Perspectives in the development of asbestos litigation and its future implications

Our plain-English summary of Perspectives in the development of asbestos litigation and its future implications, by A.H. Parnell (American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 1986).

The study

• Author: A.H. Parnell
• Journal: American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal
• Published: 1986;47(11):708-11
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001142).

In plain English

This 1986 article is a commentary by a lawyer, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The author, a partner in an Atlanta law firm, discussed factors the author believed shaped asbestos lawsuits in the United States, which the author said began effectively in 1977. The author wrote that more than 300 companies had been named as defendants, suspected that another 15 000 to 25 000 workers' compensation cases had been filed, and noted that the litigation had provoked three bankruptcies. The article described changes since the 1920s in industry, communication and medical knowledge. It also described the legal shift toward strict liability, mass production, and the long delay before cancers appear. The author argued that relying on what was known at the time a product was made had failed as a defense. The author also argued that cigarette smoking confounded the diagnosis of asbestos-related disease. The article discussed criticism of both plaintiff and defense lawyers. The author concluded that there were no utopian solutions and expected more claims and suits. Parts of the scanned text are unreadable.

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 or opinion article by a lawyer; no original data
• Who was studied: No study population. The article discusses asbestos lawsuits in United States state and federal courts, which the author said began effectively in 1977. The author was a partner at Freeman & Hawkins, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Exposure: Asbestos in general, as the subject of tort lawsuits brought for alleged injury from inhaling asbestos fibers; no specific fiber types are discussed
• Main results:
  • The author wrote that more than 300 companies had been named as defendants in the tort actions
  • The author suspected that an additional 15 000 to 25 000 workers' compensation cases had been filed
  • The author stated that the litigation had provoked three bankruptcies
  • The author argued that industrial hygiene and working hours acceptable in the 1920's were no longer considered acceptable by the 1960's, and that juries might not appreciate this change
  • The author described how many states had moved from negligence-based liability to strict liability in tort
  • The author argued that mass production meant many people could be exposed before a product's harm was recognized
  • The author argued that the defense that manufacturers did not know of the dangers at the time had been soundly defeated in many instances
  • The author argued that cigarette smoking was a confounding factor that made it hard to separate asbestos-related disease from smoking-related disease
  • The author argued that excessive defense lawyer involvement or fees were the fault of those who hired them
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that there were no utopian solutions and no immediate relief, and expected more asbestos-exposed individuals to claim injury and more suits to be filed

Related studies

• Tobacco and asbestos litigation — T.R. Goffe (1986)
• Widening perspectives of occupational lung disease — I.J. Selikoff (1973)
• Asbestos: scientific developments and implications for public policy — B.T. Mossman, J. Bignon, et al. (1990)
• The Public Health Value of Opioid Litigation — R.L. Haffajee (2020)
• Tobacco and asbestos litigation — K. Anderson, F. Moran (1986)
• Epidemiology and the law: courts and confidence intervals — T. Christoffel, S.P. Teret (1991)

Browse more research in American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, or return to medical research.