GLSM – A good environmental and human rights story about the response to asbestos-related diseases

Richard Laster is Professor of Environmental Law & Policy at Hebrew University in, Jerusalem. He is also a practicing attorney at Laster & Gouldman Law Offices and was for many years Israel’s only full-time environmental lawyer. He has been involved in many cases and environmental projects particularly concerning environmental health and water.

The good legal story
Richard tells a good environmental and human rights story about the response to asbestos-related diseases in Nahariya, in Israel. Working first with the workers and workers’ families at an international asbestos factory, Richard was instrumental in securing appropriate medical care and insurance compensation for those who had been exposed to asbestos at the factory. He then began working with the broader community to ensure that asbestos was covered or removed from other public spaces, a movement which eventually spread throughout Israel and involved administrative, legislative, and judicial action at all levels of Israeli government.