HEALTH

Asbestos Settlement OKd: A federal judge has approved the $1.54-billion settlement of all past and future asbestos-related claims against Fibreboard Corp. The accord will allow Fibreboard to avoid bankruptcy, settle a dispute over insurance coverage and better compensate the injured than if “bled dry in the tort system,” Judge Robert M. Parker of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in his opinion. Parker was given the case in 1991, when thousands of asbestos-related suits around the nation were consolidated. Asbestos was used in insulation products for decades before being banned in the early 1970s, when it was linked to cancer and respiratory disease. Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Fibreboard and its predecessor companies manufactured building products that contained asbestos from 1928 to 1971.