From The BBC:
A “greedy scheming” insurance industry is plotting to deny asbestos victims their rightful compensation, according to the building industry union, UCATT.
UCATT’s head told the Labour Conference that 40 people a week die of lung cancer, triggered by asbestos exposure.
However, because the disease can take 30 years to develop, many people have retired by the time they fall ill, and thus do not have a current insurer.
Insurers rejected the claim, saying they were neither greedy nor scheming.
Legal row
Earlier this summer the insurance industry took a case to the High Court, to establish whether an insurer at the time a person was exposed to asbestos should be responsible for paying compensation for any resulting illness.
UCATT said that if the industry was successful with its case, then hundreds of asbestos victims would no longer receive compensation, saving itself billions in reduced claims.
The victims suffer incurable cancer of the lining of lungs, called mesothelioma.
“Vict…
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