Despite the New York mayor’s assurance that workers on the World Trade Center 9/11 cleanup were in no danger, they have been contracting cancer and dying at startlingly high rates. The collapse of the towers released a thousand tons of asbestos into the air. U.S. manufacturers of asbestos products had already mostly gone out of business, bankrupted by claims of wrongful deaths. During their slide into insolvency, the companies set up trust funds for future mesothelioma claims. The fund currently totals $30 billion and legions of attorneys are eager to take up asbestosis suits. (Our company’s office was in the same building with a consulting economist. Most of his business derived from testifying as expert witness in asbestos lawsuits, calculating the economic loss of a victim’s early demise. He did well enough to own the building where we leased space.)
The U.S. is one of a few industrialized countries that has not banned asbestos. Asbestos activity is mostly limited to its removal. The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it will no longer evaluate the health risks of asbestos and what activities carry too much risk to allow. The current occupant of the White House went on record in 1997 on the subject:
“I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal. Great pressure was put on politicians, and as usual, the politicians relented.”
A Russian manufacturer sees good times ahead. It is proudly promoting its asbestos, boasting,
“Donald is on our side! … He supported the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who stated that his agency would no longer deal with negative effects potentially derived from products containing asbestos. Donald Trump supported a specialist and called asbestos ‘100% safe after application.’”
They feature The Donald’s visage on their product.
Asbestos use in the U.S. will likely still be problematic, however. In addition to lawsuits, insurance companies have been working for decades on impenetrable policy language that will exclude any coverage whatsoever for any asbestos-related claims.
In other restocking-the-swamp news, the current occupant of the White House boasted last year that his MAGA caps were proudly made in the U.S.A. Recently a manufacturer in China – yes, that China, the one we’re imposing tariffs on – announced that it had contracted to make thousands of flags for the 2020 reelection campaign.
