Asbestos: The Current Situation in Europe

Although the worldwide insurance market is used to thinking of asbestos as a “US problem”, it was used widely around the world. It is clear that European-sourced asbestos costs are now emerging as social and insurance issues. There are increasing numbers of academic and governmental studies of the problem, as well as relevant legal developments, both within individual countries and for the European Union.

We will concentrate our analysis on the following countries: UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Our analysis will focus on: source of claims, the legal environment, emergence (how many claims have been reported/paid to date), exposure statistics, what is indemnified, who is paying, and how much on average these claims cost. Where possible we have tried to provide comparable data. However, there are significant differences between the legal and data compilation systems of the various countries.

Keywords: Latent claims, asbestos, occupational diseases, crocidolite, amosite, chrysolite, asbestosis, mesothelioma, pleura damages, Europe.