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Senators advance asbestos compensation plan
By Los Angeles Times
February 8, 2006
WASHINGTON - A painstaking effort to end years of litigation over cancer-causing asbestos survived a procedural hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday, paving the way for a floor debate over a $140 billion plan to compensate victims outside the courtroom.
By a 98-1 vote, lawmakers agreed to move forward with the plan to create the compensation fund, designed to stem a tide of litigation that dates back to the 1970s and continues to rise.
Throughout the day, the asbestos bill appeared in danger.
But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ultimately chose not to challenge the Republicans who wanted to bring it up.
Asbestos has been used in insulation, brake linings, cement pipes and a long list of other materials, leading to widespread exposure.
Its negative health effects range from shortness of breath and coughing to a fatal cancer known as mesothelioma.
Advocates of the compensation plan say it is needed to defuse an increasingly costly wave of litigation and economic uncertainty faced by companies over lawsuits; at the same time, they say it would establish a new system to ensure that victims ...
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