Barry Castleman Senate Statement, continued:

To this day, we are faced with scandals in government efforts to deal with public health asbestos problems, while companies involved in damage suits try to distort public policy to gin up trial court defenses for their historic failure to warn workers using asbestos products, such as asbestos brake shoes.

It is my hope that these companies, who now use little or no asbestos, will not oppose the asbestos ban just so they can go on using the argument that the asbestos products they used to sell are still legal for sale in the United States. If Ford and GM oppose an asbestos ban here as they face throughout Europe, they should tell us what they are selling in the U.S. now, what models of their new vehicles and replacement parts are still made with asbestos. And they should explain why this should be allowed to continue.

I testify as an expert witness in asbestos litigation, usually at the request of plaintiffs. This has given me access to corporate documents not available in public libraries. I tell juries about the corporate and public health history of asbestos, the subject of my doctoral thesis at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and an 894-page book, now in its 5th edition ("Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects"; Aspen, NY, 2005).