Asbestos disease and compensation

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos disease and compensation, by R.E. Sweeney, B. Castleman (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1979).

The study

• Authors: R.E. Sweeney, B. Castleman
• Journal: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
• Published: 1979;330:273-80
• Type of article: Historical article
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 004024).

In plain English

This article was a commentary, not a research study. The authors reviewed the history of asbestos disease and workers' compensation and argued for legal changes. They described early medical reports of asbestosis and lung cancer. They contrasted Germany, which made lung cancer with asbestosis a compensable occupational disease in 1943, with the United States, where, in their account, private insurers worked with the asbestos industry to keep compensation low. Their one table used New York State Workmen's Compensation Board figures. It counted compensated occupational cancer cases closed each year from 1966 to 1975, ranging from 1 to 9 a year, which the authors described as only five people a year. They estimated about 50 compensated occupational cancer cases a year nationwide. Comparing this with estimates from NIOSH and Dr. Selikoff, they judged that far less than one percent received compensation, while admitting there were no good figures on occupational cancer rates. The authors concluded that workers' compensation had been an abject failure. They called for a no-fault system with realistic compensation and full medical coverage, for keeping product liability laws without statutes of limitations, and for criminal penalties.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Commentary: a historical review and policy argument about compensation for asbestos disease, with one table of state compensation data
• Who was studied: No study population. The one table covered compensated occupational cancer cases closed in New York State, 1966 to 1975, using data from the New York State Workmen's Compensation Board.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure in general, among asbestos factory workers and users of asbestos products such as pipecoverers. No specific fiber types are named.
• Main results:
  • In New York State, the yearly number of compensated occupational cancer cases closed from 1966 to 1975 was 6, 3, 6, 4, 7, 9, 6, 4, 6 and 1. The authors described this as only five people a year.
  • The authors estimated about 50 compensated cases of occupational cancer per year nationwide. They contrasted this with NIOSH estimates of 100,000 deaths from occupational disease per year and with Dr. Selikoff's projections of around 10,000 cancer cases per year from asbestos alone. They judged that far less than one percent of cases receive compensation.
  • In the authors' historical account, Germany established lung cancer with asbestosis as a compensable occupational disease in 1943.
  • The authors described state laws with statutes of limitations under which eligibility is lost unless a claim is made within several years after employment ends, before cancer typically develops.
  • The authors criticized a 1977 congressional bill, which in their account was principally designed by the Johns-Manville Corporation. The bill required claimants to show a 60% or more loss of earnings and took away the right to sue manufacturers for product liability.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that workers' compensation laws in the United States had been an abject failure. They argued for a no-fault system with realistic compensation for economic loss and full medical coverage, for keeping product liability laws while dropping statutes of limitations, and for criminal penalties.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors acknowledged that there are no good figures on the incidence rate of occupational cancer.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Asbestosis.

Related studies

• The cost of compensating asbestos victims under the Occupational Disease Compensation Act of 1983 — F.B. Siskind (1987)
• "Hope in another direction": compensation for work-related illness among women, 1900-1960--Part II — A. Bale (1989)
• A guide to compensation for asbestos-related diseases — M.G. Britton, D.T. Hughes, et al. (1981)
• Workers' compensation for nonmalignant asbestos-related lung disease — C. Nevitt, W. Daniell, et al. (1994)
• Compensation for asbestos-related diseases--the U.K. model — M. Britton (1989)
• Asbestos diseases and compensation — A. Seaton (1990)

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