(Releads with asbestos ban, adds manufacturers' comment and other details)
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Thursday he had agreed to banning the use of asbestos in the United States as part of a bill to reform the asbestos liability system.
Hatch, a Utah Republican, consented to the asbestos ban as he continued to court labor and Democratic support for his bill to curb asbestos lawsuits by setting up a national $108 billion trust fund for paying claims.
Hatch said the Judiciary Committee would vote next Tuesday to approve the asbestos ban -- which would have some exemptions -- along with several other provisions agreed by himself and the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
There were still wide differences of opinion on some issues, including what medical criteria should be used to determine eligibility for compensation, Hatch said. Still, he hoped the committee could give the bill final approval soon.
"I am hopeful and I believe we should be able to get it done next week," he said.
Asbestos was widely used for fireproofing and insulation until the 1970s, when scientists concluded that inhaled fibers could be linked to cancer and other diseases.
Hundreds of thousands of asbestos claims clogging U.S. courts have driven more than 60 companies into bankruptcy. Hatch's proposal would take claims out of the courts and use the fund, supported by industry and businesses, to pay them.
MURRAY PUSHED ASBESTOS BAN
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat who has been pushing for an asbestos ban, says some 13,000 metric tonnes were used in the United States in 2001, in products such as roofing materials, gaskets, and brake pads.
The ban, as described by Hatch, would prohibit the manufacture, distribution and importation of consumer products to which asbestos is deliberately or knowingly added. The bill would have some exemptions and allow an administrator to grant more exemptions, he said, without elaborating on them.
Michael Baroody, the executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said "not very many" companies use asbestos now.
A ban is "a concept we could conceivably support," he told Reuters. "We need to know how the exemptions are drawn."
Leahy said he was committed to getting a consensus asbestos bill "if possible," but more progress needed to be made.
If asbestos liability was being capped for companies and insurers, Leahy said, then certainty also had to be given to victims that the fund being set up would not run out of money.
"The money cannot simply dry up and victims be left holding the bag." said Leahy.
Hatch said he and Leahy agreed insurance payments would not reduce payouts from the fund -- addressing a major complaint of victims -- and that its awards would be indexed to inflation.
They also agreed to strike a proposed 1982 cutoff date for exposure to asbestos, and to ensure that claimants from Libby, Montana, who have been made ill by an asbestos mine there, will be compensated from the fund.