Asbestos

For the off-road warriors of Northern and Central California, few wild landscapes are as enticing as the Clear Creek Management Area, with its deep canyons, scampering feral pigs, rainbow-hued flowers and giant rock formations. But on Thursday, a 48-square-mile swath of the Diablo Mountains in San Benito and Fresno counties was labeled a virtual death zone where five visits a year over three decades could lead to lung cancer and other crippling diseases.

Building materials maker James Hardie Industries was sued Wednesday by Australian securities regulators over its handling of compensation for people sickened by asbestos in its products. Hardie's operational headquarters are in Mission Viejo, although it is incorporated in the Netherlands. It was founded in Australia more than a century ago.

In the beginning, Los Angeles' first modern skyscraper won acclaim. Then, the Sunset-Vine Tower somehow turned into the city's most cursed landmark. Some of its problems were real. An electrical explosion in 2001 burned out its entire power system. There was a surprise lockout of its tenants by city officials. Squatters took over the 20-story building and turned it into what some called "the world's biggest crack house." Others were imaginary.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo announced Tuesday that he has filed criminal charges against prominent downtown Los Angeles developer Meruelo Maddux Properties, accusing the firm of improperly removing and disposing of asbestos-tainted material from an industrial complex. Named in the 16-count complaint is the company and its president, John Charles Maddux, and project managers John Durham and John Horrigan.

Teachers at an Orange County high school asked Fullerton school board members Tuesday to adopt new procedures to ensure that students and teachers are not threatened by renovations to remove asbestos from buildings. The educators said they were concerned about the long-term health effects of what they said was a sloppy removal of asbestos from two schools last fall, undertaken without notifying parents and teachers, and in one case, in the same building where students were taking classes.

Travelers Cos. said Friday that it would settle one of its largest asbestos cases for $449 million. The St. Paul-based commercial insurer settled the case with ACandS Inc., which installed insulation with asbestos from 1958 to 1974 and was insured by Travelers. Travelers said it would pay $365 million of the settlement and reinsurers would cover $84 million. Travelers said its portion would come from its asbestos reserves without hurting earnings.

Trace amounts of asbestos were found in the dust and muddy debris that rained down on people fleeing a steam pipe explosion, but city officials said Thursday that the exposure posed very little health risk to those caught in the fallout. Citing environmental tests by the city and the utility Con Edison, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought to allay the chief fear among those who were near the blast: exposure to cancer-causing asbestos that was used to insulate the 83-year-old pipe.

Owens Corning filed a new bankruptcy reorganization plan aimed at wiping out the company's estimated $10.2 billion in asbestos liabilities. The plan, filed Saturday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., offers those claiming injuries from Owens Corning's asbestos-laden products cash and stock in the reorganized company in exchange for their claims. Owens Corning sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2000 after being swamped by asbestos lawsuits.

A painstaking effort to end years of litigation over cancer-causing asbestos survived a procedural hurdle on Tuesday in the Senate, paving the way for a floor debate over a $140-billion plan to compensate victims outside the courtroom. By a vote of 98 to 1, lawmakers agreed to move forward with the plan to create the compensation fund, designed to stem a tide of litigation that dates back to the 1970s and continues to rise. "It's not been easy to get to the point where we are," said Sen.

The Senate rejected a new plan Tuesday to compensate asbestos victims, apparently dooming a proposed $140-billion fund that would have handled claims now battled out in court. Under the legislation, asbestos makers and their insurers would have contributed to a trust fund to pay claims for illnesses in amounts from $25,000 to $1.1 million. But the measure faced attacks on several fronts.