Industry Says Proposed Victim Compensation Bills Are Premature

Abstract

Several weeks ago, the Chemical Manufacturers Association announced a $1 million research effort that it hopes will better illuminate what is known and what needs to be known about public health problems linked to hazardous waste disposal sites. The effort is entirely altruistic. The chemical industry faces the potential of paying out millions, perhaps billions, of dollars in damages to people who in court claim they were harmed by chemicals leaking from landfill sites. Or, the industry may be taxed to support an administrative fund set up to pay such claims. Several so-called victim compensation bills containing one or both of these provisions have been introduced in Congress. The chemical industry argues that enactment of pending proposals would be precipitious. Testifying in June before the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation & Tourism, Du Pont's medical official Bruce W. Karrh said the industry had not seen evidence of a significant health problem ...