Asbestos
it regards all forms of asbestos as being carcinogenic, including white asbestos.
Diagnosis of asbestos-related conditions is one thing, but the legal implications are something else. Asbestos-related legal cases continue to roil through the US court system, racking up large sums in court-award compensation payments.
According to Ruxley Research, which publishes regular reports on the asbestos-related legal situation in the US, asbestos payments there increased during 2013 and show no sign of abating, continuing to defy the projected decline. The number of tobacco-related lung cancer cases being referred to the courts also continues to grow which, in turn, is increasing the risk of asbestos plaintiffs being implicated. In addition, the value of awards made by the courts continues to increase, adding to the upward pressure on the ultimate loss estimate.
“In many cases these suits are tried by jury,” says John Winter, chief
grandstanding which gives the perception the plaintiff is battling against ‘big heartless companies’.
“There have been a number of new asbestos-related cases being brought in the US and some plaintiffs are linking lung cancer with asbestos. Sometimes companies settle claims rather than pursue them to avoid huge legal expense,” he says.
“We are still seeing insurance claim reserves being increased to cover an increasing number of claims.”
While US insurance companies seem to be increasing their reserves to cope with the rise in these payments, European insurers do not seem to be under the same pressures, partly because of differences in legal systems.
According to an analysis carried out by Ruxley Research there has been no major change in the reserve strength of European insurers in the last year and the average European survival ratio for the companies analysed has remained stable for US asbestos liabilities in 2013, at around 23 years.
BEHIND THE CURVE European insurers need not give out a sigh of relief yet. The US may have to ban it and therefore is behind the US. Asbestos is in a lot of places all around us.
“In the UK building industry of the 1940s, 50s and 60s there wasn’t a lot of guidance on potential asbestos exposure,” says David Bearman, specialises in insurance for people dealing with asbestos.
“To remove asbestos these days you need a licence, you need to work to a set of stringent conditions. There are around 700 or 750 licensed contractors who can carry out this kind of asbestos removal.
“Because of the perceived exposure there are very few markets that can 40 | INTELLIGENT INSURER | November 2015
“The US may have pioneered asbestos, took longer to ban it and therefore is behind the US.”
give cover for asbestos-related exposures; we provide a scheme for those licensed contractors,” he says.
In one, during work on asbestos removal in a school a large amount of large claim and the loss of the licence on the part of the contractor.
“However, the exposure that people are not accounting for is in the general building trade. The UK Health & Safety Executive had a big push about asbestos safety a year ago, but that doesn’t stop building contractors going into derelict buildings, drilling through walls and everything else, potentially exposing themselves to asbestos that they didn’t know was there, as they’re not taking all the potential precautions.”
MANAGING THE RISK is and how much is there, and to ensure that full details are passed on to tenants or those contracted to remove it. There is no legal requirement to remove asbestos from a building, just to remove it under controlled and safe conditions, usually when it is being demolished.
“The UK housing associations, for example, have a massive asbestos
legacy issue, because most of their buildings were built in the 1940s, 50s bath panels to ceiling panels,” he says.
“There’s an educational issue involved with the general construction industry. An electrical contractor might be aware that in a riser cupboard there might be an asbestos insulation board, but a general labourer might not have any education at all of asbestos.
“It’s not just the construction industry, it’s the maintenance industry, it’s cleaners, even teachers.”
The number of deaths in the UK from asbestos-related conditions, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, is also still rising, as Bearman points out.
“It’s not peaking, it’s still a straight line upwards,” he says. “No-one can
really predict that it’s going to get better, because there’s so much asbestos out there still in buildings, and there’s a lack of general education about from teachers and pupils, to cleaners and maintenance people.
“Is the mortality graph going to curve? How long’s a piece of string? I think it will eventually go down, but it will take a lot longer than many people might think.”
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