It's interesting to note a similar laissez faire attitude regarding toxicity happening right here at home, and vicariously coming from a familiar source: truth and justice's evil twin, US "Vice President" Dick Cheney.
As CEO of oil-field services company Halliburton, Cheney engineered the purchase of a number of companies which later got hit with asbestos-related claims, a liability that is now estimated will run Halliburton $2.2 billion over the next 15 years. Cheney has pushed for legislation limiting workers' rights to file claims for asbestos-related illnesses, but he is not alone in the fight - 250 of the world's largest corporations recently petitioned the US Supreme Court to make it harder for victims to sue.
With the number of claims in the hundreds of thousands and rising every day, however, it is clear the asbestos time-bomb can't be denied. Fred Baron, a Dallas-based trial lawyer representing asbestos victims, has said "there will be a jihad" against those individuals and corporations trying to limit a victim's right to sue, and adds "we will fight them with everything we've got."
At issue are toxic dangers (at home and abroad) linked by governmental and corporate denial regarding their deadly effects on the population. But the hazards and suffering toxicity brings can no longer be relegated to some unacknowledged separate world; we must expose our hidden bombs for what they are, then demand justice for those afflicted and fight to prevent new casualties.
Heather Wokusch
http://www.heatherwokusch.com
As CEO of oil-field services company Halliburton, Cheney engineered the purchase of a number of companies which later got hit with asbestos-related claims, a liability that is now estimated will run Halliburton $2.2 billion over the next 15 years. Cheney has pushed for legislation limiting workers' rights to file claims for asbestos-related illnesses, but he is not alone in the fight - 250 of the world's largest corporations recently petitioned the US Supreme Court to make it harder for victims to sue.
With the number of claims in the hundreds of thousands and rising every day, however, it is clear the asbestos time-bomb can't be denied. Fred Baron, a Dallas-based trial lawyer representing asbestos victims, has said "there will be a jihad" against those individuals and corporations trying to limit a victim's right to sue, and adds "we will fight them with everything we've got."
At issue are toxic dangers (at home and abroad) linked by governmental and corporate denial regarding their deadly effects on the population. But the hazards and suffering toxicity brings can no longer be relegated to some unacknowledged separate world; we must expose our hidden bombs for what they are, then demand justice for those afflicted and fight to prevent new casualties.
Heather Wokusch
http://www.heatherwokusch.com