The government has drafted an outline of a bill to provide financial aid to sufferers of asbestos-caused cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the membranes surrounding the lungs, and to bereaved family members of victims. The government hopes to have the Diet enact the bill next year.
Health damage from asbestos as well as worries about ill effects in the future are spreading nationwide. The fears have been touched off by revelations since June that the mineral has killed thousands of people over the past few decades.
Drafters of the bill thus far should be commended for covering sufferers not eligible for labor-accident compensation -- such as family members of workers who handled asbestos, people who lived near asbestos-related factories, asbestos-affected workers for whom the statute of limitations has expired, and family members of such workers who died five or more years ago.