Mesothelioma Attorneys
James Hardie accused of evading asbestos liability
|
|
James Hardie, the former Australian building products giant now based in the Netherlands, today reported a bumper half-yearly profit of $94 million. Shareholders might be pleased, but it’s a profit critics say is immoral and should be illegal. Thousands of Australians who worked for James Hardie and other asbestos companies, or used asbestos fibro in their home or workplace, are now dead or dying from exposure to the deadly asbestos, and tens of thousands more are predicted to die. Hardie stopped using asbestos 17 years ago. Two years ago, it cast aside its former asbestos subsidiaries, placing them in the control of a foundation, which it said would have enough money to compensate all its asbestos victims into the future. Now the foundation says there’s nowhere near enough money. More : abc.net.au |
Related Articles from Attorney for Mesothelioma
James Hardie has moral obligation to pay up: Combet
TONY EASTLEY: While the Inquiry found that James Hardie is now not legally obliged to pay compensation, it did conclude that James Hardie has a moral obligation to do so. And the man who will have a large say in determining that compensation is ACTU Secretary, Greg Combet. I spoke to him just a short while ago. Greg Combet, as far as you're concerned, what is needed now in terms of providing proper compensation for asbestos victims? GREG COMBET: Well the solution is quite simple really and it always has been. And that is that James Hardie should essentially underwrite for Medical Research and
James Hardie shirking moral obligations: Combet
A special fund set up by the James Hardie Company to pay its asbestos victims seems well short of the what it needs to be to look after many thousands of future sufferers of asbestosis and mesothelioma. As a result, the trustees of this fund are worried they could be personally liable in coming years for not holding back enough money to look after future victims. This could lead to the fund - known as the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation - being frozen or the payments to existing victims being severely reduced. To stop this, this Friday the trustees will ask the
Asbestos: The Fibro Legacy
Welcome to Background Briefing on ABC Radio National. I’m Stephen Skinner. Asbestos. It used to be the wonder fibre found in a multitude of products, but now it’s a dirty word. Asbestos was this year finally banned in Australia, yet the story’s far from over. More than 500 people a year are dying from mesothelioma, a terrible cancer of the chest cavity caused almost solely by asbestos. The deaths won’t even peak until late this decade. And don’t think asbestos is a killer just for ageing blue-collar workers. Who knows how many young home renovators are still being fatally exposed to dust
Asbestos: What price a life?
HAMISH ROBERTSON: How much monetary value do you place on a human life? Well that's the question being asked, as a special commission investigates how to compensate tens of thousands of Australians facing terrible deaths after exposure to asbestos. The inquiry is focusing on the behaviour of building company James Hardie, which failed to leave sufficient funds to compensate victims of its products when it moved offshore three years ago. But there is a wider issue: why is compensation in Australia for people dying of asbestos-related diseases so low? Our Finance Correspondent Stephen Long prepared this report NICK'S FRIEND 1: This boat, Nick, did you
Cancer linked to polio vaccine used in the 50s and 60s
HAMISH ROBERTSON: Now to new claims this morning linking the deadly cancer mesothelioma to a commercial organisation. But in this case it's not James Hardie that's under the spotlight, but the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories. An investigation by the Age Newspaper has revealed that millions of batches of polio vaccine used in Australia in the 1950s and 60s were contaminated with the monkey virus SV40. The virus has an as yet undetermined link with mesiothelioma. It is present in the cancerous cells, but no one yet knows if it's a cause, a contributor, or simply a passenger. Australia has the highest incidence of