Final 'Libby fix' in place
The tug of war over a federal asbestos compensation bill shifted Libby's way late last week when the author of the bill agreed to additional provisions for Libby asbestos victims.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Penn., has included a manager's amendment in his Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act that essentially guarantees a complete "Libby fix" for asbestos victims linked to the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine near Libby.
The committee OK'd the amendment last Thursday and the bill could be voted out to the Senate floor as early as today. Dubbed the FAIR Act, the bill would create a $140 billion asbestos compensation fund financed by asbestos companies and their insurers.
"This is a very positive development," said Roger Sullivan, a Kalispell attorney whose firm represents more than 400 Libby asbestos victims. "Now we just need to keep our fingers crossed" that the bill passes.
Sullivan credited Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., for working relentlessly to get a full measure of compensation for Libby victims. Baucus has spent months monitoring the legislation to ensure that every person sickened by asbestos from the Libby mine gets at least $400,000 in compensation.
The tremolite asbestos linked to the Libby mine is more toxic than its commonplace cousin - chrysotile asbestos - and poses greater health problems to those exposed to it, Baucus argued.
Nevertheless, the Libby fix has been a contentious battle.
In January, an early version of the bill would have excluded more than 90 percent of Libby asbestos patients. By early April, Baucus got word that full coverage for Libby victims was back in the bill. Two weeks later, the Libby provision was watered down because bill sponsors were concerned about the potential for overcompensating some Libby victims.
The latest amendment will allow the use of pulmonary function tests such as a diffusion capacity test that estimate show efficiently the lungs are able to transfer oxygen from the air into the bloodstream.
"There's been an argument you shouldn't use this test, but we were hoping to keep it in the bill," Sullivan said. "It happens to be a pulmonary function test that's a good indicator for Libby victims."
Claimants will be entitled to $400,000 if they have evidence of total lung capacity, forced vital capacity or diffusion capacity less than 80 percent. New language in the bill also eliminates a requirement that pleural thickening be 5 millimeters or greater, another win for Libby victims, Sullivan said, because many patients die before the thickening reaches that size, roughly the thickness of an orange rind.
The latest amendment also includes a Libby "step up" provision that bumps compensation to $850,000 if the pulmonary function tests show lung capacity of less than 50 percent.
"I think it is really important to recognize that the needs of Libby residents have only been considered in asbestos litigation reform negotiations because Max Baucus had the foresight and the ability to bring this to the attention of Congress again and again," Missoula lawyer Milton Datsopoulos said in a prepared release. He also represents Libby asbestos victims.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com