Litigation related to asbestos injuries and property damages has been claimed to be the longest-running mass tort in U.S. history, involving more than 8,000 defendants and 700,000 claimants. Since asbestos-related disease has been identified by the medical profession in the late 1920s, workers' compensation cases were filed and resolved in secrecy, with a flood of litigation starting in the United States in the 1970s, and culminating in the 1980s and 1990s. Current trends indicate that the rate at which people are diagnosed with asbsestos-related disease will likely increase through the next decade. Analysts have estimated that the total costs of asbestos litigation in the USA alone will eventually reach $200 to $275 billion. The amounts and method of allocating compensation have been the source of many court cases, and government attempts at resolution of existing and future cases.