2001. The ART settlement was open, and made provision for compensation to any person who met the compensation criteria set out in the Trust deed, until the year 2028. Many companies agreed to compensate the workers which were exposed to asbestos in addition to the compensation payable under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act (ODMWA) The settlement included environmentally expose victims of ARDS. This settlement model was achieved by personal communication, Georgina Jephson, attorney at Richard Spoor Inc. Attorneys. The Trust provides compensation for people in these four categories related to Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARD) namely: (ARD1)- asbestosis / pleural thickening with mild to moderate (ARD2) -lung function impairment or with severe lung function impairment (ARD3) -asbestos-related lung cancer (ARD4) -mesothelioma A model by the ART estimated that about 16 800 individuals would submit claims to the Trust, of which approximately 5 036 (30%) would be successful. This was subsequently revised to 5 162. Of these, 219 (4.2%) would be environmental claimants, 150 (2.9%) would have lung cancer and 556 (10.8%) would have mesothelioma; the balance would have asbestosis and/or pleural thickening. No definitive figures were provided for the expected ARD1/ ARD2 ratio. The amounts payable for compensation vary, but the average amount of compensation since 2003 has been about R40 000, R80 000, R170 000 and R350 000 for each of the categories ARD 1-4 described above. These amounts are paid over and above any compensation that the claimants might receive under the ODMWA. In order for a case to be compensable, a victim needs to show that he/she was both exposed to asbestos from one of the operations run by the funders of the ART, and has a compensable disease. Health A lack of facilities for terminally ill mesothelioma sufferers results in a larger burden of service, according to Sister Phemelo Magabanyane, a palliative care nurse who has cared for over 100 mesothelioma and lung cancer sufferers in the greater Kuruman district in the Northern Cape. Mesothelioma is a life-threatening cancer of the pleura or peritoneum which can be diagnosed up to 40 years after exposure to asbestos. The aftermath South Africa has the highest prevalence of mesothelioma in the world. Richard Spoor, a lawyer who represented the claimants against Gencor says: "The environmental scale of the disaster we are seeing unfold in the Northern Cape is on a level with the nuclear disaster at