Weitz & Luxenberg Supports National Asbestos Awareness Week

Underscores that Exposure is an Ongoing Health Risk

April 1, 2008, New York, NY— The recent news that W. R. Grace & Company agreed to pay the federal government $250 million for environmental cleanup of asbestos around its vermiculite mining operations in Libby, Montana, makes it all too plain the public’s ongoing risk of exposure to asbestos, and the need to raise awareness of asbestos diseases such as lung cancer and mesothelioma.

With this in mind, and in recognition of the United States Senate’s resolution designating the first week of April as National Asbestos Awareness Week, Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. congratulates the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), which proposed the legislation along with Senator Harry Reid, and continues to work toward informing communities about asbestos-related health risks.

“The ADAO has been highly effective in alerting the public to the dangers of asbestos. We join them in honoring the thousands who struggle with the health effects caused by asbestos exposure,” said Jessica Russell, an attorney with the Asbestos Litigation unit at Weitz & Luxenberg P.C.

Weitz & Luxenberg has been known since 1986 for its preeminent role in the prosecution of asbestos cases, last year securing a $37 million asbestos verdict in two lung cancer cases in a reverse bifurcated trial. The firm also won a $25 million jury verdict in 2006 in a trial against DaimlerChrysler AG for a New York City brake reliner who lost his right lung to mesothelioma. Successes reach as far back as 1991, when the firm won a historic consolidated trial for men who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the 1940s and 1950s. Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. represented 36 clients in that case, securing verdicts of $75 million. The firm represents tens of thousands of individuals suffering from asbestos related diseases.

Ms. Russell, having worked with numerous clients whose lives have been affected by asbestos, sees the imperative of raising public awareness. “The passage of the Senate Proclamation declaring the week of April 1, 2008 as ‘National Asbestos Awareness Week,’ is one tool in bringing the national crisis of the thousands of workers and families that have suffered catastrophic illnesses because of their exposure,” continued Ms. Russell.

The ADAO, founded in 2004, advocates for asbestos victims and families in order to raise public awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure and disease. The group held its annual Asbestos Awareness Conference in Detroit, where patients, families, medical professionals, researchers and legislators gathered to provide important information for their membership on topics including developments in the treatment of asbestos disease, public awareness campaigns and the current legislation seeking a complete ban of asbestos products in the United States.

People who have been harmed by asbestos may contact Weitz & Luxenberg by visiting the firm’s website at www.weitzlux.com.

About Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C.
Weitz & Luxenberg, founded in 1986, is one of the leading plaintiffs’ law firms in America. The firm has also played leading roles in national and local litigations involving asbestos, DES, silicone breast implants, medical malpractice, and general negligence, among others. A forerunner in the legal fight against environmental polluters, Weitz & Luxenberg has worked with clients harmed by MTBE and mercury, among other toxins. The firm has won numerous cases involving dangerous pharmaceuticals, including Vioxx, achieving a $13.5 million verdict against Merck & Co. The firm’s other active pharmaceutical litigations include actions against the manufacturers of Bextra, ReNu, Celebrex and Ortho Evra.

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