Tuesday, March 2, 2010
By Wade RawlinsDoctors often have difficulty distinguishing whether a patient has malignant mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lung, or adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer that affects the lung itself. Increasingly, they have used sophisticated blood tests that involve various panels of antibodies to help diagnose malignant mesothelioma.
Antibodies are proteins that are produced as part of the body’s immune system reaction. They are produced to fend off or neutralize invading molecules of cold germs and diseases. Clinicians use antibodies to identify or “tag” the specific antigens that indicate tissue changes consistent with mesothelioma or other diseases. For example, elevated amounts of the PSA antibody are a signal of possible prostate cancer in men so after a certain age men routinely have a PSA test when they get a physical. The antibodies are identified in laboratory blood tests.
Yet, there is no overall consensus as to which cocktail of antibodies is best at predicting the presence of mesothelioma. The lab tests are somewhat costly, so there is a need for development of consensus on guidelines for standardized antibody tests for the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. It could help reduce diagnostic errors and cost.
Recognizing this knowledge gap, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles reviewed hospital medical records and identified 153 patients that were diagnosed from 2005 to 2007 with malignant epithelioid cells in pleural effusions, the excess fluid in the sac that encases the lungs and causes shortness of breath and chest pain. They analyzed the profile of antibodies and antigens of each malignant pleural effusion and correlated it with the various disease diagnoses. Their aim was to evaluate which antibodies were most predictive.
Currently, the number of antibodies analyzed by a lab to make a diagnosis varies widely. Some cell pathologists use just one or two antibodies per case to focus on the most probable diagnosis in a case. Others cast a wide net and employ more than 20 antibodies to test for every possible diagnosis to provide a comprehensive (and more costly) work-up. A maximum of 31 different immunohistochemical tests had been used by cell pathologists during the work up of the 153 cases examined by the researchers, with an average of 6 antibodies per case.
In an analysis of data published in Diagnostic Cytopathology, the researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said the anti-bodies that provided the best odds for specific diagnoses were TTF-1 for pulmonary carcinoma, calretinin for mesothelioma, ER and PR for breast carcinoma, CA125 for Mullerian, CDX2 for gastrointestinal origin of a carcinoma and PSA for prostatic carcinoma.
The antibody panels were able to diagnose correctly 77 percent of the malignant pleural fluid cell specimens from female patients and 50 percent of those from male patients.
The researchers said a systematic approach is needed to select gender specific anti-body panels to evaluate pleural cytology specimens with malignant epithelioid cells. They said their results would need to be confirmed with other tests using larger sample sizes. But they said their preliminary results do suggest that the antibody panels have significantly better predictive value than ad hoc panels selected by individual cell paththologists. They said the use of two anti-body panels tailored to the patient’s gender for the incidence of various tumors provides a cost-effective and sensitive method for the initial work-up of the cases.
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Labels: Featured News, Research
posted by Wade Rawlins at 7:40 PM
Monday, January 18, 2010
People who get diagnosed with mesothelioma fall into two categories, said New York attorney Joseph Belluck.There are those who know automatically how they were exposed to asbestos, the toxic fibers that when inhaled can cause respiratory diseases such as mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.
“They worked in a Navy ship, or they worked in a factory,” said Belluck, noting occupations commonly associated with asbestos exposure. “They were an automobile mechanic. Their father was a plumber.”
Then there are other people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma who have no idea how they were exposed. They’re looking for answers.
“In almost every case like that, we are able to find an exposure to asbestos,” said Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox, a nationally-known law firm that specializes in representing victims of asbestos-related disease. “We’ve represented dentists, veterinarians, physicians, laboratory technicians, teachers. A lot of times people have worked with asbestos, for example dentists or jewelers, and they’re not even aware that they did.”
A Life History
Belluck said it’s important to keep in mind that if someone has mesothelioma, then they were exposed to asbestos at some point. Identifying the exposure is a matter of thoroughly examining their background.
“We start by meeting with our client and taking a very, very thorough life history of the client that includes their occupational history, any military service that they had and any work with asbestos that they would have done at their home or on their automobiles,” Belluck said.
“ A lot of times the clients aren’t even aware that certain things they did exposed them to asbestos,” Belluck said. “So that interview is very, very important.
“We have dealt with people in all walk’s of life so we have a good idea of what questions to ask,” he said.
In addition, the lawyers gather information about the occupations of their client’s parent, children and spouses to see if there might have been second-hand exposure to asbestos through other family members.
“If the person served on a ship in the Navy or the Merchant Marine, we would get records from the Coast Guard or the Navy as to the design of the ship and what equipment was on the ship,” Belluck said. “We would hire a researcher in Washington to go to the Naval archives or the Coast Guard archives and actually pull the drawings and documents related to the specific ship that our clients were on.”
“There is a lot of investigation that goes into the case prior to filing it so we know who the proper defendants are,” he said.
New York Work Sites
For many work sites in New York, Belluck & Fox has already conducted extensive investigations and document reviews and is familiar with the equipment and types of boilers on site and possible ways workers could be exposed to asbestos.
“If someone worked at the Kodak plant in Rochester or the General Electric plant in Schenectady, we’ve already done a lot of work on those sites and the products that we were there,” Belluck said.
“We would use a lot of records and documents that we already have in house here, which is really the main reason to hire a firm like ours,” Belluck said. “We already have a lot of the information and knowledge stored here that allows us to prosecute the lawsuit.”
The number of defendants often named in asbestos lawsuits also makes the cases somewhat unusual. “There may be 15 or 20 parties that contribute to a settlement or overall recovery,” Belluck said. “The majority of defendants settle and one or two hang around and we either have to start trial or finish trial against those.”
Fast Track Docket
Belluck said most cases settle out of court, although every case is prepared as if it is going to trial. Because New York courts often grant requests to put asbestos lawsuits on an expedited schedule because of the plaintiff’s declining health, the cases are often resolved in a year or less.
“It’s a very, very fast docket.” Belluck said. “From the time that we get the case until the time that it’s over is usually seven to 12 months.”
The cases typically settle without a trial, which means the plaintiffs receive their compensation more quickly.
“There are a lot of benefits to settlement for everybody in terms of the risk involved, expense of trial, the emotional and time commitment of a trial,” Belluck said.
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Labels: Asbestos, Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 11:48 PM
Thursday, January 7, 2010
A second surgery to treat a recurrence of malignant mesothelioma in the lining of the lung is not necessarily effective in helping patients live longer, Italian researchers say, based on a small study described in the January 2010 edition of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, a medical journal.The researchers, Dr. Leonardo Politi of the University of Florence, and Dr. Giuseppe Borzelleno of the University of Verona, examined the cases of 74 mesothelioma patients who underwent surgery over 20 years to remove a diseased lung as well the membrane tissue covering the lung and heart, and diaphragm muscle. The procedure is called an extrapleural pneumonectomy.
The researchers said that of 57 patients for whom there was follow-up medical information, 11 patients experienced a recurrence of mesothelioma a year-and-a-half to 12 years after the initial surgery. Of these, eight patients were in good enough health to undergo a second surgery in which additional diseased tissue was removed.
The length that the patients survived after their second surgery ranged from six months to 29 months with the median survival rate 14.5 months.
The researchers conclude that in the cases examined, the second surgery did not offer the expected curative benefits. They said the procedure should be considered a remedy that temporarily relieved a patient’s pain, but didn’t provide a cure. They argue that a second surgery should be considered an option for a select group of malignant mesothelioma patients who cannot undergo additional radiation therapy.
In an accompanying commentary, Dr. David Rice, director of the Mesothelioma Program at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, writes that partial removal of malignant tumors to manage malignant pleural mesothelioma remains controversial surgery. Rice said that extrapleural pneumonectomies generally provided a more complete removal of tumors than simply removing the lining of the lung. Still he acknowledged that patients who underwent extrapleural pneumonectomies did not appear to survive longer than patients who underwent less radical surgeries.
Journal Article
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Labels: Featured News, Mesothelioma
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:00 PM
Tuesday, December 29, 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
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Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:35 PM
Friday, December 11, 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.
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Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 10:05 AM
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
By Wade RawlinsCambria 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
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Labels: Featured News, National News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 6:58 PM
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
By Wade RawlinsMuch remains to be learned about environmental exposure to asbestos and the incidence of mesothelioma among people who have only "second hand" exposure such as families of asbestos workers or people who live near asbestos plants. That is a focus of new research in Libby, Montana where vermiculite ore tainted with asbestos has caused a high rate of asbestos-related disease. It's also the subject of recently completed research from Egypt.
A study published by researchers in Egypt earlier this year examined environmental exposure to asbestos near Cairo, Egypt and the link to malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lungs. The study appeared in the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, a publication of the World Health Organization.
The prevalence of mesothelioma, an incurable cancer, has been increasing throughout the industrialized world with the incidence predicted to peak around 2020, the study said. A number of studies have linked exposure to airborne asbestos fibers in the workplace to increased incidence of mesothelioma among workers employed in mining, textile manufacturing, insulation and asbestos cement factories. Families of asbestos workers and those living near asbestos mines and mills also are at increased risk of mesothelioma from environmental exposure, studies suggest.
The Egyptian researchers focused their study on Shubra El-Kheima, an industrial city at the northern edge of Cairo. For decades starting in 1948, the city had a large manufacturing plant that used chrysotile asbestos to make asbestos cement pipe and reinforced concrete products. In 2004, the Egyptian government decided to ban imports of asbestos and the plant closed.
While the plant was still operating full scale, the researchers obtained air samples inside the plant and in neighborhoods up to about 2 miles away. That allowed the researchers to calculate more precisely the amount of asbestos fibers that workers and residents were inhaling and then to estimate the relationship between levels of exposure and rates of mesothelioma.
Researchers did health screenings including x-rays on 487 workers in the plant and on 2,913 residents living in six communities in the vicinity of the plant. They found that about 3 percent of people exposed to asbestos living near the plant had malignant mesothelioma while about 1 percent of the workers did. Both rates exceed the norm. (Because mesothelioma takes 30 to 40 years to appear, it’s not surprising that the number of workers at the plant with the disease was not larger.)
Researchers said a significant finding of the study was that people exposed to asbestos in the environment were at 26 times greater risk of developing mesothelioma than people in a more distant neighborhood, who had no known environmental asbestos exposure nearby.
The community of El-Wehda El-Arabia, directly downwind of the plant, had the highest concentration of asbestos fibers in air samples and also had the highest incidence of mesothelioma among residents of the six communities studied, the researchers found. Thirty-nine residents had malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Researchers also found a correlation between length of exposure to asbestos and rates of mesothelioma. The more years residents were exposed to asbestos, the greater the likelihood of having the disease with a significant increase for those with 40 years or more of exposure. More than 60 percent of the residents with mesothelioma were women, the researchers. They attributed that to their long residence in the area.
The researchers said the study had an important message: the mesothelioma threat will remain for years to come and doctors should look for early signs of mesothelioma in people who had had environmental exposure to mesothelioma.
Read the study
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Labels: Asbestos, Featured News, International News, Mesothelioma
posted by Wade Rawlins at 5:16 PM
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By Wade RawlinsAsbestos is among the most thoroughly investigated of any workplace health hazard. Yet, certain questions still intrigue researchers including the relative potencies of different types of asbestos, the role of fiber size in determining toxicity and the workplace hazards of unregulated mineral fibers that mimic asbestos. But should these questions be a barrier to a national ban on asbestos use?
Researchers at the University of Washington, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Center for Construction Research and Training, argue in the current issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, that unanswered questions about asbestos should not stand in the way of more protective occupational health policy.
Along those lines, the researchers say the most important health priority regarding the six forms of asbestos regulated by federal workplace safety authorities is—simply put— to ban their production and use. Policy makers often must act in the face of uncertainties to safeguard public health, they say
“There is ample reason to do this without waiting for more evidence on the relative potency of chrysotile versus the five regulated amphibole asbestos minerals,” Dr. Michael A. Silverstein, a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, and his co-authors write.
After all the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer recently reaffirmed its conclusion that all forms of asbestos including chrysotile cause mesothelioma as well as cancers of the lung, larynx and ovary. The World Health Organization has urged a worldwide ban on asbestos. Forty-three countries now have asbestos bans in place.
Waiting for more precise information about potential risks before taking action is essentially making a date with an uncertain future and exposing more workers to asbestos-related disease. The diseases typically don’t appear until decades after exposure.
The researchers note that attempts since the 1970s to develop dependable statistical risk assessment models for asbestos have been repeatedly undercut by limitations on reliable exposure data. The conditions of exposure vary too much and remain difficult to classify.
EPA’s current risk assessment method assumes that all types of asbestos fibers are equally potent for causing lung cancer and mesothelioma. But lobbyists for the asbestos industry have sought to change the model to back their claim that chrysotile asbestos—the most common in use today—is less toxic.
In 2008, EPA's attempt to develop a risk assessment model predicting the relative toxicities for different combinations of asbestos fiber types and dimensions eventually ran aground. EPA’s scientific advisory board recommended that the model be rejected, and EPA administrator agreed that it couldn’t be used as the basis for setting public policy. At the time, Silverstein and more than 80 fellow scientists submitted comments opposing the change, saying there had been no new studies that offered a compelling reason for a new risk assessment.
“The history of asbestos cancer risk assessment illustrates the point that elegant mathematics do not make good public policy,” the researchers write. “Trying to turn fundamentally unreliable data into a valid and reliable output is statistical alchemy, no matter how sophisticated and complex the mathematical models.”
Given the difficulty of distinguishing the toxicity of one type of asbestos fiber from another when all are known to cause cancer, the most health protective course is to err on the side of caution, they say.
The researchers note that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate is to take protective action based on the best available evidence. They cite a 1980 Supreme Court decision that OSHA does not have to calculate the exact probability of harm before acting, and “so long as they are supported by a body of reputable scientific thought, the agency is free to use conservative assumptions in interpreting the data… risking error on the side of over protection rather than under-protection.”
While improving analytic methods and developing more precise understanding of the risk of various types of by asbestos fiber remain valid research pursuits, the researchers say the only way to stop asbestos-related disease is to stop the use of all types of asbestos.
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Labels: Asbestos, Featured News, Mesothelioma, Research
posted by Wade Rawlins at 11:02 AM
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
By Wade RawlinsAsbestos mineral fibers gained widespread use in building materials and construction decades before the deadly effects of breathing asbestos fibers became apparent in cases of cancer and fatal respiratory ailments. Today, microscopic carbon nanotubes offer another “miracle” material with extraordinary properties potentially useful in everything from miniaturizing electronics to delivering medicine. But scientists say much more research is needed as to whether carbon nanotubes are as toxic to humans as asbestos.
In a new study using mice, researchers at North Carolina State University set out to determine whether nanotubes, — which are a fraction of the width of a human hair— would reach the lining of the lung if inhaled. The pleura or lining of the lung is one of the tissues that is affected by asbestos fibers, causing development of mesothelioma, a fatal cancer, and asbestosis, a scarring of tissue.
Dr. James Bonner, associate professor of environmental and molecular toxicology at N.C. State and senior author of the study, said the inhaled nanotubes reached the lining of the lungs of mice and caused scarring and a unique pathologic reaction on the surface of the pleura—the target tissue for mesothelioma.
The reaction began within one day of inhalation of the nanotubes, when clusters of immune cells began amassing on the surface of the pleura. Fibrosis, a scarring of the lining the lungs, that also occurs with asbestos exposure, began two weeks after inhalation.
The study shows that the carbon nanotubes can affect the lining of the lungs, the researchers said, though the study was too short in duration to assess whether the mice would eventually develop cancer.
The mice’s immune reaction and scarring disappeared within three months of exposure, but the mice only were exposed once for six hours to carbon nanotubes. “It remains unclear whether the pleura could recover from chronic or repeated exposures,” Bonner said.
The collaborative study by researchers at N.C. State, the Hamner Institutes of Health Sciences and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, is the latest to probe similarities in health responses to asbestos fibers and nanotubes. Scientists have been raising concerns about the potential toxicity of nanotubes in recent years as the material has shown promise for many uses.
A recent article by French researchers in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology explored the question of whether asbestos and carbon nanotubes pose similar health risks. The researchers noted that carbon nanotubes resembled asbestos fibers in their needle-like shape and could be inhaled unknowingly and lodge in the lungs. Two recent studies by Japanese researchers showed that occurrence of malignant mesothelioma in mice and rats exposed to carbon nanotubes.
Bonner said more research is needed and it’s not yet known whether inhaled carbon nanotubes cause cancer in the lungs or lining of the lungs. The study suggests that minimizing the inhalation of nanotubes is prudent until further research on the long-term effects is conducted.
N.C. State release
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:24 PM
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The New York law firm of Belluck & Fox has obtained a $1.5 million verdict and punitive damages of $750,000 against Fisher Controls International following the death of a worker at Hooker Chemical in Buffalo, New York, who was exposed to asbestos on the job. The verdicts in Estate of Ronald Drabczyk, Index No. I 2005/1583, were rendered on October 19 and 20 in Erie County Court in Buffalo, New York. Judge John Lane presided.
Fisher Controls, based in Marshalltown, Iowa, is a subsidiary of Emerson Electric Co., based in St. Louis, MO. Emerson is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMR.
Belluck & Fox represented the family of Ronald Drabczyk, a factory worker at a chemical plant in Niagara Falls, NY. Drabczyk died from mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Drabczyk repaired valves manufactured by Fisher Controls which contained asbestos gaskets and packing. The valves were sold by Fisher to the Hooker plant where Drabczyk overhauled them from 1970-1988. The evidence at trial demonstrated that Fisher was aware of the dangers of asbestos as early as 1946 but failed to place any warning on its products.
In addition to awarding Drabczyk`s estate $1.5 million in damages, the jury found that Fisher Controls acted negligently in failing to warn of the dangers associated with the valves. It found that Fisher Controls was responsible for five percent of the fault associated with his exposure and that the exposure to the valves was a substantial contributing factor in causing Drabczyk's mesothelioma. Further, the jury found that Fisher Controls acted with reckless disregard for the safety of Drabczyk. Under New York law, this finding of reckless disregard renders Fisher Controls responsible for the entire verdict, minus a set-off for prior settlements.
This is the first instance that Fisher Controls has been found liable for using asbestos in its products.
The jury also awarded $750,000 in punitive damages, finding that Fisher Controls acted with wanton and reckless manners toward Drabczyk and others. This is the first punitive damage award in an asbestos case in New York State in more than 20 years.
The case was tried by Belluck & Fox partner Jordan Fox and Michael P. Joyce of the Law Office of Michael P. Joyce in Boston, MA. The law firm of Lipsitz, Green, Scime Cambria, based in Buffalo, New York, served as co-counsel in the case. The trial lasted six weeks.
"The jury's verdict confirms that this corporation acted in a negligent and reckless manner in selling its valves without ever warning of the dangers associated with the asbestos-containing products used in these valves," Fox said. "The punitive damage verdict underscores that corporations have a duty to workers to protect them from hazards known or knowable regarding their products. The jury held Fisher Controls accountable for the fatal consequences of its actions. Although we cannot bring Mr. Drabczyk back, we hope that this verdict will send a message that these actions will not be tolerated."
Belluck & Fox, LLP is a nationally recognized law firm that represents individuals with asbestos and mesothelioma claims, as well as other serious injuries. The firm has obtained verdicts and settlements of nearly $225 million on behalf of its clients. Partner Jordan Fox has been named to the Best Lawyers in America and to Super Lawyers and on two separate occasions his verdicts were featured as the National Law Journal's Largest Verdict of the Year. Partner Joseph W. Belluck is a Super Lawyer who has prosecuted numerous cases involving injuries from asbestos, defective medical products, tobacco and lead paint, including a recent asbestos case that settled for over $12 million.
Belluck & Fox sponsors www.mesotheliomahelp.net, one of the Web's leading sources of information about mesothelioma. The website features in-depth information on the diagnosis and treatment of pleural mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma. MesotheliomaHelp.net also features patient profiles, biographic and contact information for mesothelioma specialists throughout the country and a daily blog with the latest research on mesothelioma treatments.
Labels: Featured News, National News
posted by Your Attorney at 7:57 AM
Friday, October 16, 2009
Medical researchers in North Carolina have announced a new study to investigate the possibility of a genetic predisposition to the development of mesothelioma. The Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston Salem, NC and FirstHealth Carolinas, has undertaken research to better understand why only some individuals exposed to asbestos develop mesothelioma.Dr. Jill Ohar of Wake Forest University, the study’s principal investigator, has spent more than 20 years studying mesothelioma. Her previous work includes research into understanding why some people and families appear more susceptible to developing the disease and whether such susceptibility could be inherited.
“Over years of research, we have determined that there is a strong tendency for mesothelioma to run in families and it tends to be associated with a family history of cancer, which suggests a genetic susceptibility,” Ohar said in a prepared statement about the current study released by FirstHealth Carolinas.
Compared to other groups who were exposed to asbestos, Ohar’s previous research has found that individuals who developed mesothelioma shared certain traits, such as an increased risk of cancer among relatives, according to an article on the research in the March 2007 issue of the medical journal Respiratory Medicine.
Similarly, the current study examines associated environmental factors and genetic markers of individuals diagnosed with mesothelioma to determine the particular genetic factors that make some families more susceptible than others to mesothelioma and other forms of cancer.
Chris Miller, director of clinical trials at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, said the current study presented an exciting opportunity to increase understanding about the causes of mesothelioma.
“The FirstHealth Clinical Trials staff is excited about this opportunity to assist one of our state’s medical research institutions further the knowledge about this deadly disease and the factors that cause it,” Miller said.
FirstHealth of the Carolinas is a private, non-governmental, not-for-profit health care network serving 15 counties in the mid-Carolinas.
New Mesothelioma Study
Labels: Featured News
posted by Your Attorney at 10:59 AM
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
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
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 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
Monday, August 24, 2009
By Wade RawlinsA federal bankruptcy judge in Florida this month held that a successor company to a business that emerged from bankruptcy must face a lawsuit arising from allegations that products sold by the original business caused a woman’s mesothelioma.
The case concerns Mary Van Brunt, a New York woman who developed mesothelioma in 2006, nearly 30 years after buying home remodeling products containing asbestos that allegedly were sold by Grossman’s Inc. She died from the rare form of asbestos-related cancer in August 2008.
Before her death, she and Gordon Van Brunt filed a products liability lawsuit in state court in Erie County, New York in 2007, contending that she had developed mesothelioma from exposure to products containing asbestos that the Van Brunts had acquired in 1977 during a home remodeling project.
The Van Brunts’ lawsuit named JELD-WEN, and 57 other defendants. JELD-WEN is a manufacturer of building products headquartered in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It acquired Grossman’s, the company alleged to have sold the products containing asbestos to the Van Brunts.
The Van Brunt’s lawsuit has played out in courts in three states. In both Florida and Delaware, they won legal victories that could help those seeking compensation for asbestos-related disease from companies that have been through bankruptcy.
JELD-WEN went to federal bankruptcy court in Delaware and then Florida to try to get the court to block the Van Brunts' lawsuit filed in New York. JELD-WEN contended in its court filings that it was not liable for Mary Van Brunt’s illness because Grossman’s two earlier bankruptcy reorganizations had barred any claims that arose before the date the court confirmed the bankruptcy reorganization.
The issue turned on when Mary Van Brunts’ claims arose: Was it when the Van Brunts bought the home remodeling products or when her illness appeared?
The Van Brunts argued that their legal claims did not arise until the fall of 2006 when Mary Van Brunt began to experience symptoms of mesothelioma, a disease that often appears 30 to 40 years after exposure. Doctors diagnosed her illness in 2007.
The courts in Delaware and Florida agreed with the Van Brunts and refused to bar their lawsuit against JELD-WEN and others.
“Court’s have long recognized the unique nature of asbestos-related illnesses and struggled with how to balance the need to make asbestos victims whole without crippling businesses with asbestos-related liability,” said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol in Florida, agreeing that Van Brunt’s legal claims were not discharged by court’s approval of a bankruptcy reorganization plan for Grossman’s.
Grossman’s Inc. was a subsidiary of Evans Products Co. In 1985, Evans Products Co., filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the southern district of Florida. The court approved a reorganization plan and when the company re-emerged from bankruptcy in 1986, it took the name, Grossman’s Inc., ones of its subsidiaries.
“If any unknown asbestos injuries manifest themselves after plan confirmation, the debtor or a successor in interest, must deal with them in the ordinary course of business,” Cristol said.
Companies such as JELD-WEN have to balance the risks and benefits of possible legal liability for asbestos claims when deciding whether to buy the assets of companies emerging from bankruptcy, Cristol said.
Cristol’s ruling echoed a decision in bankruptcy court in Delaware a year earlier. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware held that the legal precedent established in decisions in the Third Circuit was that a claim for asbestos-related injuries did not arise until the symptoms manifested themselves.
The court said that the counter argument— to require a person who has no idea that he or she has been harmed by a product to file a claim against a company involved in bankruptcy proceeding —was absurd.
In 1997, Grossman’s had filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The court approved its reorganization plan in December 1997. JELD-WEN acquired a majority interest in Grossman’s stock and eventually merged the companies in 1999 under the name JELD-WEN.
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Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:11 PM
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
By Wade RawlinsSheet metal workers are at higher risk of asbestos-related diseases, according to a new study by researchers at Duke University and the Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver, Spring Maryland.
The study, published in the August issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found “a statistically significant excess mortality” for mesothelioma, asbestosis and cancers of the pleura or lining of the chest and abdomen. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer nearly always related to asbestos exposure.
Researchers, led by John Dement of Duke’s Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, analyzed the overall mortality patterns of 17,345 workers with 20 years or more in the sheet metal trade who had taken part in a long-running asbestos disease-screening program. That provided the researchers chest x-rays and health records of the workers. The researchers also looked at effects of asbestos exposure, smoking and asbestosis on the risk of lung cancer.
Sheet metal workers fabricate and install heating and air conditioning ductwork, produce appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners and work in shipyards and the railroad industry.
For many years, they were sporadically exposed to asbestos that was being sprayed on surfaces for fire-proofing until that method of application was banned in 1973. Today, use of asbestos is strictly regulated and workers’ greatest potential for exposure is during renovation of older asbestos-insulated ventilation systems.
The workers in the study had been involved in the sheet metal trade on average about 32 years, and nearly all were white men. Their average age was about 57 years old.
The group’s overall mortality was lower than the U.S. population’s standardized death rate, the researchers said, suggesting the workers were a hardy lot.
Still, the researchers found significantly higher risk of certain asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis. The analysis also found a significantly higher risk of lung cancer and cardio obstructive pulmonary disease among those workers in whom tests had detected changes to functional in their lungs.
The researchers said the study offered additional evidence that workers who experienced periodic exposure to asbestos are at increased risk of asbestos-related diseases. Even workers whose x-rays had not revealed asbestosis or abnormalities in the lining of the lungs had significantly increased risk of mesothelioma and cancers of the pleura, the study found.
The Sheet Metal Workers International Association and the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning National Association established the screening program in 1985 to examine the health hazards in the sheet metal industry in the United States and Canada. More than 18,000 workers took part in the screening program from 1986 to 2004.
Abstract of Study
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Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 10:11 AM
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
By Wade RawlinsA draft report, prepared by the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations to protect worker health, summarizes the current scientific understanding of asbestos and other mineral fibers and offers a roadmap to explore unresolved questions.
The reappraisal of asbestos and other mineral fibers, written by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is intended to guide the development of specific research to reduce scientific uncertainties and provide a firm foundation for future policies.
Asbestos has been a prominent public health issue for more than three decades. During the mid- to late-20th century, scientists made advances in the understanding of the serious health effects of inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers.
Yet, many questions remain, the report says. For example, due the complexity of asbestos minerals, the scientific literature contains inconsistencies about the definition of the term asbestos for health protection guidelines. And debate continues about whether to include certain non-asbestos mineral fibers under federal asbestos policies.
The results of new research can inform development of new exposure limits and policies for asbestos and other mineral fibers that are based on well-established risk estimates, NIOSH researchers say.
The report sets three goals:
- Develop better sampling and analytical methods for asbestos fibers
- Develop a clearer understanding of what makes elongated mineral particles toxic
- Develop information on workplace exposures to various elongated mineral particles and health risks associated with them.
In the 1970s, federal agencies developed regulatory standards for exposure to airborne asbestos fibers based on evidence of respiratory disease in workers. Since the standards took effect, the use of asbestos has declined substantially and mining of asbestos in the U.S. stopped in 2002. Still, many asbestos products remain in use and new products continue to be manufactured and imported.
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. Since then, they have leveled off at about 1,500 per year in the U.S. and are expected to continue for several more decades.
Meanwhile, annual deaths from malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by exposure to asbestos and other mineral fibers, 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.
The report says that scientific studies of workers exposed to asbestos have clearly documented increased risk of respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, mesothelioma and non-malignant abnormalities involving the lining of the lung. In addition, researchers have determined that laryngeal cancer can be caused by asbestos exposure and there is evidence asbestos exposure may cause other diseases including stomach and colorectal cancers and immune disorders.
Despite the decline in use, an estimated 1.3 million employees in construction and general industry still face significant asbestos exposure on the job, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates.
Over time, the nature of workplace exposures has changed. In earlier decades, workers were exposed to asbestos that was used in manufacturing processes such as in textile mills and cement pipe fabrication. Today, the primary exposure is during maintenance activities and de-contamination of buildings containing asbestos. Researchers and policymakers need better projections of the number of workers exposed to asbestos fibers now and in the future, the report says.
Workplace safety standards initially focused on six commercially used forms of asbestos mineral: chrysotile asbestos; and five amphibole varieties: amosite, crocidolite, actinolite asbestos, anthophyllite asbestos and tremolite asbestos.
As researchers learned more about the link between the dimensions of asbestos fibers and their ability to cause respiratory disease and cancer, they became more interested in other elongated mineral fibers that could be inhaled.
In 1990, NIOSH broadened its definition of airborne asbestos fibers to encompass other elongated mineral fibers, in part because the common method to test for microscopic airborne fibers could not distinguish between the various fibers.
Still, much less is known about other mineral fibers in terms of health effects. More research is needed to determine the toxicity of the elongated mineral fibers, the report says. Populations of special interest include the workers at taconite mines in Minnesota and the talc mines in upstate New York who are exposed to mineral fibers that are non-asbestos.
An ideal outcome of the draft roadmap, the researchers write, would be scientific studies that supported recommendations for exposure limits to elongated mineral fibers to protect workers’ health.
The report currently is being reviewed by The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the nation’s advisors on science, medicine and engineering. That is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2009.
NIOSH Report
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:24 PM
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
By Wade RawlinsWorkers in North Carolina textiles mills that used asbestos in manufacturing are at higher risk of lung cancer and other serious illnesses, according to a new study in an international journal on environmental and workplace health. The study, by researchers at Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Nevada, in the current issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine offers further evidence that exposure to chrysotile asbestos in textile manufacturing is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
Researchers tracked 5,770 workers who worked at least one day in one of four North Carolina textile plants that produced asbestos products between 1950 and 1973. They found that the workers’ mortality rate from all causes as well lung cancer and other cancers was significantly higher than expected compared to the national population. They also found that the risk of lung cancer and asbestosis increased in proportion to the estimated exposure to asbestos fibers.
Asbestos is the name of a group of fibrous minerals with long thin fibers. It is a known human carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma and other respiratory illnesses. Its use is now highly regulated. But until the 1970s, asbestos was widely used in manufacturing, particularly for building materials, because of its properties of heat resistance and durability.
The textile plants, which were located in Charlotte, Davidson and Marshville, converted raw asbestos, imported primarily from Canada, and cotton fibers into yarn and woven materials.
There are two general types of asbestos: amphibole and chrysotile asbestos. And there is some debate among scientists about the relative toxicity of the different forms. Some studies have suggested that amphibole fibers stay in the lungs longer and may be more toxic to humans.
The researchers focused on chrysotile asbestos, which was used in these textile mills to produce yarn and other woven materials. (That’s the same form of asbestos fibers detected in samples taken from the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.)
The researchers findings challenge studies that suggest that chrysotile asbestos is safe for use or does not cause mesothelioma.
The researchers reported that mortality rates for lung cancer, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, were all significantly higher than expected. For lung cancer, the mortality rate increased with the length of employment, they said.
The researchers estimated textile workers exposure to asbestos fibers using work records and about 3,600 industrial hygiene measurements taken in the plants by North Carolina health department investigators between 1935 and 1986. That helped them estimate fiber concentrations in the air.
One limitation the researchers faced was that mesothelioma was not coded separately as a cause of death by the International Classification of Diseases until 1999. So textile workers who died before that wouldn’t have had that listed as a cause of death. The researchers said the mortality rates for mesothelioma and pleural cancer combined was substantially greater than expected, though imprecise because of the small number coded that way.
Exposure to asbestos usually occurs by breathing air contaminated with microscopic asbestos fibers such as in workplaces that use asbestos. The adverse health effects of the exposure often do not show up for 20 to 30 years.
In 1998, federal environmental regulators banned all new uses of asbestos; established used are still allowed. EPA regulates the release of asbestos from factories and during building demolition or renovation to prevent asbestos from getting into the environment. EPA established regulations that require school systems to inspect for damaged asbestos and to eliminate or reduce the exposure by sealing the asbestos or removing it.
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Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 7:11 PM
Thursday, July 23, 2009
By Wade RawlinsThe case of a Michigan school librarian suggests that the definition of asbestos should be broadened, researchers say. In a paper published in the July issue of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Dr. Michael R. Harbut and colleagues report on treating a 55-year-old woman who suffers from a stabbing chest pain, has scar tissue on her lungs and other symptoms that meet the classic definition of asbestosis. A scarring of the lungs, asbestosis is typically associated with inhaling asbestos fibers.
The woman, whose name the researchers withheld for medical privacy, has been treated at the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers at Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
She has experienced pain in the right side of her chest for years. It began as soreness and has progressed to a knife-like pain. She had begun requiring narcotics to handle the pain in recent years. She continues to work as a school librarian in the taconite mining region of Michigan.
The researchers say the most likely cause of the woman’s ailments was dust from taconite mining that her father brought home on his clothes from the mine, when she was a child. He worked as a miner from 1962 to 1969.
Taconite is a rock rich in silica that is used in the production of steel and as a road-patch material. It is mined in Michigan and Minnesota.
The United States government doesn’t classify taconite as asbestos or asbestiform material. But it has been associated with asbestos-related diseases.
“The identification of a material which has not been categorized as asbestos, but causes a disease consistent with asbestosis, requires a reevaluation of the definition of asbestos,” said Mark Harbut, M.D., co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers and his colleagues. “This is especially important within the context of legislative efforts to prohibit the use of asbestos.
The researchers say their findings support previous reports that dusts produced by taconite mining can cause the same health problems as other fibers already defined as asbestos.
Currently, the Minnesota Department of Health is conducting a study of the cause of more than 48 cases of mesothelioma linked with mining in northeastern Minnesota.
The case suggests that the definition of asbestos should be broadened, they say.
“The question is logically asked, ‘What is asbestos?’” the researchers write. “The most honest answer is, ‘A fiber which causes asbestosis.’”
Labels: Featured News, Mesothelioma
posted by Wade Rawlins at 10:20 AM
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
By WADE RAWLINSThe former owner of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine and mill in the U.S. has reached a legal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to address contamination caused by the former operation.
Under terms of the consent decree, G-I Holdings Inc., formerly known as GAF Corp., will take steps immediately to fence and secure the 1,673-acre abandoned mine and mill site near Lowell, Vermont.
The site has two towering piles of mine and mill waste that are eroding and polluting downstream surface waters, say attorneys with the Department of Justice.
The piles also attract hikers, rock collectors and ATV enthusiasts and may expose people who visit the site to particles of airborne asbestos, Justice officials say. Inhaling asbestos fibers can cause serious respiratory problems and forms of cancer.
G-I Holdings will provide onsite surveillance and will monitor air emissions from the piles and conduct dust suppression if necessary and provide support to EPA and Vermont for future monitoring. The work will be carried out over eight years and G-I will spend up to $7.75 million.
G-I, which has been under bankruptcy protection since 2001, will reimburse the federal government and Vermont a portion of the estimated $300 million for past and future clean-up costs and off site contamination. G-I will pay up to $25.8 million of the cleanup costs. The company also will pay $850,000 for damages to local wetlands and streams.
“The cornerstone of this settlement is that G-I is responsible for completing extensive work at the Vermont Asbestos Group Mine Site, focusing on site security, air monitoring and investigating and sampling certain mine tailings,” John C. Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement. “G-I will also pay for its share of cleanup costs for this site and nine other contaminated sites around the country.”
The federal government sued G-I in 2008, asking the court to order the company to take immediate action to address pollution that could pose an imminent threat to public health.
Headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, G-I Holdings and its subsidiary Building Materials Corporation of America make roofing materials such as flashing, vents and shingles. The company has operated under bankruptcy protection since 2001.
The Vermont site is the most significant of 13 contaminated industrial sites covered by the settlement. G-I will contribute $104,615 as its share of cleanup costs to resolve federal claims where its predecessors disposed of hazardous waste.
In addition, the federal government has up to 10 years to bring claims for cleanup costs and environmental damage at three related heavily-contaminated industrial sites in New York and New Jersey —the GAF Chemical site, the LCP Chemicals Inc Superfund site and the Diamond Alkali Superfund site – referred to collectively as the Linden sites.
The consent decree was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the federal court.
Chrysotile asbestos is one of two general types of asbestos and the most common found in products in the United States. For example, the asbestos fibers detected in the samples taken at the World Trade Center site were chrysotile asbestos.
U.S. Department of Justice Release
Labels: Featured News, Mesothelioma
posted by Your Attorney at 10:39 PM
Monday, July 13, 2009
New cases of mesothelioma in Australia will continue increasing until around 2017, a new report predicts. The report by Safe Work Australia, which develops national policy on occupational health and safety issues, said the number of new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed annually in the nation down under has been rising dramatically since at least 1982, the first year of complete national data. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen closely linked to asbestos exposure. The number of new cases increased from 156 in 1982 to 597 in 2005, the report said.
The general demographic pattern revealed in the Australia study is similar to that in a new U.S. study, with four out of five mesothelioma deaths among men and mostly older men at that. Use of asbestos peaked in both the United States and Australia in the 1970s and has since been regulated and sharply reduced.
But because of the long lag time of 20 to 40 years from exposure to development of mesothelioma, the number of new cases will keep rising for some additional years, reflecting the legacy of extensive asbestos use in earlier decades, researchers say.
Researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the current issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) report that the overall annual deaths from mesothelioma in the U.S. are still increasing, though the rate as a portion of the population has been stable in recent years. More than 18,000 deaths from mesothelioma were reported in the U.S from 1999 to 2005, researchers reported.
Although asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, it is still imported and a substantial amount of asbestos in buildings eventually must be removed. An estimated 1.3 million American construction workers and general industry workers are exposed to asbestos, researchers say, underscoring the need for efforts to minimize exposure.
Asbestos exposure in the Australian workplace is now regulated and minimized, so new cases of mesothelioma should eventually start going down. But the number of new cases is projected to increase through much of the next decade – longer than in the U.S. American researchers project deaths should peak here around 2010.
The Australian report provides national, state and territory data of the number and incidence rate of new cases and deaths from mesothelioma in Australia.
“It is exciting to be part of the important task of harmonizing occupational health and safety laws and … across Australia,” Tom Phillips, chairman of the Safe Work Australia Council said in a statement. The council agreed to specifications for maintenance of an Australian Mesothelioma Registry to be a comprehensive source of data on asbestos exposure.
The overall number of deaths in Australia generally increased over the period from 1997 to 2006, according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. In 2006, there were 486 deaths attributed to mesothelioma. More than 80 percent of the deaths were men, and three-quarters were over age 65, very much like the profile of newly diagnosed cases.
Overall, the age-adjusted death rate in Australia due to mesothelioma was 23 deaths per million population. In comparison, the annual U.S. rate is 14 deaths per million.
Mesothelioma of the pleura, a cancer affecting the protective lining of the lung and chest cavity, was by far the most common form of mesothelioma diagnosed in Australia, involving 94 percent of the cases. Mesothelioma of the peritoneal, the abdominal lining, was reported in about 5 percent of cases.
Consumption of asbestos for manufacturing peaked in Australia in about 1975. Over 60 percent of all production and 90 percent of consumption of asbestos occurred in the asbestos cement manufacturing industry.
The most populous states, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, generally had the most new cases of mesothelioma from 2001 to 2005, the report said.
New South Wales, which has by far the most cases, was the first state in Australia to mine asbestos. Half the houses built in New South Wales from the end of World War II through 1954 were built of asbestos cement.
Similarly, in the U.S., the most populous states generally had the highest number of deaths. California, the largest state in population with an estimated 36 million people, led in mesothelioma-related deaths with 1,779 from 1999-2005.
Labels: Featured News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:09 PM
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
By WADE RAWLINSResidents of a Pennsylvania community would like for federal environmental investigators to remove asbestos waste from their community rather than bury it. In April, the BoRit site joined the national Superfund list, a tally by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the nation’s most polluted sites in need of cleanup.
EPA officials listed the site because it’s in a densely populated area near Philadelphia, and nearby residents could potentially be exposed to airborne asbestos and to asbestos contamination along Tannery Run, Rose Valley Creek and Wissahickon Creek. Microscopic asbestos fibers can be inhaled when airborne and lodge in the lungs, causing respiratory problems and various forms of cancer, including mesothelioma, decades after the initial exposure.
In a June 11 letter, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania urged the EPA to give strong consideration to complete removal, destruction or recycling of the asbestos at the site, according to the Ambler Gazette newspaper.
“It is my understanding that EPA is in the process of shipping dirt to the BoRit site,” Specter wrote, according to the newspaper. “My constituents are understandably concerned that this dirt will be used to cap the site and have advised me that previous capping attempts have not been successful.”
Specter said it was critical that EPA carried out a cleanup plan that provided permanent protection to residents’ health and the environment.
Specter’s letter followed a petition drive organized by Citizens for a Better Ambler that gathered more than 2,000 signatures,
BoRit Site History
Starting in the early 1900s, the BoRit site was used to dispose of asbestos waste from the former Keasby and Mattison Company, Certainteed Corporation and Nicolet Industries, according to state and federal investigators. The industries produced asbestos products ranging from electrical insulation to brake linings, as well as piping, roofing shingles and laboratory tabletops. Asbestos manufacturing occurred on or near the site through the late 1980s, investigators said.
The 32-acre site includes three adjoining tracts: an asbestos waste pile, a 15-acre reservoir owned by Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve and a former park and playground owned by Whitpain Township.
The waste pile covers about two acres and rises about 20 feet above the ground surface. The berm of the 15-acre reservoir was built of asbestos shingles, millboard and soil, and asbestos product waste such as piping and tiles is visible surrounding the reservoir and stream banks, the EPA said. The third disposal area, which covers 11 acres, was a depression that was filled and eventually used as a park and playground for a number of years. In the mid-1980s, it was closed and fenced off due to asbestos contamination.
In March, health investigators with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released a study of cancer incidence in communities near the BoRit site.
Looking at cancer cases reported in three zip codes closest to BoRit, they found an elevated rate of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs linked closely to asbestos exposure, as compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. But they said the difference was not statistically significant.
Investigators said the cases of mesothelioma were most likely due to exposures that occurred in the past when asbestos facilities were operating and exposing workers and their families. They said recent air tests near the site indicated that residents were not currently being exposed to asbestos at a level of health concern. Most cases of mesothelioma occur decades after the initial exposure to asbestos.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said former plant workers are most at risk of asbestos-related disease. Family members who lived with workers also may have been exposed to asbestos, and residents who lived near the plant.
The BoRit site is a few hundred yards from another site where asbestos waste was dumped. The EPA cleaned it up in the early 1990s.
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posted by Your Attorney at 12:22 PM
Friday, June 26, 2009
By WADE RAWLINSToday, millions of homes and businesses across the United States have a pebble-like insulation in the attic made from the mineral vermiculite. Once admired for its fire-resistance and insulating properties, vermiculite insulation is now considered a potential health threat because, if disturbed, it can release microscopic asbestos fibers into the air that can be inhaled into the lungs.
Breathing asbestos can cause serious respiratory problems and diseases such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. Still, federal environmental officials aren't ready to start a nationwide attic cleaning campaign to remove the insulation.
"As a reminder, there are towns and cities across the United States with vermiculite insulation in their homes and in commercial buildings," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said recently. "EPA's advice in those situations remains the same. That is that that insulation be left in place, that it be undisturbed."
Do-It-Yourself Insulation
Vermiculite insulation is a pebble-like, pour-in product and is usually gray-brown or silver-gold in color. It was often sold under the brand name Zonolite and marketed as a do-it-yourself product. W.R. Grace stopped selling Zonolite in the early 1980s.
The EPA estimates there may be anywhere from 15 million to 52 million homes that have Zonolite attic insulation, Stephen J. Nesbitt, assistant inspector general at the EPA, told a congressional committee in September 2008.
Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral composed of shiny flakes resembling mica. A mine near Libby, Montana produced more than 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990, when the mine closed.
In its pure form, vermiculite isn’t harmful. But the vermiculite mined in Libby was contaminated by asbestos that also occurred in the area.
Public Health Emergency
In June, the EPA declared that the widespread release of asbestos in Libby and neighboring Troy, Montana constituted a public health emergency. Asbestos contamination in the Libby area has been blamed for the deaths of more than 200 people and the illnesses of more than 1,000 more to date.
For decades, miners in Libby were exposed to asbestos in their work and brought the toxic dust home on their clothes, unintentionally exposing their families.
Asbestos fibers embedded in lung tissue over time may cause lung diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer found in the lining of the lungs and almost always linked to asbestos exposure. The symptoms of the diseases often do not appear until 20 to 30 years after exposure.
Under the emergency declaration, the EPA plans to remove all uncontained vermiculite insulation from houses in Libby as part of the broader, ongoing cleanup. But the agency says that doesn’t mean that houses around the country containing vermiculite insulation require cleanup.
As long as vermiculite insulation remains undisturbed, it poses no risk and does not need to be removed, the EPA says. If homeowners plan to remodel their houses, requiring disturbance of vermiculite insulation, the EPA recommends that a trained asbestos removal professional should be used to ensure the material is handled properly to avoid any risk the home’s residents.
“We don’t believe cleanup actions are necessary outside of Libby and Troy at this time,” said Jackson, the EPA administrator. “However, health concerns and precautions for minimizing exposures always can be better understood by the public.”
Jackson said the EPA planned a new national education program focused on vermiculite insulation to ensure the safety of all Americans.
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posted by Your Attorney at 1:12 PM
Thursday, June 18, 2009
By WADE RAWLINSFor decades, the people of Libby and Troy, Montana suffered and died at staggeringly high rates from asbestos-related diseases. Little did the townsfolk know that the vermiculite ore that workers unearthed at the local mine was spreading a pall of lung-penetrating microscopic asbestos fibers throughout the area. The fibers left scar tissue in the lungs that made it hard to breathe and caused cancer such as mesothelioma.
The asbestos contamination in these remote northwestern towns remains so widespread and the situation so dire that for the first time in history, federal environmental officials this week declared a public health emergency under the federal Superfund law.
“It is a toxic legacy, the legacy of decades of mining operations that literally contaminated these towns and put its residents at grave risk,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in making the announcement.
The health emergency declaration requires the federal government to provide screenings and health care for Libby residents with asbestos-related disease.
Jackson said investigations by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry had found the incidence of asbestosis, a lung condition in the Libby area to be much higher than the national average for period from 1979-1998. “We determined that we needed to step up our efforts to protect the people in Libby and Troy,” Jackson said.
More than 200 people have died so far from asbestos-related disease--people such as Libby miner Les Skramstad, whose tragic story was recalled by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana. Like many others, Skramstad worked at the mill on Zonolite Mountain. He came home with his clothes covered with asbestos fibers and unwittingly contaminated his family.
“I come down off the mine, and I’m caked in dust,” Baucus said, quoting Skramstad. “When I come down from the mine, my wife embraces me. She is all caked in dust with asbestos I’ve brought from the mine. My kids jump in my lap. They get caked with asbestos dust.”
Skramstad died in 2007 of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Baucus said Skramstad’s wife, Norita, was dying of asbestos-related disease and two of his children had asbestos-related illnesses like hundreds of other residents in the area.
“I cannot emphasize too strongly just what a tragic situation it is up in Libby,” Baucus said.
Mining History
Gold miners discovered vermiculite in Libby in the 1880s. In the 1920s, the Zonolite Company formed and began mining the vermiculite. In 1963, W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations and extracted vermiculite for use in building insulation and as a soil conditioner. The mine closed in 1990.
It’s estimated that the Libby mine produced over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the United States from 1919 to 1990, according to the EPA.
The EPA has been working in Libby since 1999 when an emergency response team was sent to investigate newspaper reports about asbestos-contaminated vermiculite and high rates of asbestosis.
Much Work Remains
Libby has been on the EPA’s “Superfund” list of polluted places since 2002, and cleanup has been under way.
As of 2009, the former vermiculite processing plants and other highly contaminated public areas have been cleaned up, and cleanups also have been completed at more than 1,100 residential and commercial properties. But much work remains.
“No community — whether it’s a big city or a small town in northwest Montana — can deal with an environmental catastrophe on the scale of the Libby disaster by themselves,” U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said. “The system let Libby down. For too long, Libby has been what newspapers described as a town left to die. The people of Libby want their future back.”
Jackson, the EPA administrator, said there are towns and cities throughout the nation with vermiculite insulation in homes and businesses. EPA’s advice is not to disturb the insulation. “We don’t believe cleanup actions are necessary outside of Libby and Troy at this time,” she said.
But she said the EPA was launching a nationwide education campaign to improve public understanding of the health concerns of exposure to vermiculite asbestos and precautions for minimizing exposure.
EPA Information about Dealing with Vermiculite Insulation
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posted by Your Attorney at 3:22 PM
By WADE RAWLINSPeople often get exposed to cancer-causing asbestos by working with building materials in construction. So the World Bank is stepping up efforts to raise awareness of the health risks associated with asbestos-containing materials such as asbestos-cement water pipe and roofing shingles to reduce their use in developing countries.
The World Bank, which provides financial aid and technical assistance in more than 100 countries, in May finalized new construction guidelines to discourage the use of asbestos in new construction projects after a letter of inquiry from Congressman Dennis Kucinich and four other members of Congress.
The good practice guidelines, which originally were commissioned in 2006, had stalled before final administrative approval. In March, Kucinich and four other members of Congress sent a letter to World Bank President Robert Zoellick questioning the delay.
Kucinich said global asbestos use was on the rise at the very time it should be eliminated.
"Asbestos is a highly toxic material that has no place in construction projects here or anywhere else, especially when viable alternatives are available," Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said in a statement. "This guidance will reduce exposure and permanent lung damage to citizens and workers around the world."
Asbestos, a group of naturally occurring mineral fibers, was once widely used to make many household products because of its useful properties including its ability to be woven, fire resistance, insulation properties and strength.
But asbestos is now recognized as the cause of various cancers.
Health hazards from breathing asbestos dust include asbestosis, a lung scarring disease, and various forms for cancer including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. The disease often arises decades after the exposure.
The World Bank’s good practice guidelines present an overview of available alternatives to building materials containing asbestos. The bank said it expected borrowers to use alternative materials whenever feasible.
It said building materials containing asbestos should be avoided in new construction, including construction for disaster relief.
More than 90 percent of asbestos fiber produced today is chrysotile, which is used in construction materials made of asbestos-cement including pipe, water storage tanks and roofing. The largest users are developing countries.
Other products still manufactured with asbestos content include vehicle brake and clutch pads, gaskets and roofing.
More than 40 countries have banned asbestos, but not the United States.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from the state of Washington, has led a seven-year effort to ban asbestos in the U.S. Her legislation, which passed the Senate in 2007, would authorize additional studies to determine which commercial products still contain asbestos, increase funding for asbestos-related diseases and call for a national Mesothelioma registry to help public health professional track the disease.
"While more than 30 countries have banned asbestos and protected their citizens, the United States still has not," Murray said in a statement. "The time for Congress to ban asbestos is long overdue. Until we take the steps to ban this deadly substance, we will continue to put innocent lives at risk."
About 10,000 people a year die in the United States of diseases related to asbestos exposure, according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit advocacy group. Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die each year because of exposure to asbestos.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the World Bank is made up of two development agencies, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.
World Bank Report (PDF)
Kucinich Press Release
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posted by Wade Rawlins at 11:03 AM
Monday, June 15, 2009
A recent study by researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found the annual number of deaths related to mesothelioma was still increasing. The findings highlight the need to control hazardous work-related exposures to asbestos to protect workers’ health.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health charted recent trends in deaths due to mesothelioma by analyzing death certificates from 1999 through 2005, the most recent years for which complete data are available.
A total of 18,068 deaths were attributed to malignant mesothelioma during the period. The number increased from 2,482 deaths in 1999 to 2,704 in 2005 — a 8.9 percent increase. Of those deaths, 80 percent were males and 95 percent were whites, the study found. Past studies have shown higher incidence of mesothelioma in certain occupations such as plumbers, pipefitters, ship builders and construction workers.
Mesothelioma is a fatal cancer primarily associated with exposure to breathing asbestos fibers. Asbestos was used widely in construction and manufacturing throughout most of the 20th century. In recent decades federal environmental regulators have taken steps to reduce exposure to asbestos in workplaces.
While use of asbestos has declined sharply since the 1970s, the 20 to 40 year lag time before the cancer shows up means people are still developing cancers from exposures many years ago. And future cases will reflect the legacy of extensive past use of asbestos, highlighting the need to control hazardous work-related exposures to asbestos.
"Despite regulatory actions and the sharp decline in use of asbestos, potential exposure to asbestos continues, but most deaths from mesothelioma in the United States derive from exposures decades ago," said Ki Moon Bang, a senior epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and his colleagues, in the study. "Because mesothelioma manifests 20-40 years after first exposure, the number of mesothelioma deaths will likely peak by 2010."
The annual number of mesotheloma cases increased significantly from the late 1970s through the mid 1990s.
The study reported that 26 states had death rates higher than the national average of 13.8 deaths per million people per year. Of those, six states had annual mesothelioma death rates exceeding 20 deaths per million people: Maine 27.5 deaths per million per year; Wyoming, 22.2; West Virginia, 21; Pennsylvania 20.8; New Jersey 20.2; and Washington 20.1.
Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States. But the mineral is still imported and used in various construction and transportation products. A substantial amount of asbestos still in buildings and eventually will be removed when the buildings are demolished or remodeled.
"Maintenance, renovation or demolition activities that might disturb asbestos should be performed with precautions that sufficiently prevent exposures for workers and the public," the authors said.
The analysis showed the nation’s most populous states generally had the highest number of deaths attributable to mesothelioma.
California, by far the largest state in population with an estimated 36 million people, led in mesothelioma-related deaths with 1,779 from 1999-2005. Texas, second in population with 24 million people, placed fifth with 942 mesothelioma-related deaths. The third most populous state, New York ranked fourth on the mesothelioma mortality list with 1,051 deaths.
Florida, the 4th most populous state, was second on the mesothlioma mortality list with 1,213 deaths. Pennsylvania, sixth in population, was third with 1,211 mesothelioma-related deaths.
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posted by Wade Rawlins at 9:26 AM
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Wade Rawlins is a former environmental reporter with the Raleigh News & Observer.
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