Asbestos and towers

EDITOR:

Yes, indeed, Sept. 11 is a day for remembrance that not unlike past similar events shall pass into an unacknowledged place in memory, plus our children's textbooks. The onset of violent attacks found their origin in the 6th Century A.D., proceeded on until Sept. 11, 1663, when the Ottoman Empire was stopped at the gates of Munich. Their resolve has not, however, abated as they search for weakness. Part of their effort can be called Jihad by stealth - no bombs or bullets - but as one British writer pointed out, they look for weakness that the Clinton Administration gave them. That of course, shall continue to be in debate.

There is one other aspect of the vicious attack, however, that gets no attention, and that is the failure to coat the structures with the asbestos solution that the design called for. The designer of the solution, while walking past the completed structures, told a Harvard professor that any major fire above the 30th floor would now destroy the structure. It did.

I served in WWII combat aboard the battleship Maryland from May 1941 on, and I recall that after 1942 we never lost another carrier to fire because of the application of the asbestos solution. As a matter of fact, I recall the carrier Franklin that was seriously damaged by Kamikazes, but the absence of widespread fire by reason of the asbestos application prevented total destruction. The carrier came alongside the Maryland and we gave her some fuel to permit limping back to Wake Island.

But to the matter of asbestos, it is an environmentally friendly substance first used by the ancient Greeks. Well, some bubblehead wrote a book condemning the substance as a killer while ignoring the fact that excess of most anything, including water, aspirin, and don't forget smoking, can also cause death. I spent over 40 years working claims for insurers, from field adjuster until i retired 24 years ago as regional litigation manager. And that experience, of course, put me in constant conflict with the shysters of the plaintiff's bar. About 30-35 years ago, some inventive lawyer was retained by a 68-year-old, three-pack a day smoker who was in obvious distress. But the lawyer chose not to sue any tobacco company.

Instead, he carved out of whole cloth a cause of action against the asbestos producers, and since this was fertile new territory, he had a leg up on defense counsel. Defense lawyers do not have emotional issues with which to support their no-liability causes, because they can only deal with factual issues and the laws that govern them. Juries inevitably are swayed emotionally, losing sight of the fundamental base for a cause in tort. This man, who was dying from smoking, won his case. The result was an abominable dollar verdict, and lawyers across the nation, who read the case, picked it up and ran with it, and with paid for medical testimony. Well, that first bad verdict case let to the utterly and infamous condemnation of an environmentally friendly substance - asbestos. That first case involving asbestos may well have triggered the destruction of the World Trade Towers. No, I do not know that to be a fact, but the failure to take protective measures during construction raises some legitimate questions.

Vernon M. Latshaw

Minden