Will $US140 billion ($190 billion) be enough to pay for US asbestos victims, or will claimants soon eat their way through that? US senators, who have been debating the huge asbestos compensation fund for the past two years, seemed set to throw it all in last week when a new report said the $140 billion won’t be enough.

Washington DC economic consulting group Bates White released the special report last week, just as senators were discussing the possibility of hearing a bill to set the fund up as early as January.

“Under the plan, insurers and companies facing massive claims for asbestos exposure would pay into the fund.  But Bates White claims the fund would be gone within three years.