Congressman Bruce Vento was always considered a champion of the working man. He also knew that consensus building was difficult in his line of work. From six years in the Minnesota Legislature and 24 years in the U.S. Congress, he realized that opposing opinions would always have difficulty working towards common goals, no matter the relevance of their differences.

As a champion of worker and environmental rights, Mr. Vento would have been proud to see the passage of the federal ban on nearly all asbestos containing products on October 4th. While a general ban has been in place for the last quarter-century, the widespread ban was on all asbestos-containing products (classified by federal regulations as products which contain 1% or more asbestos) passed by the U.S. Senate unanimously. It was a victory for Mr. Vento. It was victory for bipartisan cooperation.

Asbestos has been named as the only cause of a rare and aggressive form of cancer, mesothelioma. In addition to mesothelioma, asbestos can cause other respiratory difficulties.

Mr. Vento was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2000, nearly 40 years after his employment in asbestos –laden factories to finance his way through college. Mr.Vento would lose his own battle with mesothelioma in 2001, just ten months after diagnosis. Though throughout his battle, he continued to fight for more stringent worker protection.

The bill includes further funding for research into a largely unfunded cause. While the Mesothelioma Applied Research Grant has provided nearly $4 million in grants for the study of this rare affliction, the new bill will augment their contributions with annual contributions of over $10 million.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.