Kansas City, Missouri - A proposed bill in the Missouri State senate might just assist mesothelioma patients in obtaining more and better workman’s compensation for their pain and suffering if their disease was caused by asbestos exposure on-the-job, reports an article in the Lake Expo, but it will also take away their right to sue employees for their negligence.
Legislation known as Senate Bill #1 is making its way through the state government, dealing with a number of issues including one that will specifically impact those who’ve developed mesothelioma because of occupational exposure.
“The bill clearly defines ‘occupational diseases due to toxic exposure’ and requires that they be covered under workman’s compensation benefits,” state representative Ray McCarty recently told a group of business persons gathered for a meeting in the Lake of the Ozarks area. He explained that the bill would prevent employees from suing their employers over diseases such as mesothelioma.
However, McCarty points out that certain provisions in the bill would provide more and larger workers’ comp payments to individuals with mesothelioma, asbestosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (or “black lung disease”), and seven other ailments. Victims of mesothelioma, for example, would receive 300 percent of the state’s average wage for 191 weeks.
Though Missouri governor Jay Nixon was at first resistant to signing the bill, changes to the original language caused a change of heart and the governor, whose family has been affected by mesothelioma cancer, is now expected to sign the bill after it passes through both the house and the senate. Many individuals are concerned, however, that this bill will prevent victims from suing for much-deserved compensation.
For decades, employees in a variety of occupations were regularly exposed to dangerous asbestos materials while on-the-job. Individuals employed as construction workers, auto mechanics, electricians, pipe fitters, insulation workers, and in a variety of other jobs have long been prime candidates for developing mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. As mesothelioma has a long latency period, many of these individuals are still being diagnosed today, despite the fact that asbestos use was generally halted at the end of the 1970s.
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