Asbestos is a commercial name for six minerals used extensively in industrial applications, especially during the 1940–70s. These minerals have been used in thousands of products, including insulation and fireproofing materials, automotive brakes, textile products, cement, and wallboard.

Exposure to asbestos, through inhalation of microscopic asbestos fibers, is linked to certain malignant and non-malignant diseases, including asbestosis (a respiratory illness), lung cancer, and mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the thin membrane that surrounds the lung and other internal organs). These diseases do not develop immediately following asbestos exposure. Many exposed people never develop an asbestos-related illness.

During the last three decades, hundreds of thousands of lawsuits and claims alleging asbestos-related disease have been filed nationwide. In the early 1990s, between 15,000 and 20,000 new lawsuits were filed each year. According to one estimate, the number of asbestos lawsuits pending in state and federal courts doubled in the 1990s, from approximately 100,000 to more than 200,000.