WASHINGTON - In a letter sent to U.S. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Dirk Van Dongen, president of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), voiced his strong opposition to S. 2290, the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act." The legislation is designed to resolve the growing asbestos litigation problem by creating a trust fund - paid into by manufacturers, distributors, and others involved in asbestos lawsuits - which would then pay the claims of injured parties.
Van Dongen stated in his letter, "The trust fund approach adopted in S. 2290 suffers from the same weakness that plagued its predecessor in S. 1125, the ‘Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2003.' Many wholesaler-distributors and others face larger out-of-pocket asbestos-related costs under S. 2290 than they do under the tort system now in place.