SKorean court hands down damages in first asbestos lawsuit

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

SEOUL (AFP) — A South Korean court Tuesday ordered an asbestos manufacturer to pay 141,000 dollars in damages to a victim's relatives, in the country's first legal ruling on the cancer-causing material.

The court in the southern city of Daegu ruled in favour of the family of a worker who died years after working at a plant producing the toxic product, paving the way for other victims to win compensation.

"It is acknowledged that the accused, while being well aware of the health hazards of asbestos, failed to provide workers with protective gear," Judge Kim Se-Jong said in a statement.

The worker died of mesothelioma, a form of cancer, in October 2006 at the age of 46, about two years after being diagnosed with the disease. He had worked for the asbestos...