December | 2009 | About Mesothelioma: Asbestos Exposure and Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma Lawyers & Attorneys Info

Sculptor of Dead Diagnosed with Mesothelioma

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Frank Bender, a commercial photographer turned sculptor and forensic artist, has an uncanny ability to discern how someone looked from their skeletal remains. Bender has put this unusual talent to work to help with the identification of numerous murder victims and the solving of at least nine murders.

A commission by the Philadelphia Police Department in 1977 required him to recreate the likeness of a woman who had been shot three times in the head and dumped near the airport. Bender’s sensitive rendering of her likeness led to the identification of a missing Phoenix woman, Anna Duval.

Bender’s forensic facial reconstruction work has been featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes and profiled in the book, “The Girl with the Crooked Nose,” by Ted Botha. In 1989, America’s Most Wanted commissioned Bender to produce a bust of John List, a New Jersey accountant who killed his wife, mother and children, then disappeared. Bender’s challenge was to imagine how List would look after 18 years as a fugitive. The bust that Bender produced led to the identificationof List by a neighbor in Colorado within two weeks after the television program aired. John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bender’s bust had launced the television show as a force in apprehension of criminals.

Now Bender is looking death in the face in a different way. The 68-year-old self-taught artist who served in the Navy during the late 1950s and early 1960s, has been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of lungs. Mesothelioma is associated with breathing asbestos dust, and Bender worked around plenty of it in the engine room of the destroyer escort Calcaterra. Asbestos was commonly used in ships in that era.

“I not only worked with asbestos, I slept with it,” Bender told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The navy is processing a disability claim for Bender.

Bender told the newspaper that surgery would be fatal because the cancer is already around his heart and lung like a spiderweb. “Radiation might ease the pain, but it’s not going to save me,” he said.

Check out Frank Bender’s paintings and sculpture

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer column

Labels: Featured News
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Asbestos Found in Carpet Underlay

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

In older homes, asbestos can turn up anywhere—wrapped around pipes as tape, overhead in ceiling tiles or attic insulation or underfoot in carpet.

Australian health officials issued a warning this month to people replacing or pulling up old carpets to take precautions to avoid inhaling any dust. The warning came after traces of asbestos fibers were found in carpet underlay samples taken from a home in Perth, Australia.

Inhaling asbestos fibers is strongly associated with development of serious respiratory diseases including asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.

Jim Dodds, director of environmental health with the Government of Western Australia said that some carpet underlay manufactured before the early 1970s may have included recycled hessian from bags previously used to transport and store asbestos.

“While the liklihood of asbestos fibers being present in carpet underlay is low, people should remain vigilant when removing old carpets,” Dodds said. “We will continue to test carpet samples from homes with old carpets to get a clearer picture of the level of risk and the proportion of homes that might be affected.”

Health officials recomment wearing a Class P1 or P2 facemask and disposable overalls and removing the underlay carefully to minimize the amount of dust.

“This will provide protection against inhaling dust and other allergens as well as any asbestos fibers in the unlikely event they are present,” Dodds said.

Labels: Asbestos, International News
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Expanded Medicare Benefits for Libby Residents in Health Care Bill

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Congress may be giving Libby, Montana residents something extra for the holidays.

Buried deep in the massive Senate Health Care bill is a special provision to expand Medicare benefits for residents of Libby, Montana who worked in the former vermiculite mines. Hundreds of people around Libby are sick or dying from asbestos-related disease including Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who has been trying to get more federal help for Libby residents for years, got language added to the bill as part of his agreement to vote for it. “The people of Libby were poisoned and have been dying for more than a decade,” Baucus told The New York Times. “New residents continue to get sick all the time. Public health tragedies like this could happen in any town in America. We need this type of mechanism to help people when they needed it most.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill this week.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took the extraordinary step of declaring a public health emergerncy in the town of Libby — the first such declaration it has ever made.

Labels: Asbestos, National News
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World Trial Opens in Italy on Asbestos-Related Disease

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Prosecutors in Italy describe the trial that just opened in the Palace of Justice in Turin as a world trial on asbestos-related disease.

Two former top shareholders of a Swiss building materials company Eternit face criminal charges and a class-action civil lawsuit for alleged negligence in the deaths of more than 2,000 people of asbestos-related disease, according to Agence France-Presse, the French news service.

Prosecutors contend that Eternit former owner, Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, and former top executive officer Jean Louis de Cartier bear ultimate responsibility for lapses in work safety at four asbestos-cement plants in Italiy that led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and caused several hundred more illnesses

Schmidheiny and De Cartier are standing trial in absentia in criminal court. Under Italian law, a civil lawsuit also may be joined to the criminal proceeding. More than 700 people have joined the class-action lawsuit.

Lawyers for the two defendants say their clients have no direct responsibility.

The victims— who include former employees as well as residents of four Italian cities where the company had factories—allege that many illnesses and deaths were caused by exposure to asbestos in Eternit’s building products such as insulation. The victims are expected to seek several hundred million euros in compensation.

Prosecutors say it is the biggest trial ever held on the effects of exposure to blue asbestos or crocidolite, a fibrous mineral banned in Italy in 1992 over health concerns. Italian authorities have opened three additional courtrooms in addition to main courtroom for the overflow crowd folowing the trial.

“It’s a world first ,” Jean-Paul Teissonniere, a French lawyer representing the plaintiffs told AFP. “This trial will determine whether the judicial system is capable of handling such a complex case.”

After more than five years of investigation, prosecutors claim that former workers and residents of towns near four of Eternit’s factories had unusally high rates of cancer caused by asbestos dust in the air and Eternit products used in paving. The towns where the factories were located are Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Bagnoli and Rubiera.

Breathing asbestos is associated with lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.

A number of local government authorities also are suing for damages including all four municipal councils where the factories were located, as well as the Turin provincial government and the Piedmont regional authority.

The defendants face three to 12 years in prison if convicted.

Labels: Asbestos, International News
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Ten Facts about Mesothelioma and Asbestos

Friday, December 11th, 2009

• Most cases of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, are diagnosed 30 years or more after exposure.

•The number of cases of mesothelioma will peak in the United States in 2010, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control project.

• About 2,500 to 3,000 new cases of Mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States.

• The national death rate for mesothelioma in the United States is 14 deaths per million population, according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

•Six states—Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wyoming and West Virginia—have death rates greater than 20 deaths per million people, according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

• An area around Genoa, Italy has the highest rate of asbestos-related cancer in the world with 58 cases per million people, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

• Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, but it is still imported and used in construction and automotive products. Large quantities of asbestos remain in buildings that will eventually have to be removed.

• Asbestos minerals when disturbed tend to separate into microscopic fibers that float in the air and are easily inhaled.

• Doctors have diagnosed asbestos-related disease in family members of miners and other asbestos workers who brought home asbestos dust on their clothing and in residents living near asbestos mines and plants.

• About 90,000 people die each year around the world due to asbestos exposure, the World Health Organization estimates.

Labels: Featured News
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New York Tightens Construction Safety Standards, Bars Building Demolition During Asbestos Removal

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation this week that prohibits simultaneous demolition and asbestos removal activities in the same building.

The measure is aimed to improve construction safety standards. It’s the last of a dozen pieces of legislation crafted in response to the fatal August 2007 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building that killed two firefighters.

“The possibility of a dangerous—even life threatening—situation is increased when demolition work is combined with asbestos abatement activities,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a press release.

Demolition activities increase fire risks, and asbestos containment structures in buildings may limit firefighters access to parts of a building when the work is done at the same time that a structure is being torn down.

Due the density of development in New York, buildings must be dismantled floor by floor rather than demolished with explosive devices. But all asbestos fibers must be carefully contained and removed before a building is demolished because asbestos dust if inhaled can cause serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.

Under the new law, any future simultaneous demolition and asbestos removal activities would be prohibited unless specially approved and monitored by the departments of Buildings and Environmental Protection and Fire Department. It takes effect in 180 days.

After the Deutsche Bank fire, Bloomberg ordered a review of oversight of demolition and asbestos abatement activities. The panel that did the review developed a number of recommendations to enhance oversight and improve safety that were adopted as legislation.

Earlier legislation passed by the city council and signed by the mayor established a permit program for asbestos abatement activities, enhanced asbestos cleanup safeguards, prohibited smoking in any part of a building where asbestos abatement is taking place, and required the New York’s Department of Environmental Protection to guide environmental contractors on how to maintain entrances and exits at asbestos cleanup sites.

“Taken together, these twelve measures represent a significant overhaul of the city’s demolition and asbestos abatement procedures,” Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said in a press release.

Labels: National News
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Asbestos Removed from Potsdam Civic Center after Worker Dies of Mesothelioma

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Workers have completed removal of asbestos from parts of the Potsdam Civic Center as well as a courtroom and office, village officials told the Watertown Daily Times.

Village Administrator Michael D. Weil said tests were conducted in the courtroom and other areas where asbestos was removed and no signs of the cancer-causing mineral fiber were found. The mitigation project cost about $50,000. Still more mitigation projects remain to be done. Some parts of the civic center, including the basement, still contain asbestos, Weil said.

The village’s most recent efforts to remove asbestos began earlier this year after the death of longtime civic center employee Sharon M. LaDuke, according to the newspaper. Ms. LaDuke died from mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to breathing asbestos. Ms. LaDuke’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the village, alleging that her death was caused by unsafe work conditions.

The village is also being sued by former senior court clerk Shelley A. Warner who contends that she was fired from her job because she publicly expressed concerns about asbestos and workplace safety at the civic center.

Labels: National News
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Breaking the Taboo – Health Leaders Press for Federal Action on Asbestos in Canada

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

A group of prominent Canadian public health officials has called on Canada’s minister of health to end government financial support for mining and export of asbestos, a mineral fiber closely linked to fatal respiratory disease.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, an Ottawa-based think tank, sent a letter asking Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to take action on asbestos as a show of commitment to public health. They criticized what they called misleading, inadequate and, at times, false information on the risk of asbestos on Health Canada’s and other government websites. It is the first time a federal health minister has been called on to oppose asbestos.

Pierre Gosselin, a professor on the medical faculty at Laval University and a researcher at the National Public Health Institute of Quebec who signed the letter, told the newspaper that criticism of asbestos has been taboo in Quebec, but that medical evidence of the health hazards of the mineral fiber is so overwhelming that it can’t be ignored.

Quebec has the country’s only asbestos mining at Thetford Mines, and Canada is the fifth largest exporter of asbestos in the world. While more than 40 countries have banned asbestos, Canada’s federal government has spent more than $20 million since the 1980s to promote its continued use. Much of Canada’s exported asbestos goes to developing countries where weak or non-existent workplace safety rules expose workers to breathing asbestos dust.

The World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die every year of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs.

In Canada, asbestos is the main cause of workplace-related deaths, according to the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

In August, the Canadian Medical Association General Council called upon the federal government to reverse its opposition to the international designation of chrysotile asbestos, the type mined in Quebec, as a hazardous chemical. The group’s resolution favored ending the use and export of asbestos.

The administration of Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper has remained a strong supporter of Canada’s asbestos mining industry and the export of asbestos. Harper reiterated his support during a visit to Thetford Mines in August. Health Minister Aglukkaq’s office said she would respond to the letter in due course.

Read the Globe and Mail article

Labels: International News
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New York Demolition Contractor Cited for Alleged Asbestos Removal Violations

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

By Wade Rawlins
Cambria Contracting Inc., a Lockport, New York demolition contractor, faces $484,000 in proposed penalties for 11 alleged violations of asbestos cleanup standards at a site in Buffalo, New York.

According to a press release issued Monday by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Cambria Contracting failed to train and protect workers who were cleaning up asbestos-contaminated debris at the former AM&A department store warehouse.

Asbestos was widely used in building materials and insulation until the 1970s, but is now strictly regulated because of the health hazard asbestos dust poses. Inhaling asbestos fibers is linked to serious respiratory diseases including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.

“These significant penalties reflect the fact that this employer, an asbestos contractor with extensive knowledge of the OSHA standards that govern asbestos removal and handling, chose not to follow these standards and put its workers, including young inexperienced college students in harm’s way,” Jordon Barab, acting Assistant Secretary for OSHA, said in a statement. OSHA is the federal agency charged with promoting safe working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and providing training and education.

OSHA investigators found that several Cambria Contracting workers who were cleaning up debris, had not been training in asbestos hazards or how to protect themselves. They were not wearing protective clothing or respirators and had not been informed of the presence of asbestos at the site. OSHA said the demolition contractor failed to establish an asbestos work area at the site and used debris removal methods that can cause asbestos fibers to be released into the air.

The former warehouse is being renovated for offices and housing, the Buffalo News reported.

OSHA cited Cambria for willful violations which are defined as violations committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for worker safety and health.

“This employer knew that training and other safeguards, which are well-known in the industry were required, yet chose not to provide them,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s New York regional administrator. “That is unacceptable and needlessly placed the health of these workers at risk.”

Cambria has 15 days to contest the citations and proposed penalties.

Arthur Dube, OSHA’s Buffalo area director, added, “ Asbestos is well recognized as a health hazard since inhalation of asbestos fibers may lead to lung cancer and other diseases. As exposures frequently occur during renovation and demolition work, we strongly urge contractors to ensure that their workers are adequately trained and protected against asbestos harzards.”

Read OSHA Press Release