Via America’s Lawyer: Most people in the United States are under the impression that our government banned the use of asbestos decades ago, but the truth is that’s a lie. Asbestos is still widely used in many objects that you use every single day and to make things worse, the amount of asbestos that we import into this country has doubled in the last two years. Mike Papantonio, host of America’s Lawyer, discusses this with Farron Cousins.
I remember a BBC program in the 1970's where it looked into where British asbestos company lawyers were forced in court to release letters they had sent to an asbestos company directors saying how they could drag out the court cases of plaintiffs long enough for them to die. The plaintiffs did die and this meant that other employees who were had asbestosis weren't able to push their claims through court successfully as well. No director or lawyer got sent to prison or was fined, but the company moved its operations to Africa and India instead.
The BBC journalist then went to those countries to check the companies and he saw workers walking about in inches of asbestos dust with no protective equipment or breathing masks. He asked them whether they knew asbestos was dangerous and they said they had heard it was but they had no choice but to work there as they had children to feed. They also said they wanted to send their children to good schools and universities so they wouldn't have to work in a place like this. The journalist showed photographs to the British company director who seemed genuinely surprised and then safety equipment was sent to the factories.
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