June | 2010 | About Mesothelioma: Asbestos Exposure and Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma Lawyers & Attorneys Info

California Reconsiders State Symbol Associated with Chrysotile Asbestos

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

For more than 40 years, California’s official state rock has been serpentine, a greenish gray rock linked to the state’s gold rush.

But serpentine is a primary source of asbestos, a mineral fiber that causes serious respiratory disease in humans including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen. Chrysotile asbestos, the most widely used commercial form of asbestos, comes from serpentine

Because asbestos is a human carcinogen and California has the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths in the nation, a California lawmaker has filed legislation to strip serpentine of its status as an official state symbol and make a statement of findings about the increased risk of mesothelioma associated with chrysotile asbestos.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, says, “Serpentine contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen… California should not designate a rock known to be toxic to the health of its residents as the state’s official rock.”

The California Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved the legislation, stripping serpentine of its official designation and sent the bill to the Assembly floor for consideration. An earlier version of Romero’s bill previously passed the California Senate.

Labels: Asbestos, Mesothelioma
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Rochester Revitalization Project Awards Asbestos Removal Contracts

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

A major construction project to revive downtown Rochester includes a $55 million grant from the state of New York for asbestos removal and air monitoring.

Asbestos can cause cancer in humans when the microscopic mineral fibers are inhaled and lodge in the lungs. Asbestos is linked to mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, and other serious respiratory diseases. Therefore, precautions must be taken when tearing down old buildings constructed with asbestos-containing building materials to prevent workers from being exposed to asbestos fibers.

According to a press release from the City of Rochester, Empire State Development awarded contracts for asbestos removal at the Midtown Plaza site to Cambria Contracting, Inc., a demolition and environmental remediation company headquartered in Lockport, New York. The $34.1 million asbestos abatement contract includes removing and disposing of all asbestos-containing materials and hazardous wastes to ready the Midtown Plaza buildings for demolition.

Paradigm Environmental Services., Inc., based in Rochester, received a $1.69 million contract to provide independent oversight of the asbestos removal and air monitoring during decontamination and demolition of the buildings. The asbestos removal project will start this summer and last about 14 months.

The city of Rochester is demolishing the 1.4 million-square-foot former Midtown Plaza indoor mall which has been largely vacant in recent years to clear a site for a new corporate headquarters for PAETEC, one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in the United States. Extensive asbestos contamination is present throughout the Midtown Plaza complex so all asbestos must be removed before the complex can be torn down to prevent it from becoming airborne. A study by the city of Rochester estimated the cost to remove the asbestos was more than $40 million.

Labels: Asbestos
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Quebec Asbestos Mining Poised to Expand Despite Health Warnings

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Despite international condemnation, Quebec’s controversial asbestos mining industry may expand mining of the mineral fiber linked to thousands of deaths annually from respiratory diseases. Asbestos is associated with respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen.

The proposed expansion of the Jeffrey Mine in the town of Asbestos, Quebec has been on hold since 2002 because of lack of funding.

According to The Montreal Gazette, Asbestos Mayor Hugues Grimard said that Quebec Economic Development minister had promised the town and Jeffrey Mine Inc. owner Bernard Coulombe that the government would make a $58-million loan guarantee if the mine workers approved a new employment contract and the workers agreed to pay 10 percent of their salaries into a fund to be held by the government in case the mine fails.

Canada is a leading exporter of asbestos, which is sent primarily to developing countries with weaker worker safety laws. And Quebec Premier Jean Charest has repeatedly emphasized his government’s policy to promote the “safe use of asbestos” despite broad opposition from public health officials and scientists in Canada and around the world.

A letter signed by 36 prominent doctors and public health researchers from 21 countries criticized condemned the expansion. “Chrysotile asbestos causes serious harm to health,” worte Philip Landrigan, dean of Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “There is no safe exposure level. It goes on killing for generations.”

Landrigan is president of the New York-based Collegium Ramazzini, an independent international academy of 180 renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health.

Labels: Asbestos, International News
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Companies Facing Thousands of Asbestos Lawsuits Seek Court Protection

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Two subsidiaries of RPM International, facing thousands of asbestos lawsuits, have filed for bankruptcy protection and the parent company RPM International sought a court order to prevent victims of asbestos-related disease from filing lawsuits against it. Many of the pending claims were filed on behalf of people suffering from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen associated with inhaling asbestos.

The subsidiaries Bondex International Inc., and Specialty Products Holding Corp. plan to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization to establish a trust for payment of all future asbestos-related claims. But the companies did not enter bankruptcy with any plan or outline of a settlement for people who had filed legal claims.

Joseph Belluck of Belluck & Fox, a New York law firm that represents asbestos disease victims and is suing Bondex, said that many companies facing asbestos claims have negotiated terms of a trust or settlement prior to entering bankruptcy.

“Of the recent vintage (of bankruptcy filings), all companies with liabilities have done it with an agreement with plaintiffs’ counsel,” Belluck told Reuters. “The face of the matter is, these companies sold products that killed people and they should be held liable.”

Many of the alleged asbestos liabilities at the center of the more than 10,000 lawsuits naming Bondex and SPHC trace back to Reardon Company, which was acquired in 1966. Reardon sold home patch and repair products that contained asbestos until 1977.

Until the late 1970s, asbestos was used in a wide variety of building materials including insulation, tile, spray-on insulation, as well as industrial and automotive compoents such as brake pads and gaskets.

“This action has been taken to once and for all resolve the asbestos-related Bondex legacy liability,” Frank C. Sullivan, RPM chairman and chief executive officer of RPM International said in a statement.

Labels: Uncategorized
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Mesothelioma Specialist Named Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Renowned thoracic surgeon Raja M. Flores, M.D., who specializes in treating mesothellioma, lung cancer and esophageal cancer, has been named Chief of Thoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center and Director of the Thoracic Surgery Oncology Program at Mount Sinai Cancer Center, the Medical Center announced.

“Dr. Flores joins us at a propitious moment in the history of our cancer program,” Wayne Keathley, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Mount Sinai Hospital said in a press release. “We are emerging as a clear leader in caring for patients facing mesothelioma and cancers of the esophagus or lung.”

Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen linked to asbestos exposure. While use of asbestos has been curbed in the United States since the late 1970s, the incidence of mesothelioma has been increasing in the United States and worldwide in recent decades. The disease strikes 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos.

Dennis S. Charney, M.D., and Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, said Dr. Flores had conducted a landmark study that changed the surgical treatment of pleural mesothelioma. The study, entitled “Extrapleural Pneumonectomy versus Pleurectomy Decortication in the Management of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma,” has been one of the most frequently cited studies from the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for the last two years.

Dr. Flores helped pioneer the use of intraoperative chemotherapy for treatment of mesothelioma. The procedure involves bathing the abdominal cavity or chest cavity in a heated chemotherapy solution after removal of cancerous tumors. Heating the fluid increases the penetration of the drugs into the tissue.

Flores has co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews, books and book chapters and presented more than 100 lectures. His work has been published in many journals including The Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, The Annals of Surgery, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and Vascular Surgery and other publications.

David H. Adams, M.D., chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center described Dr. Flores as “a technically superb surgeon.”

“He also made efforts towards improving treatments for mesothelioma through the compilation of a database of over 1,000 patients in order to research areas of failure,” Adams said.

During the past decade, Dr. Flores has held posts at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, mostly recently as Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is a graduate of New York University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, receiving his M.D. in 1992.

Dr. Flores’s appointment becomes effective Aug. 1.

Labels: Asbestos, Mesothelioma, Research, Uncategorized
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Study of Childhood Exposure to Asbestos Focuses on former Libby Residents

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

What are the effects of exposure to low levels of asbestos on children? Are children exposed to low levels of asbestos at greater risk of developing asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma or autoimmune disorders later in life?

Researchers with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York in partnership with the Center for Asbestos Related Disease in Montana and the University of Montana are tackling those questions in an ambitious five-year, $4.8 million study of the effects of low level childhood exposure to asbestos. They are using as a research population people who attended high school in Libby, Montana from 1950 through 1990, then moved away and haven’t returned to live

A public health emergency has been declared in Libby because of the extent of asbestos contamination in the community related to a former vermiculite mine and the high rate of asbestos-related disease. Malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, has occurred at a very high rate in the small northwest Montana community, federal officials say. Lung cancer rates also are 30 percent higher in the Libby population than in similar populations not exposed to asbestos, researchers say.

Through the Libby Epidemiology Research Project, the researchers hope to better understand the effects of low-level asbestos exposure on vulnerable populations such as children whose lungs aren’t fully developed and to identify protective exposure levels.

Researchers also hope to gain insight in the comparative effects of exposure to amphibole asbestos, the kind found in Libby, with chrysotile asbestos, the more common form of asbestos used in building materials and pipe insulation.

Another study will examine the correlation between autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis with the level of Libby asbestos exposure and disease development.

The study is funded by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the federal Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Stephen Levin, a nationally known expert on asbestos related disease at Mt. Sinai, is the principal investigator.

People who meet the criteria or know someone who does should contact the Center for Asbestos Related Disease at (406) 293-9274 or CARD@libbyasbestos.org

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Labels: Asbestos, National News, Research
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Shipbreaking Involves Specific Asbestos Exposure Risks for Workers

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Shipbreaking is a growing industry in the United States and one that poses health and safety risks to workers because of the wide use of asbestos and other hazardous materials in older ships.

Shipyard workers are among the groups of workers who are at higher risk of developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen associated with asbestos exposure, according to the National Cancer Institute. Asbestos was used extensively in ships.

A specialized part of the maritime industry, shipbreaking involves the dismantling and disposal of obsolete U.S. Navy and Maritime Administration ships as well as commercial vessels and offshore drilling rigs. It’s expanding in the United States because the federal government stopped exporting ships to foreign countries for scrapping in the late 1990s due to environmental concerns.

New guidelines published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration outline employers’ obligations to provide safe work conditions for workers involved in shipbreaking.

Because of the structural complexity of larger ships, they are generally dismantled in sections. Each section is then moved ashore for further dismantling.

Specific hazards of shipbreaking noted by OSHA include asbestos exposure for workers removing thermal insulation, handling circuit breakers and cables and removing floor tiles. Additional asbestos exposures can occur from removing gaskets from pipes and from electrical systems. Engine rooms usually contain the most asbestos and take the longest time for removal of asbestos.

Before a section of a ship is cut away, OSHA guidelines say asbestos-containing material should be removed from all areas that are readily accessible.

When asbestos-containing materials are cut with power saws or moved, microscopic asbestos fibers can become airborne, increasing the risk of a worker inhaling the fibers. Inhaled asbestos fibers can lodge in the lungs and remain a lifetime, leading to development of asbestos-related diseases 30 to 50 years after exposure.

Many states require, and OSHA recommends that an asbestos inspector identify all asbestos materials prior to the start of shipbreaking.

Labels: Asbestos, National News
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Wade Rawlins is a former environmental reporter with the Raleigh News & Observer.

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