Because of its good fire-retardant capabilities, asbestos was widely used in manufacturing, construction and shipbuilding industries until the early 1970s.

Between 1940 and 1979, an estimated 27 million people in the United States are believed to have been exposed to asbestos through their work.

The material was identified later as the cause of the deadly cancer mesothelioma, as well as a variety of other cancers, and the lung disease asbestosis.

More than half a million asbestos-related claims by 2001 had been filed since the early 1980s, and that figure was expected to double as as more litigants come forward.

Claims for compensation and personal injury have since become the longest-running mass tort litigation in US history.

There is no national registry of asbestos claims or lawsuits, nor any official calculation of the total amount of money spent to resolve asbestos claims, making predictions difficult.

But by using aggregate data and information from lawyers and insurance companies involved with asbestos cases, a study done in 2001 calculated that US insurers had paid out about $21.6 billion until that time, and five corporations alone had spent more than $1 billion apiece on asbestos litigation costs.