Washington, D.C. – An interactive map published by EWG Action Fund shows that Texas, home to four members of Congress who are pushing legislation to delay and deny compensation to victims of asbestos-related disease, has one of the highest numbers of asbestos-related deaths in the country.

Clicking Texas on the map reveals that collectively, Harris, Dallas and Jefferson counties counted nearly 3,000 asbestos deaths from 1999 to 2013, with Harris accounting for the most by far – 1,728 deaths.

“The legacy of asbestos in Texas is a tragic example of how this deadly substance, once widely used in the state’s shipbuilding and oil and gas industries, has and continues to destroy lives and devastate families,” said Alex Formuzis of EWG Action Fund.

Although the exact death toll from asbestos remains unknown 50 years after a landmark study definitively established the mineral’s lethal effects, EWG Action Fund’s research recently provided the most accurate nationwide estimates to date of its deadly toll. It found that currently 12,000 to 15,000 Americans a year die of asbestos-related diseases.

EWG Action Fund also found that over the 1999-2013 period, nearly 12,000 residents of Texas died of asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma and asbestosis.

It is ironic, then, that four Republican members from Texas are actively promoting the so-called FACT Act, which would throw up legal and administrative roadblocks for asbestos victims seeking reparations from the corporations that sickened them, as well as putting them at greater risk of identity theft by disclosing their sensitive personal information on the Internet. The members are Reps. Blake Farenthold (27^th District), who sponsored the legislation, Lamar Smith (21^st District), Ted Poe (2^nd District) and John Ratcliffe (4^th District).

The FACT Act is the brainchild of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Legislative Exchange Council. The legislation would deplete dwindling trust funds that were set up to compensate victims of asbestos-related disease and require them to place on public websites such personal information as their medical conditions, work history and a portion of their Social Security numbers.

Farenthold, Smith, Poe and Ratcliffe have collectively hauled in nearly $850,000 in campaign contributions from asbestos interests – including from political action committees established by asbestos companies and their trade associations and from their executives or other high-level employees. The companies could save millions of dollars if the legislation becomes law.

The legacy of asbestos has hit Texas particularly hard because it was widely used in a number of industries that have had large footprints in the state, such as shipbuilding, transportation and oil and gas.

“Those elected to Congress to represent the interests of the citizens of Texas should be advancing legislation that protects their constituents instead of causing them harm,” Formuzis added. “Reps. Farenthold, Smith, Poe and Ratcliffe have received large amounts of cash from asbestos interests, but they should remember that it was the voters in their districts who sent them to Washington.”

EWG Action Fund arrived at its estimates of deaths by combining federal records on deaths from two diseases caused only by asbestos with a projected number of lung cancer deaths attributable to asbestos, derived by a method developed by international asbestos experts.

According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, “There is no ‘safe’ level of asbestos exposure for any type of asbestos fiber. Asbestos exposures as short in duration as a few days have caused mesothelioma in humans.”

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 EWG Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that is a separate sister organization of the Environmental Working Group. The mission of EWG Action Fund is to protect health and the environment by educating the public and lobbying on a wide range of environmental issues. Donations to EWG Action Fund are not tax-deductible.