WASHINGTON -- Some of the nation's largest insurance companies knew for decades that asbestos could kill but didn't warn workers or take other measures that might have averted the nation's worst workplace health disaster, industry documents show. For years, dating to the 1930s, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. did not make public or downplayed research indicating that asbestos could cause lung cancer and other diseases. Travelers Insurance and other carriers measured asbestos levels in factory air samples for years and pooled data on the mounting numbers of claims on behalf of workers dead or sick from asbestos illnesses.
Posted by Editor at November 10, 2003 10:57 AM