Aug. 09, 2004 - 19:43 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Thinking about it

For so many years asbestos has been considered to be the works of the wicked witch of the west.

There is an editorial in today's Rocky Mountain News, in part:

The 'scruples deficit' in asbestos suits

"Until now, no one has been able to implicate with much certainty the role played by medical professionals in the asbestos debacle. But a study published last week in Academic radiology casts a massive shadow of doubt on the ethics of the so-called "expert witness" physicians who make their living interpreting chest X-Rays and telling juries that plaintiffs have suffered asbestos-related injuries."

"The study was the brainchild of David M. Setter, an asbestos-defense attorney at the Denver firm Socha, Perczak, Setter & Anderson. A 20-year veteran of the product-liability wars, Setter was concerned about a recurring pattern in which plaintiff's lawyers were retaining the same handful of doctors over and over to examine and interpret X-rays entered as evidence in asbestos lawsuits. Would the results be similar, he wondered, if the same claims were evaluated on an independent basis ?"

"In late 2001, Setter relayed his concerns to Otha Linton, a former executive at the American College of Cardiology. Linton, along with three researchers at Johns Hopkins University, devised the study and selected a panel of six radiologists and pulmonologists certified to read X-rays. They re-examined 492 previously read X-rays, but found possible exposure to asbestos on a significant level in only 4.5 percent of the cases. Compare that with the 95.9 percent level found by experts commissioned by various plaintiff's lawyers."

"Of this glaring disparity one of the co-authors of the study, Dr. Robert Gitlin, a public-health physician and expert on medical imaging, said, "Differences between two honest well-trained experts often occur but the differences are rarely large." "In this study," he said, "The magnitude of difference in the interpretation is far beyond the normal range of scientific error."

"In other words, when it comes to asbestos litigation there seems to be a scruples deficit among some of the physicians hired by the plaintiffs' bar to interpret X-rays. Indeed, an accompanying editorial in American Radiology by two well-known radiologists, Murray Janower and Leonard Berlin, said the study contains data that is as disquieting as it is startling. They called for further investigations and said other measures may be necessary to "restore integrity" to the profession."

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I have no doubt that asbestos has been the culprit in many cases, causing disability and/or death. My brother-in-law and I discussed this at some length. He was on a battleship in World War Two and worked in the boiler room. When repairs were necessary down there, often asbestos was floating in the air. The rest of his work life was spent working in a refinery where the lagging on pipes and boilers was asbestos also and subject to being torn off pipes and boilers during repair. In my case, ten years in a power plant with occasional repairs putting asbestos in the air and yearly shutdowns of each of the three units would create amost a bizzard of asbestos floating from all levels down through the gratings. He and I thought that perhaps people were sensitive to asbestos in varying degrees. He and I grew up in an era where asbestos was commonly used in many things, could be bought in hardware stores for various purposes by home owners, underneath the big heating stove in the living rooms would be a pad of metal clad asbestos, various asbestos pads to put on the gas burners of kitchen ranges. Walking by a shop doing brake related work on rolling stock of any kind, there would be the truing up procedure by a grinder that would put bits of asbestos in the air surrounding the area. I don't know what brake linings are made of now, but back then asbestos was claimed to be a big ingredient in brake linings. Asphaltic shingles were said to contain asbestos too. In recent times floor tile had asbestos as well as some of the light fiber ceilings hung over offices and classrooms.

Anybody remember Johns-Manville ? They were big in asbestos once.

The editorial quotes some figures that are interesting. Quote -- "More than 100,000 new asbestos claims were filed last year, most of which involved plaintiffs who suffer no impairment from asbestos." "Some 80 companies have already been pushed into bankruptcy from such claims, and with cases clogging the courts the truly sick aren't getting the compensation they deserve. The Rand Institute found that in the 1990s victims received only 43 percent of the money paid out in claims." -- Unquote

I wish it were possible for me to come up with a solution that would be fair to all, doesn't seem feasible for me to do it though. Could it be that the academic medical groups could come up with a better certification board than exists now ?

One thing I am certain in my own mind is that the truly afflicted in this asbestos thing as well as many other sufferers from other causes hold on for many years, finally expiring before they get any assistance. Yet the lawyers with their high percentage pursue the buck. In my time and knowledge 30 percent was pretty high for a case. Wonder how much of that money was spent hiring the experts in the asbestos matter ? Like so many other things I'm still Thinking About It . . . . . . . .

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