Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By Wade RawlinsEven today with the health hazards of asbestos well documented, Canada remains the fifth largest exporter of the mineral fiber in the world. Much of the product goes to parts of the world where lax or non-existent workplace safety regulations allow unknowing workers to inhale a steady diet of microscopic asbestos fibers into their lungs.
In a tough-minded editorial, The Montreal Gazette newspaper chastises the government for supporting the export of a material known to cause cancer and for subsidizing the Canadian mines that produce it. The Gazette writes that the government “subsidizes this deadly industry to an extent that most Canadians would find shocking.”
Twenty five years ago, the Canadian government, the provincial government in Quebec, the asbestos industry and the union established the Asbestos Institute — now called the Chrysotile Institute —to put out the word that Chrysotile asbestos – the type of mineral mined in Canada - was different from other forms of asbestos and a safe product. Even then, the risks of asbestos were established. And today, the institute continues to receive government subsidies to support its safe product publicity campaign.
The World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. Exposure to chrysotile asbestos, the predominant asbestos fiber used today, is strongly associated with lung cancer and linked to other forms of cancer, an expert panel commissioned by Health Canada, the health agency, said in a report issued this spring.
In August, the Canadian Medical Association General Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling upon the federal government to reverse its opposition to the international designation of chrysotile asbestos as a hazardous chemical. The resolution favored eliminating the use and exportation of asbestos.
Nevertheless, the administration of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has remained a staunch supporter of Canada’s asbestos mining industry and the export and usage of chrysotile asbestos.
The national and provincial governments agreed to provide $1.3 million to the Chrysotile Institute, based in Montreal, over the next three years, the newspaper said. That despite a call by a number of Canadian health experts urging the government to stop funding the institute.
The subsidies flow at the same time that the Canadian government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to remove asbestos from parliament buildings, as several ministers of parliament noted. “The only conclusion to draw from this,” the Gazette opines, “is that our government thinks asbestos is sufficiently dangerous that it doesn’t want ministers of parliament exposed to it. It’s not worried, however, about the citizens of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Brazil, countries where Canada exports more than $100 million worth of asbestos. This is shameful.”
Read the editorial
Labels: Featured News, International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:41 PM
Friday, September 25, 2009
A resolution by the leader of the New Jersey Senate would designate Sept. 26 of each year as Mesothelioma Awareness Day in the Garden State. The resolution was introduced by Senate Leader Tom Kean to raise awareness of this deadly form of cancer. Mesothelioma is a rare, incurable cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. It kills about 3,000 Americans each year and is closely linked to breathing asbestos, a material widely used as insulation and in construction through the mid 1970s.
“We don’t have a cure or standard treatment yet for mesothelioma, so we need to learn more about this disease and spur the development of effective treatments,” Kean, a Republican, said in a statement issued Thursday by his office. “Our designation of each September 26th as “Mesothelioma Awareness Day” will help ensure that the public researchers and policy makers don’t forget about those suffering from this disease.”
Approved by the Senate in June, Kean’s resolution awaits consideration by the N.J. General Assembly. A number of communities have started to recognize the date.
While most people with mesothelioma were exposed repeatedly to asbestos, exposure to asbestos for as little as a month can result in a person developing the disease decades later, the resolution says. Kean noted that many firefighters, police officers and rescue workers were exposed to asbestos-contaminated dust at the World Trade Center site after the 9-11 attacks.
“Thousands of rescue and construction workers labored for months at Ground Zero in hazardous conditions,” Kean said. “We don’t know if those who worked at the World Trade Center site will develop mesothelioma, but we do know that we want to have effective treatments ready to help anyone who falls ill.”
Read Senate Joint Resolution 122
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:32 PM
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
By Wade RawlinsTiny carbon nanotubes -- lattices of carbon far smaller than the width of a human hair -- possess extraordinary physical and chemical properties and may find many new uses from delivering medicine directly to tumors to miniaturizing electronics to building lighter weight space craft and bicycles.
While seeing their potential promise, scientists also have voiced concerns about the potential toxicity of carbon nanotubes because they share similiarities with asbestos fibers.
A recent article by French researchers in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology examines the question: Do asbestos and carbon nanotubes pose similar health risks?
Exposure to tiny asbestos fibers is closely linked to serious human respiratory diseases including lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs that causes difficulty breathing.
Carbon nanotubes have fiber-like characteristics in their thin and elongated shape and ratio of width to height, scientists at the University of Paris write in the article. And they’re so small that humans may inhale them unknowingly just as people do airborne asbestos fibers, causing them to penetrate deep into the lungs and stay there.
In view of the carcinogenic properties of asbestos, and the widespread toll it has taken on human health and society, the researchers say it’s important to determine the safety of carbon nanotubes to protect ecological systems and human health.
They note that in several studies involving animals and cell cultures, carbon nanotubes have already triggered adverse effects similar to those observed with asbestos fibers. Two recent studies by Japanese researchers showed the occurrence of malignant mesotheliolma in mice and rats exposed to carbon nanotubes.
“These initial results underline the urgent need for information to further our knowledge about carbon nanotubes,” the French scientists say.
They say that while carbon nanotubes are valuable industrial products with multiple applications, the legitimate concerns about their potential adverse effects need to be addressed. “Based on the available data in the literature …, it appears that carbon nanotubes may elicit responses similar to those caused by asbestos fibers,” they conclude.
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 5:06 PM
The largest and most significant gathering of plaintiff and defense attorneys in the asbestos community gets underway Wednesday in San Francisco. The National Asbestos Litigation Conference runs through Friday, Sept. 23-25, at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco.Topics on the conference agenda include causation analysis in mesothellioma cases, hot jurisdictions for asbestos lawsuits, advances in medicine and science framing asbestos litigation and asbestos in the political arena. There will also be a panel discussion among judges from across the country who hear asbestos cases.
The national conference offers educational programs taught by experts, judges and in-house counsel and is nationally accredited for continuing legal education credits in more than 40 states.
The conference co-chairs are Joseph W. Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox LLP, a New York law firm, Joseph J. O’Hara, Jr., Esq., vice president & associate general counsel, Owens-Illinois, Inc, Perrysburg, Ohio, and Michael J. Pietrykowski, Esq., Gordon & Rees, LLP, San Francisco.
In a joint mission statement, the chairs said, “We know many of the faces in this long-standing litigation very well. For better or worse, we are a family of sorts! Regardless of the side of the table, we all face similar issues and need to work together to resolve some of the recurring problems in ‘our’ asbestos world. Therefore, as the chairs of HB’s National Asbestos Conference, we propose that part of our program be dedicated to a discussion of possible solutions to key issues. Throughout the day we will dedicate time to this goal, in an effort to move toward improving the litigation landscape."
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:17 PM
Monday, September 21, 2009
New York contractors have been charged with illegal removal and disposal of asbestos stripped from dormitories at the State University of New York at New Paltz.According to the Poughkeepsie Journal, Salvatore R. DePaola, 55, and Steevens Espitia Oliverso, 211 illegally removed and disposed of asbestos from Bouton, College and Shango halls in SUNY New Paltz without following proper disposal regulations.
Oliveros was an asbestos project supervisor for Milestone Environmental Corp. in Morganville, New Jersey, and DePaola was a senior asbestos supervisor for Milestone.
The $179,000 asbestos removal project was part of a routine dormitory remodeling on the campus. The work began after classes ended in the spring of 2009 and ended in May.
Court papers filed by an Environmental Protection Agency investigator said Jason Pensabene, a senior industrial hygienist with the New York Department of Labor, during site inspections in June observed numerous violations of the Clean Air Act including the failure to put stripped asbestos in leak-proof, labled containers and failure to properly dampen asbestos until it could be contained. He observed dry, friable asbestos all over the floor.
Another company eventually completed the project after work was halted.
Article
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 4:48 PM
Thursday, September 17, 2009
In Australia, the Australian Workers Union is advocating to use economic stimulus monies to create a registry of buildings containing asbestos and to fund a 20-year removal program. Paul Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, called for a new national strategy to identify and remove asbestos from all homes, schools and worksites by 2030, The Australian newspaper reported. “This slow-moving catastrophe has destroyed the lives of thousands of workers and will kill and maim thousands more over the next 20 years,” Howes said, according to the newspaper. Announcing the campaign in Hobart, Howes said it was a disgrace that Australia did not have a register or a national asbestos removal program.
He conceded that the Workers Union and other unions shared responsibility for the failure to act to limit exposure to asbestos in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Breathing asbestos fibers is closely linked to serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.
A recent report by Safe Work Australia, which develops national policy on occupational health and safety issues, said the number of new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed annual in the nation down under had increased dramatically since at least 1982, the first year of complete national data.. In 2006, the most recent year of complete data, there were 486 deaths attributed to mesothelioma in Australia, the Safe Work report said.
The age-adjusted death rate in Australia due to mesothelioma was 23 deaths per million population, the Safe Work report said. That compares to a U.S. rate of about 14 deaths per million, according to a study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
The Australian article
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 6:19 PM
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
By Wade RawlinsA growing number of communities in the United States will observe Sept. 26 as National Mesothelioma Awareness Day to put a spotlight on the cancer associated with asbestos exposure. A community in New Jersey, Berkeley Heights, is the latest to issue a proclamation designating a day to focus public attention on mesothelioma. The aggressive disease claims an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 lives a year in the U.S.
As the day of observance approaches, it’s fitting to recall the words of warning from the U.S. Surgeon Generals’ office on the occasion of National Asbestos Week in April.
“In recent decades, because of concern about asbestos’ health effects, production and use has declined substantially,” then acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson said. “Most individuals exposed to asbestos, whether in a home, in the workplace, or out-of-doors will not develop the disease. But there is no level of asbestos exposure that is known to be safe and minimizing your exposure will minimize your risk of developing asbestos-related diseases.”
Galson emphasized that asbestos is dangerous if inhaled and activities that disturb asbestos cause the microscopic fibers to float in the air, increasing the chances of inhaling asbestos and developing diseases.
In the 1970s, federal agencies developed regulatory standards for exposure to airborne asbestos fibers based on evidence of respiratory disease in workers. Since then, the use of asbestos has declined substantially and mining of asbestos in the U.S. stopped in 2002. But many asbestos products remain in use and new products continue to be manufactured and imported.
“Once breathed in, asbestos fibers can remain in the lungs for years and even decades,” Galson said. “Inhalation of asbestos can cause inflammation and scarring of the lungs, changes in the lining of the chest cavity around the lungs and certain cancers.”
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart closely associated with asbestos exposure. According to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, deaths from malignant mesothelioma, increased 7 percent between 1999, when the disease began being categorized separately on death certificates, and 2004, the most recent year of complete data. In 2004, 2,657 people died of mesothelioma. The disease usually appears 20 to 30 years after exposure to asbestos.
Meanwhile, deaths from asbestosis, a chronic disease, increased almost 20-fold from the late 1960s, when NIOSH began tracking them, to the late 1990s, the report says. They have leveled off at about 1,500 per year in the U.S. and are expected to continue for several more decades.
Linda Reinstein, executive director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy group, said a Senate resolution urging the surgeon general to act was a landmark step. “As a mesothelioma widow, I am pleased to see the Surgeon General’s statement, as asbestos has been a known carcinogen for more than thirty years," Reinstein said. "ADAO is excited to be able to advance educational efforts with his statement, which strongly reaffirms the need to ban asbestos.”
Surgeon General's Statement
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:10 PM
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
In Libby Montana, even the country club golf course is contaminated. Clean up crews are excavating larges amounts of dirt contaminated with vermiculite from nine holes of the Cabinet View Country Club golf course, according to The Associated Press.The $1.8 million clean up project is being overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which in June declared a public health emergency in Libby. The town is contaminated with asbestos-laden dust that has been blamed for 200 deaths and 1,000 illnesses. The asbestos was contained in vermiculite ore which was mined in Libby for decades.
Asbestos exposure is linked with a variety of serious respiratory illnesses including lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.
The excavation and restoration of the golf course is expected to be completed by the spring of 2010.
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 3:38 PM
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Two Arizona charter school operators have been fined for alleged violations of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Act, federal environmental officials announced. In April 2007, inspectors with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered that seven charter schools operated by Pointe Educational Services and the Charter Foundation had not been inspected to determine if the buildings contained asbestos-containing materials and no asbestos management plan had been created. A subsequent inspection revealed that one of the schools contained asbestos building materials.
“Asbestos can potentially endanger the health of students, teachers and employees at schools,” Katherine Taylor, associate director for the communities and ecosystems division in EPA’s Pacific Southwest region said in a press release.
Federal law requires that local education agencies must conduct an inspection using accredited inspectors to determine if asbestos-containing building material is present and develop a management plan addressing the asbestos found in the school.
The EPA fined Pointe Educational Services $13,700 and The Charter Foundation $8,330, the agency said
Press Release
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 9:40 AM
Monday, September 7, 2009
On a holiday that honors workers, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy group, renewed its call for a national ban on asbestos to protect workers from exposure to asbestos in workplaces. “This Labor Day, we cannot help but be reminded that countless workers continue to be unknowingly exposed to the deadly asbestos mineral in their daily jobs,” said Linda Reinstein, ADAO Executive Director said in a statement reported by Reuters. “It is time to end the tragedy of asbestos for workers and others who are unknowingly exposed.”
Once widely used in many household products such as insulation, pipe and roof tile, asbestos is now recognized as a highly toxic human carcinogen. Asbestos fibers inhaled into the lungs over time may cause lung diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that can occur in the lining of the lungs, abdomen or heart. The symptoms of the disease often do not appear until 20 to 40 years after exposure
Although asbestos is no longer mined in the United State, it is still imported and a significant amount of asbestos in buildings eventually must be removed. Today, approximately 1.3 million American construction workers and general industry workers are exposed to asbestos, researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health estimated in a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, underscoring the need for effort to minimize exposure.
Reinstein said the group remained optimistic that Congress would pass a ban on asbestos that incorporated the strongest elements of Senate legislation (S. 742), passed in 2007, that banned the importation and use of asbestos in the United States and House Resolution 6903, introduced in 2008, that sought to limit the asbestos content in consumer products.
Joining the group is pressing for a ban on asbestos was Jordan Zevon, son of the late rock musician Warren Zevon, who died of mesothelioma in 2003. "Six years later and it feels like my father's killer, asbestos, which happens to be a mass murderer, is still walking the streets," said Jordan Zevon, who serves as a spokesman for the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. "We pride ourselves on justice for all, but there's no justice until the asbestos ban becomes a reality."
Read Reuters Story
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 5:58 PM
Friday, September 4, 2009
A Tennessee couple has reached a legal settlement with Alcoa Inc., over the death of their 25-year-old daughter who died of mesothelioma.Amanda Satterfield, who died in 2005, was exposed to asbestos fibers from infancy through the work of her father, Doug Satterfield who was employed by ALCOA Tennessee operations, hauling asbestos for the aluminum company, The Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times reported.
After Amanda Satterfield was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare cancer associated with asbestos exposure in 2003, she and her family filed a lawsuit against ALCOA, contending the company was negligent in preventing exposure to asbestos. Her parents Doug and Donna Satterfield continued the lawsuit after her death on Jan. 1, 2005.
“A confidential financial settlement was obtained,” Greg Coleman, attorney for the Satterfield family told the newspaper. Alcoa also confirmed the settlement to the paper.
The Satterfields maintained that their daughter’s cancer was caused through the transfer of hazardous substances such as asbestos fibers from Doug Satterfield’s workplace on his clothing to their daughter —an exposure pathway that researchers have observed in a number of cases. Attorneys for Alcoa had argued that the company’s liability was limited to employees and didn’t extend to family members and the lawsuit should be dismissed.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled last year in the Satterfields’ favor that the case could go to trial.
Newspaper Article
Labels: National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:52 PM
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Milan Italy's storied opera house La Scala has closed the uppermost seating gallery while workers remove recently discovered asbestos. About 270 seats will be sealed off during the remediation project that is expected to be completed in October.A La Scala spokesman said that asbestos was found in a “very limited” section of the lighting area near the cornice of the vaulted ceiling of the 230-year-old theater and the area was immediately sealed until removal could be carried out during the summer break, the Associated Press reported.
The city of Milan and the theater began work in August to remove the asbestos, working at night so rehearsals and performances can go ahead as scheduled.
La Scala was ordered earlier this decade by courts to pay damages in two cases involving stagehands who contracted asbestos-triggered diseases while employed at the theater. The workers had come in contact with asbestos while handling fire retardant material protecting stage curtains.
The asbestos was used as insulation and as a fire retardant decades ago before Italian law banned the use of asbestos nationwide.
Fat Lady Sings
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:35 PM
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
By Wade RawlinsA new study of older construction workers at four U.S. Department of Energy nuclear weapons sites found the workers have a higher risk of having asbestos-related disease. The study, conducted by researchers at Duke University, the University of Cincinnati and other institutions, found that trades workers at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington, Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, Savannah River Site in South Carolina or the Amchitka site in Alaska had significantly elevated asbestos-related cancers.
The study was published in the current issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, a medical publication. The research was funded by the Department of Energy.
The study tracked the mortality of 8,976 construction workers at nuclear weapons facilities who had participated in voluntary medical screening programs from 1998 through 2004. The workers were predominantly white and nearly all male. Researchers identified 674 deaths among the overall group —slightly less than expected—but noted a significantly higher death rate among those identified as asbestos workers and insulators. The incidence of cancer was elevated at all four sites with the highest rates at Savannah River.
Researchers reported an excess of cancer deaths including mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure and also malignant tumors of the lung, trachea and bronchus. The mortality rate for mestothelioma was nearly six times the standardized rate, and for workers who first began at the DOE sites before 1960, the mortality rate was nearly 11 times what would be expected in the general population. Meanwhile, the incident of asbestosis was more than 30 times the standardized rate. High risks of asbestosis were observed at all sites except Amchitka.
Researchers attributed the excess risk for mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis to significant past exposure to asbestos, a material widely used in construction and for insulation until the 1970s. They noted the elevated risk of mesothelioma and asbestosis was confined to workers first employed at the sites prior to 1980, when use of asbestos would have been more prevalent.
In 1993, Congress directed the Department of Energy to determine whether workers at its nuclear weapons facilities were at significant risk of work-related illness. Construction workers at the facilities have potential exposure to a number of hazards during construction, maintenance and renovation including asbestos, silica, solvents and metals.
In 1996 and 1997, the department established medical surveillance programs at Hanford Reservation, Oak Ridge, Savannah River and Amchitka. Since then, medical screening programs at a number of sites have been consolidated under the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program. A consortium of medical staff and researchers from the Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver Spring, Maryland, the University of Cincinnati and Duke University are conducting the medical screening programs for the workers.
The researchers said a drawback of the research was the narrow tracking window of the study, resulting in only 674 total deaths between 1998 and 2004. That limited the ability to do statistically significant breakdowns of cancers within specific trades. It also confined the researchers ability to interpret the risks of mesothelioma and asbestosis among workers employed in 1980 or later.
The researchers recommended expanding the study to include medical screening data for workers at other Department of Energy sites and to do a later follow-up study of this group.
Journal Abstract
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 7:24 PM
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Wade Rawlins is a former environmental reporter with the Raleigh News & Observer.
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