Mesothelioma Fact

We hear a lot about how mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are caused by “microscopic” asbestos fibers. Easily inhaled, these tiny spear-like fibers of death become embedded into the delicate linings of the lung where, over time they can lead to scarring and eventually, mesothelioma cancer.

But how small is small?

This old advertisement from the infamous asbestos leader Johns-Manville shows how impossibly small asbestos fibers are: over 1500 of them bundled together are smaller than a human hair.

What is perhaps more astonishing then the relative size of asbestos fibers is the fact that their size was once a selling point for the global asbestos industry.

Asbestos

As the nation prepares to reflect upon the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a new report suggests a link between exposure to toxic chemicals released after New York’s World Trade Centercollapsed and the development of cancer in firefighters who toiled at ground zero.

The study, released in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that 9/11 firefighters are 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not at the Trade Center wreckage, according toThe New York Times.

Study leader Dr. David J. Prezant said the findings indicate an “increased likelihood for the development of any type of cancer” but noted that they were far from conclusive.

Toxic substances found at the site of the 9/11 attacks, such asasbestos and jet fuel, can trigger diseases that may take decades to develop, such as mesothelioma.

A portion of New York City was covered by a cloud of fine powder after the towers fell. A study released after the terrorist attacks by the Virginia firm HP Environmental reported that the powder creating this toxic cloud contained asbestos. In fact, the asbestos particles were so pulverized in the explosion that most were smaller than what could be detected by the EPA’s standard testing method. After adjusting the test to check smaller fiber concentrations, the study concluded that there was an “overwhelming concentration” of the ultrafine asbestos particles.

The 9/11 first responders, including firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel, “were exposed to a whole soup of carcinogens,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of. Dr. Landrigan is the director of environmental and occupational medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan and a leading expert on asbestos toxicity. He is also the principal investigator of a related report published in The Lancet on the health effects of the attacks on recovery and rescue workers.

However, Dr. James Melius, administrator of the New York StateLaborers’ Health and Safety Trust Fund and a peer reviewer of the firefighter study, warned that it “would probably not be enough to persuade federal officials to include cancer as one of the diseases covered under the Zadroga Act.”

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R. 847) was called into law by President Obama in 2010 and it statesthat those who have 9/11 related health conditions may be eligible for health care under this law.

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma and suspect you wereexposed to asbestos at ground zero, you may be entitled to financial compensation. To learn more about your legal options regarding a possible mesothelioma settlement, please contact an asbestoslawyer.

Asbestos

For the first time in 130 years, Canada’s asbestos mines are quiet. Finally.

The country has announced that production was halted at the Lac d’amiante du Canada operation in Thetford Mines, Quebec, following the closure of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, earlier this year. Financial and environmental issues were cited in the closure of each.

Once considered Canada’s Gold, asbestos has tarnished Canada’s legacy since some political leaders aggressively protect the deadly substance and support the industry’s expansion. To this day, Canada continues to be one of the world’s largest exporters of asbestos — even though it is universally considered a health hazard, a cancer-causing agent, and no longer used within the country itself.

It’s a hot-button issue, with all of Canada’s political parties except the Conservativespushing for a ban.

The Toronto Sun recently reported the appeals to government of an Ontario womanwho lost both of her parents to asbestos-related disease:

Heidi Von Palleske — a self-proclaimed “asbestos orphan” — wants to convince the Conservative government to ban the exportation and mining of asbestos. “Four days before [mom] died, I recorded a plea where she asked that the exportation of asbestos to Third World countries stop because nobody — nobody — should die the way she was dying,” said Von Palleske.

The Cobourg, Ont., resident said her father worked in an asbestos mine and her mother developed a rare illness because she inhaled asbestos fibres from his clothing.

Von Palleske’s 11-year-old daughter also had harsh words for the Canadian government:

“I can’t believe it,” said Cavanagh Matmor. “They don’t know how it feels to have a grandmother and grandfather die of asbestos. But they don’t listen to others… It breaks my heart knowing that they’re going to continue doing that.”

Canada introduced the western world to asbestos, according to this excellent magazine article from The Globe & Mail, Canada’s Chronic Asbestos Problem:

Defensive about his town’s reputation, [Thetford Mines Mayor Luc] Berthold told a Montreal reporter that the effect of asbestos dust on health pales compared to that of smog in Montreal. In the anteroom to Berthold’s office, piles of glossy flyers promote asbestos’s “safe and irreplaceable fibres,” with charts proving that tobacco and highway accidents are thousands of times more dangerous than asbestos in schools.

It’s hard to blame the place for this attitude. After all, it wouldn’t exist without the strange fibre that a farmer named Joseph Fecteau stumbled upon in 1876. He’d hit a rich vein of asbestos, long known in Europe as a miraculous substance that could not be burned or damaged by fire. Within a few years, the Thetford area was the asbestos capital of the world, and Quebeckers called the fibres white gold.

And some are not willing to let that tarnished reputation go quietly. The owner of the Jeffrey Mine says his mine isn’t closed. Both the Jeffrey Mine and Lac d’amiante du Canada continue selling asbestos in their reserve inventories. A prominent Montreal asbestos trader is working to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, and there’s talk that production may resume in Spring 2012.

It’s time to support our northerly neighbors as they try to eradicate asbestos production from their country once and for all.  Join us in our effort to Ban Asbestos Now!

Asbestos

Last Thursday, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” brought its unique brand of political satire to point out a major flaw in the 9/11 Health Care Bill for Ground Zero first responders. The highly-touted bill covers a litany of diseases such as chronic coughing, laryngitis and carpal tunnel, but surprisingly does not cover cancer treatments. The argument used by some is that there is no scientific proof that the dust inhalation caused the cancers which are killing the brave heroes who fought dangerous conditions to find the remains of those who died there following the terrorist attacks.

When the World Trade Center was constructed in 1968, asbestos was used as a fireproofing material. While there were several asbestos abatement projects after construction, hundreds of tons of the toxic mineral were still present at the time of the terrorist attacks. When the buildings collapsed that fateful day, a toxic dust cloud filled with carcinogens rolled from the site, creating a 16-acre disaster zone. Dangerous levels of asbestos were reported throughout the city, and the clouds caused dust to enter vents and open windows throughout the city.

Over 40,000 emergency workers were exposed to this toxic dust at Ground Zero, and the results are beginning to show, as a large number of these rescuers are developing rare diseases and cancers such as mesothelioma at an alarming rate. Thousands more were exposed from being in the area during and after the events as well.  It will be very difficult to know just how many more first responders were effected since mesothelioma symptoms can take decades to surface.

Hopefully the attention brought to this story by Jon Stewart will create a need to change this situation. It is time to give first responders the medical treatment they deserve.

Asbestos

With the rise and fall of the asbestos industry in Canada making headlines recently, it’d be easy for some to think that the global asbestos problem could immediately be solved with a ban. It sure seems to make sense: if we stopped mining and manufacturing asbestos, we’d be able to prevent deaths from asbestos-related cancers such as mesothelioma forever.

Unfortunately, a ban is only step one in the fight to beat asbestos-related diseases. Asbestos once was used so widely that it exists potentially everywhere. It can turn up in places you’d least expect it — in the ceilings and floors of buildings that were built before 1980, in duct tape, caulking and textured paints, and even in car brakes and other automotive parts, just to name a few.

Given the pervasiveness of asbestos over the years, signs of the material and deaths from mesothelioma can occur for decades after a country bans its use. One needs to look no further than the United Kingdom (UK) to see an example of how a country must manage its “asbestos legacy” long after it has been prohibited.

The UK government banned asbestos in 1999 with the passing of The Asbestos Prohibitions Amendment Regulations. However, The Health and Safety Executive, a UK government body responsible for the regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, estimates that more than half a million non-domestic buildings on the island of Britain contain asbestos to this day.

As a result, occurrences of mesothelioma in the UK are among the highest in the world. The UK government estimates that 4,000 residents die as a result of complications associated with asbestos exposure annually. Those numbers are expected to rise, since it can take years to develop illnesses after exposure to the deadly substance. By comparison, in the United States, there are an estimated 10,000 deaths attributed to asbestos-related diseases each year.

The dramatic rise in mesothelioma deaths both at home and abroad underlines the dangers associated with even the smallest exposures to asbestos. The United States will continue to face these same asbestos-related health risks so long as the material is allowed to be used – and perhaps even long after it’s banned.

There’s no reason for our political leaders to delay in banning this deadly material. It’s time to ban asbestos now.

Asbestos

Mesothelioma was first recorded by the World Health Organization in 1994, but extensive demographic pictures just recently have emerged about the deadly disease.  And to no one’s surprise, the incidence of this asbestos-related cancer has increased and the age-adjusted mortality rate more than doubled during a 15-year study period.

According to a recent WHO bulletin, 92,253 deaths from mesothelioma were reported by more than 80 countries between 1994 and 2008.  (Sadly, this number only included mesothelioma deaths, and did not account for victims of other asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis or lung cancer.)  Most mesothelioma deaths occurred in the United States and in the western and northern regions of Europe, but more generally, deaths occurred in countries with high incomes.  The 10 countries with the highest incidence of mesothelioma deaths are in the industrialized world, including Japan and South Africa.  Not surprisingly, these countries also had high cumulative asbestos use.  South Africa, for example, was once a major producer of asbestos and was the site of the first diagnosed mesothelioma cluster.  The incidence of mesothelioma in countries with high incomes was 16 times the rate of incidence in low-income countries.

Some other disturbing facts from the WHO bulletin:

·The age-adjusted mortality rate increased by 5.37 percent per year during the study period

·The mean age at death was 70

·The ratio of male to female deaths was 3.6 to 1

·Less than 12 percent of all deaths occurred in middle- and low-income countries

As troubling as these numbers are, the incidence and mortality rates are probably much worse than reported.  The study was not able to draw data from China, India, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan or Thailand — all countries that have produced and consumed asbestos at high levels over a number of years.

Given mesothelioma’s long latency period – it sometimes takes 10-50 years after exposure for symptoms to surface — it’s expected that these numbers will only continue to rise until asbestos production and usage is banned.

Perhaps the most shocking fact of all is that this deadly material is still legal in the U.S.

It’s time for federal, state and local governments to understand the urgency of the spreading disease, the lack of any safe level of exposure to asbestos, and its lack of discrimination by age, gender or race of victim.

It’s time to join our fight.

Asbestos

It’s no secret nowadays that those who have spent their lives working in shipyards or factories run an increased risk of eventually developing an illness such as asbestosis or mesothelioma.

However, a recent story out of Scotland regarding a profession that is far less commonly associated with asbestos illnesses may be the cause of one man’s mesothelioma death.

According to the Daily Record, 79-year-old Scottish artist James Howie passed away earlier this month after having been diagnosed with both mesothelioma and a pulmonary embolism. When looking for what caused Howie to inhale the dangerous asbestos fibers that usually cause mesothelioma, his wife Joyce told the paper that she suspected that sanding methods he used on paint for his pieces may have been what released the fibers into the air.

“He used to do layer upon layer of paint, always scraping, sanding, cutting it back to paint over it again and again in order to create a certain effect,” she said. “He would keep repeating this process until it resulted in the thing he was looking for.”

She added that, at the time of the article’s publishing, there had still not been final results from her husband’s autopsy to either confirm or deny her suspicions.

Whether or not James Howie’s sanding methods ultimately led to the asbestos exposure that caused his mesothelioma diagnosis, his case is nonetheless another example that a mesothelioma diagnosis can happen to anyone, not just factory workers.

If you or a loved one have an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, speak with one of our mesothelioma attorneys today and learn more about any legal actions you may be able to pursue.

Asbestos

With the new school year getting underway and many parents getting their children settled into new schools across the country, safety precautions are generally a top priority. For families at George Washington University, one of those precautions involves asbestos exposure.

According to the GW Hatchet, the University’s newspaper, Rice Hall – which houses offices for some of the school’s highest officials – underwent asbestos abatement projects in August to prepare for renovations that are scheduled for the building in the near future.

Darrell Darnell, the senior associate vice president for safety and security at the school, said that students and faculty at the school would not be put in any unsafe conditions or see any adverse health effects caused by any exposure to asbestos. However, he also would not divulge what floors, pipes, tiles, or other building products in the hall had been found to contain asbestos.

“GW has an asbestos policy that guides the maintenance of asbestos-containing materials in University buildings,” added William Flint, the university’s director of the office of health and safety. “Prior to renovation or demolition of any university building, a hazardous materials survey is conducted using District of Columbia and EPA regulations to determine the risk to students, staff, faculty and construction workers. If hazardous materials are discovered, proper abatement is conducted to remove the materials prior to construction or demolition.”

The abatement processes only took one week. Hopefully there will be no asbestos problems at the university as classes get underway this fall.

If you or a loved one has been exposed to asbestos by using certain products or working for certain companies and have subsequently been diagnosed with mesothelioma, there may be legal options worth pursuing to obtain a mesothelioma settlement. Contact a mesothelioma attorney if you have any questions about the details of asbestos law and what is needed to pursue a settlement from the manufacturer of the asbestos product (not necessarily your company)

Asbestos

We all know that schools use equipment that is old, dated or even expired on occasion. This can include old textbooks, course materials or even laboratory equipment. Before we knew of the dangers associated with asbestos, many schools used the material in laboratory exercises. Although the use of asbestos in schools has dropped off, school officials in Australia recently made a grim discovery with their science equipment. In the state of Queensland, which is supposed to have the strictest anti-asbestos regulations in Australia, asbestos-containing materials was found in school science kits.

Asbestos, the deadly substance known to cause cancers such as mesothelioma, harms its victims when the fibers are inhaled. Many of the science kits were more than 20 years old, meaning an entire generation of Townsville students were put at risk by using this equipment. It is indeed conceivable that similar situations exist in many American schools; this discovery is certainly cause for concern here, even though officials in Queensland contend that the materials posed little threat to students.

Queensland’s Minister of Education, Cameron Dick, said an alert was issued to schools at the time and a whopping 159 kits were taken out of area schools. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dick contended that students were at minimal risk as the asbestos was in rock form. “I’m advised by our asbestos health adviser, Dr. Keith Adams, that there is minimal risk to any student who may have come in contact with that and we have withdrawn all the mineral kits from Queensland schools,” he said.

Meanwhile, NineMSN is reporting that the asbestos-tainted science kits have generated considerable political fights between Queensland officials. “Labor is dangerously exposing our children to asbestos,” Bruce Flegg of the center-right Liberal National Party said on Monday. “We are still seeing far too many examples of children and teachers who are exposed to potentially deadly airborne asbestos fibers. It would seem Labor chose to keep the revelation under wraps to avoid adverse publicity.”

Queensland’s Premier, Anna Bligh of the leftist Labor Party, blamed the opposition for the asbestos material found in the schools. She said, “It was not the Labor Party who put asbestos in schools. It was the Liberal and National parties of Queensland who continued to put it in our schools long after the world knew that it was a dangerous material.” Bligh called her party’s efforts, “The biggest asbestos removal program in the country.”

The finger-pointing between politicians is incredible. Shouldn’t they be more concerned that these potentially dangerous materials were readily available in schools? This attitude is something we see in countries all around the world, including in the U.S. Even though this particular incident occurred in Australia, it’s a good reminder that we should be vigilant about the materials and products our schools and community centers use on a regular basis. Let’s ensure the safety of our children.

Let’s ban asbestos now.

Asbestos

Industrialized nations have been living with the uses of asbestos – and consequences from that use — for more than a century. But it’s hard to imagine that we’ve been living for nearly 50 years with evidence, studies and research into the dangers of asbestos, and yet, it still continues to be manufactured, used and exported in many corners of the globe.

Here’s a chronological look at 10 articles over the past five decades that chronicle the effects of asbestos, as well as efforts in the global fight to ban this deadly material.

·”Asbestos Increases Cigaret Cancer Peril,” The Milwaukee Journal, June 20, 1967

The combination of exposure to asbestos particles at work and smoking cigarets [sic] greatly increases the risk of developing lung cancer, it was reported Monday.

·”Non-Tobacco Additives Probe Asked,” Lodi News-Sentinel, Sept. 28, 1970

Attorney Ralph Nader asked the Federal Trade Commission Sunday to investigate use of asbestos, glass fibers, and other non-tobacco additives in cigars and cigarettes.

·”Asbestos Fiber Peril in Coats,” Miami News, June 8, 1971

About 200,000 women’s coats containing potentially hazardous amounts of asbestos fibers woven into the woolen fabric have been sold in this country since last fall, a New York physician reported yesterday.

·”Asbestos, Cancer Linked,” St. Petersburg Times, July 27, 1972

Two cancer researchers say they have confirmed through human lung cancer cases the theory that occupational exposure to asbestos enhances the cancer-causing effects of cigarette smoke.

·”Asbestos to Claim 1 Million Lives, Researcher Says,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 1973

A noted researcher told a Senate subcommittee today that by the end of this century asbestos will claim the lives of a million Americans who have worked or are now working with the fibrous mineral.

·”Powders Contain Asbestos Fibres,” Montreal Gazette, March 8, 1976

Ten out of 19 body and baby powders tested at Mount Sinai Hospital were contaminated with asbestos fibres capable of causing a rare form of chest and abdominal cancer, researchers said yesterday.

·”Petitioners Seek to Ban Asbestos,” The Free Lance-Star, July 15, 1976

Consumer and environmental organizations are petitioning the government to ban wall patching compounds containing asbestos, saying more than one million Americans may be exposed each year to the potentially cancer-causing fibers in their own homes.

·”Asbestos Feared As Hazard in All New Jersey Schools,” Miami News, Jan. 4, 1977

The air in New Jersey schools may have high levels of asbestos fibers, scientists reported yesterday after studying the levels at eight schools in one county.

·”US Bans Asbestos Products,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 29, 1977

The Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday banned spackling compounds and other wall patching mixtures containing asbestos as possible causes of cancer.

·”40 Added to List of Hair Dryers Containing Asbestos,” Deseret News, April 18, 1979

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has identified more than 40 additional models of hair dryers that contain asbestos, an insulation material that has been linked to cancer.

Despite the mounting evidence, product bans and agency directives in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. still has not acted to ban asbestos. The EPA banned most asbestos-containing products in 1989, only to have that rule overturned in the federal court system. Numerous bills in Congress have gone nowhere, most recently a bill passed by the Senate in 2007 that would have banned the importation of asbestos.

Asbestos is still found in more than 3,000 consumer products, and chances are you know someone who has been affected by this deadly cancer-causing agent. After 50 years, don’t you think it’s time to Ban Asbestos Now?

Asbestos