HEALTH

Penalty Phase of Asbestos Case Goes to Jury: A jury in Baltimore is deciding whether six sample plaintiffs in the nation’s largest asbestos-related personal injury trial deserve millions of dollars in damages. Baltimore Circuit Judge Marshall A. Levin turned the penalty phase of the trial over to jurors after lawyers concluded their arguments. The jury last week found the six remaining asbestos manufacturers and distributors in the case negligent and thus liable for damages. Most of the trial’s 8,555 plaintiffs worked as steelworkers, pipe fitters, shipbuilders and other craftsmen. They contend that cancers, lung diseases and other illnesses they suffer are the result of workplace exposure to asbestos.