers with deadly Chrysotile fibers in their lungs causing disease, infections and cancers each minute. Chrysotile asbestos has killed more people and caused more property damage than any other type of asbestos, it represent 95% of the asbestos now used in the U.S. and about 80% of asbestos found in U.S. buildings.
The Italian Government should be congratulated for its ban on asbestos and closing of Italian asbestos mines in 1993.
The mass trails now being prepared for asbestos victims are setting some very bad medical standards for definition of asbestos related disease.
The White Lung Association is calling on medical professionals to stand up for ethical standards and to help us investigate these events.Proposals to classify plural placs as a non-disability condition, to eliminate lung cancer compensation in those without asbestosis, to classify different ethnic groups in discriminatory manners and others, have been announced in several mass settlement actions.
This is allowing insurance companies, asbestos companies, the courts and plaintiffs attorneys to agree on disease categories based on economics, not medicine. In the Manville Trust, if you die of cancer, you do not get paid.
This trend is complicated by the harvest of industry paid medical consultants who spew garbled and unethical confusion on the general public. We invite the medical community, particularly those whose financial and educational careers have established the scientific evidence about asbestos, to join with us the battle to maintain science in the face of crude economic forces. For more information on the medical committee contact Jim Fite
The conference was supported by major labor unions in Brazil, including those whose leaders may become the new government of Brazil this year.
The conference introduced anti-asbestos movement throughout the world and announced an agreement between the Brazilian Industry, Unions and Government to phase asbestos out of friction products.
Dick Jackson, of the Hull Group in England, represents one of the many growing groups of asbestos victims in England. The WLA issues a fond "hello" to them and Nancy Tait (Society for the Prevention of Industrial Disease).
The Clydeside Action on Asbestos support group has recently gained news coverage for their attempts to get compensation of shipyard asbestos victims in Glasgow, Scotland.
Some compensation has been obtained by the Australian victims with the help of the Asbestos Disease Society.
The Consumers Coalition of Malaysia deserves world wide support in the efforts to control and ban asbestos use.
For more information about the White Lung Association and its programs, please contact Jim Fite, jfite@whitelung.org