In November, I entered a diary that explained the symptoms of
the Katrina cough.
The malady was characterized as a cough that would not go away, not even after other cold symptoms ceased, and over-the-counter medications were useless in its treatment.
The Louisiana Weekly's political columnist Christopher Tidmore reported Monday that a bill in Congress, Senate Bill 852, coming up for passage in early February, will deny any survivor who contracts cancer from asbestos exposure post-Katrina restitution under the newly created Asbestos Trust Fund.
Because it just may be that the Katrina cough was caused by tons of asbestos that was shipped into Orleans Parish over the last couple of decades .
One such shipment, about 26 tons, happened to arrive in the city near Camp Street just days before Katrina hit.
Another case of environmental racism...
Tidmore related:
The proposed Senate Bill 852 would create the federal Asbestos Trust Fund. Its purpose ostensibly is to compensate asbestos victims by creating a trust fund financed by the corporations who were enriched by the production and sale of asbestos.
But not those who were victimized when the shipments were trucked or freight trained or stored near houses, schools, playgrounds in predominantly black areas of New Orleans without the knowledge of the residents. Only those who worked in the asbestos industry or worked in insulation or other related occupations.
I am not an expert on how asbestos might break down in water or how it weakens in homes after flooding or the mold that might develop. But this cough was definitely borne even in the breeze as cars and trucks went by empty, ravaged neighborhoods.
In Louisiana, it is known that 123,158 tons asbestos-laden ore were sent to three locations in New Orleans between 1948 and 1993 ([in close] proximity to neighborhoods, churches, schools, and businesses.) These [asbestos] plants typically "popped" or exfoliated the ore to produce vermiculite attic insulation and other products. This process produced a massive amount of asbestos-contaminated dust, very high workplace exposures, and significant airborne asbestos in the surrounding neighborhoods. The federal government (is currently conducting contamination assessments at the 28 largest factories that processed the ore, including the Zonolite Company site in New Orleans.
Moreover, returnees will run the risk of exposure to asbestos as they start the process of clean up and rebuilding.
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) sponsored the original Asbestos Trust Fund bill in early 2003 when it made its first appearance in the Senate as S.1125, the FAIR Act (Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution). S.1125 died a well-deserved death at the end of the 108th Congress only to be resurrected as S.852 in the 109th Congress.
It was Sen. Arlen Specter who took up sponsorship of S. 852 and got it through the Senate Judiciary Committee last May. Since then, the bill has stalled, but Sen. Bill Frist is determined to bring the bill into consideration after the Alito vote, possibly February 6. Dems, on the other hand, are likely to filibuster.
In essence, companies with asbestos liability would be shielded from further asbestos lawsuits by paying into a government administered $140 billion trust fund that would screen claimants through established medical criteria. Victims would be awarded compensation based on the severity of their illness. The bill would not cover victims of environmental and neighborhood exposure will be left out entirely, the predominant form in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Call your congresspeople. Tell them that Katrina survivors deserve redress and justice.