Landmark ruling on asbestos compensation

Insurance companies will have to pay compensation
to families that are affected by asbestos exposure.

The Supreme Court in Britain decided that insurers who had offered coverage at the time asbestos victims inhaled fibers will have to honor that and pay compensation.

Four insurance companies have been fighting in court to pay the least amounts possible to 6,000 families, who have a family member that either died or suffers from mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos.

The Supreme Court’s decision could bring the compensation bill to more than 600 million pounds and even up to 5 billion pounds if up to 25,000 families enter their claims in the future.

The lawsuit went from High Court to the Court of Appeal and has been running since the year 2006.

Many cancer patients that initially started the claims have died, and their family members have kept pursuing the case.

Asbestos exposure has turned out to be one of the biggest killers in the British workplace even though it has been banned for a while.

The fibers can be in a person’s lungs for half a century before causing cancer, so that experts predict a peak of deaths only in 2016. Currently, about 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases in the UK each year.

It has been common knowledge since 1955 that inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause fatal lung cancer.

Employers or their insurers are liable to compensate those who are affected, even if it takes decades to develop.

Observers of the controversial drawn-out case say that a lot of money was wasted in the courts, which could have been given to victims’ families. The average compensation payments for mesothelioma are 200,000 pounds.

Before the lawsuit went to court, insurance companies were paying claims from 1967 until 2006.

Source: The Independent

Watch out for asbestos fibers exposure

The AirRhino is a portable air cleaner
that can go from particle to chemical
control on the site.

Asbestos exposure still remains a problem today because asbestos-containing materials were used extensively before the ban and a lot of older homes and buildings are affected.

Renovations, demolition and other work on those buildings can expose workers and occupants to the deadly fibers.

It is important to let professional asbestos remediation companies handle these projects to minimize exposure and risks.

Electrocorp also offers high-quality air cleaners for mold and asbestos remediation that can help keep the air clean and healthy (along with other measures).

The air cleaners feature the most efficient HEPA and dust/particle filters and they can be used for positive and negative air configurations.

Contact Electrocorp for more information and options.