CHARLESTON — An analysis done by Washington-based consulting group KCIC found that in the first quarter of 2021, lung cancer filings have seen a 29% increase compared to the first quarter of 2020.
The analysis found that Kanawha County has seen a 360% increase, while St. Clair County, Ill. saw a 72% increase and St. Louis, Mo., saw a 74% increase. Mesothelioma filings, however, have decreased by 5% since the first quarter of 2020.
Non-malignant filings are also up this year, 59% higher than the first quarter of 2020, but still 32% less than they were in 2019.
Through April 30, mesothelioma cases are 25.7% more in 2021, lung cancer cases are up 29.3%, other cancer cases are up 24.7%, non-malignant cases are up 27.1% and unknown disease cases are up 33.1% for a total of 27.4%.
In 2020, the Kanawha County docket had a 28.8% decrease from the previous year. Kanawha County had 69 new filings, after having 97 in 2019 and 97 in 2018. In Kanawha County's 2020 asbestos filings, 41 were lung cancer cases, while in 2019, 60 were lung cancer cases and in 2018, 61 were lung cancer cases, bringing the change from 2019 to 2020 a decrease of 31.7%.
The 2020 analysis said the average number of defendants in Kanawha County is 192 — the most on the list of top 15 jurisdictions. Allegheny, Pa., was next with 159, while New Castle, Del., had the least with 24.
Nationally, asbestos cases decreased by 11 percent in 2020, compared to the previous year. with 3,685 filings in 2020 compared to 4,137 in 2019.
While the total number of mesothelioma cases decreased 14 percent, the percentage of total filings made up by mesothelioma claims only decreased 2 percent from 52 percent of 2019 filings to 50 percent of 2020 filings. In 2020, lung cancer claims made up 40.3 percent of the filings, compared to 33 percent in 2019.
The analysis found that there was a more dramatic decrease from what was filed in March and April 2018 and 2019 than what was filed in March and April 2020.