Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Anti-asbestos activists called for a worldwide ban on the hazardous building material at rally this week in Turin, Italy where an international trial on asbestos-related disease is underway.Members of the International Ban Asbestos Network urged a ban on the mineral fiber that is still widely used in developing countries such as India, Mexico and much of Asia. They demanded “an end to impunity” for companies responsible for the worldwide catastrophe of asbestos.
Sanjiv Pandita, head of Ban Asbestos branch in Asia, said it made no sense that asbestos was still used because it killed people and it was only greed that motivated it.
The objective of the rally was to highlight the global epidemic of asbestos-related diseases such mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, that have that has coincided with the use of asbestos. According to the World Health Organization, about 90,000 people died each year of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis after inhaling asbestos fibers in factories, mines and other workplaces. The WHO says the epidemic of asbestos-related disease is still on the rise because the diesease symptoms typically take decades to appear after exposure. The WHO has recommended banning asbestos.
In the ongoing trial, two former top officers of a Swiss building materials company Eternit face criminal charges and a class-action civil lawsuit for alleged negligence in the deaths of more than 2,000 people of asbestos-related disease in Italy.
The victims—who include former employees as well as residents of four Italian cities where the company had factories—allege that many illnesses and deaths were caused by exposure to asbestos in Eternit’s building products such as insulation. Proscecutors say the former Eternit workers and residents of nearby towns had unusually high rates of cancer caused by asbestos dust in the air and Eternit products used in paving. The victims are expected to seek several hundred million euros in compensataion.
According to a press release, International Ban Asbestos said that Enternit had opened the first large scale asbestos mine in Brazil in the 1960s, helping Brazil become the third largest producer of asbestos. The Belgian Eternit group also dominated asbestos markets in Peru and through Asia. Asbestos is banned in Europe and strictly regulated in the United States.
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Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 3:47 PM
Friday, March 5, 2010
Researchers in the Netherlands have shown for the first time the feasibility of using dendritic-cell based immunotherapy in the treatment of mesothelioma patients. They hope the research will lead one day to a vaccine to give people who have been exposed to asbestos to help prevent asbestos-related diseases. Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen closely associated with asbestos. While most western countries have banned asbestos or restricted its use, the incidence of mesothelioma is still increasing worldwide because of the disease’s long incubation period of 20 to 50 years from initial asbestos exposure. In many developing countries including Mexico and India, asbestos is still in wide use so incidence of mesothelioma is expected to increase further in coming decades.
The expected spread of mesothelioma has spurred new research into ways to treat the fatal disease. Chemotherapy consisting of the drugs permatrexed and cisplatin is considered the standard treatment for selected patients, but only extends patients’ lives about three months. On average, patients survive about a year from the first signs of the disease.
One promising new method of treating cancer is immunotherapy which uses the body’s own immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. The aim of immunotherapy is the harness the potency of the immune system in a specifically focused attack on cancer cells, while avoiding the broader toxic effects of chemotherapy.
One type of immunotherapy uses injections of immune system dendritic cells laced with tumor-associated antigens to provoke the immune system to generate antibodies to fight the mesothelioma cell. Dendritic cells are a form of immune system cell.
“This is the first human study on dendritic cell-based immunotherapy in patients with mesothelioma,” said Dr. Joachim Aerts, a pulmonary physician at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and lead author of a study published online in the American Thoracic Society’s Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Having shown in animal studies that immunotherapy allowed cancer-stricken mice to survive longer, Dr. Aerts and his colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands selected 10 human patients recently diagnosed with mesothelioma who had responded well to chemotherapy. They gave the patients —males ages 56 to 78—three injections of dendritic cells laced with tumor-associated antigens at two-week intervals. The patients tolerated the vaccinations well overall and none had severe toxic reactions.
The researchers said they observed distinct immune responses and anti-tumor responses in the 10 mesothelioma patients. They observed shrinkage of tumors in three patients after the third round of immunotherapy. They cautioned however that a delayed reaction to the earlier chemotherapy could also have contributed to the tumor reduction, and further research was needed on this point. The median survival of the 10 patients was 19 months. Nine patients died of the disease and one patient remained alive after 34 months.
While the size of the study was small, the researchers said the results suggest that selected patients may benefit from dendritic cell immunotherapy without major adverse effects.
“We hope that by further development of our method it will be possible to increase survival in patients with mesothelioma and eventually vaccinate persons who have been in contact with asbestos to prevent them from getting asbestos related diseases,” Dr. Aerts said in a press release.
Read more about alternative treatments for mesothelioma here
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Labels: International News, Research
posted by Wade Rawlins at 10:25 AM
Friday, February 26, 2010
Construction and maintenance workers in Australia are still at risk of inhaling toxic asbestos fibers, a new study by Safe Work Australia says.Even though most trades workers are aware of the health risks of asbsestos, they lack an understanding of how to recognize asbestos or control risks when handling it, according to the report by Safe Work Australia which develops national policy on occupational health and safety issues.
“It is concerning that although trades people have a high level of awareness of and confidence in being able to protect themselves, this is not matched with the necessary safety precautions when working with asbestos,” Tom Phillips, chairman of the Safe Work Australia Council, said in a press release.
Asbestos exposure is closely linked with serious respiratory diseases including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen. The number of new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed annually in Australia has been increasing dramatically since at least 1982. New cases increased from 156 in 1982 to 597 in 2005. Australia’s population adjusted death rate from mesothlioma is more than 50 percent higher than the United States.
The new study says that while nearly all trades people believe they can protect themselves from asbestos, the level of compliance with safety procedures is much lower than the workers estimate. Trades workers ability to consistently identify asbestos was limited. Few premises have labeling of materials or areas containing asbestos and asbestos registers are often absent or inaccurate, according to the study.
Phillips said the new study adds significantly to understanding of compliance with occupational health and safety legislation related to asbestos.
“The results of this study will be used to inform effective strategies to eliminate or reduce worker exposure to asbestos,” Phillips said. “Local, state and federal governments must work together to improve worker education and information on asbestos, particularly the development of practical advice on how workers can protect themselves from exposure to asbestos, and on safe asbestos removal and disposal. “This will help reduce individual suffering and the substantial cost to families and the community.”
In 2006, there were 486 deaths attributed to mesothelioma in Australia. More than 80 percent of the deaths were men, and three quarters were over age 65. 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.
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Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 4:38 PM
Monday, February 8, 2010
Industrial uses of asbestos in Mexico are increasing the number of mesothelioma-related diseases and deaths among Mexican workers, according to a scientific study in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The researchers say Mexico should ban the use of asbestos in all production processes as a public health policy to control the epidemic of asbestos-related diseases and safeguard the population and future generations.Malignant mesothelioma is an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen closely associated with breathing asbestos. The World Health Organization has urged countries to ban the use of asbestos, saying there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
In their study, occupational health researchers from the Mexican Institute of Social Security and several Mexican cancer hospitals sought to identify the proportion of cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma in Mexico that were attributable to workplace exposure. Despite numerous studies around the world that have underscored the adverse effects of asbestos on workers’ health, the researchers said there was a general lack of recognition of the hazard of asbestos exposure in Mexico.
Because mesothelioma is not recognized as a work-related disease in Mexico, the country’s national health system and Mexican Institute of Social Security, which insures 30 percent of the country’s economically active population, absorb millions of dollars in costs to care for patients with mesothelioma rather than the industries that caused their disease.
In Mexico, chrysotile asbestos —also known as white asbestos—imported from Canada is the most commonly used asbestos fiber and represents the largest threat to workers, the study says. The shipment of asbestos to Mexico is part of an ongoing migration of dangerous industries to less industrialized countries such as Mexico that possess a weak framework for worker protection, the researchers noted. From 1991-2000, Mexico imported about 8 percent of Canada’s total international exports of asbestos, representing $114 million in exports.
Researchers interviewed 472 workers who lived in the Valley of Mexico, an area of central Mexico that encompasses the Mexico City metropolitan area, to assess their potential exposure to asbestos from their jobs as well as from environmental factors such as living near an asbestos factory or having parents who worked around asbestos. More than 100 of the workers had been diagnosed with mesothelioma.
The researchers attributed 82 percent of the cases of mesothelioma in the lining of the lung to workplace exposure to asbestos. They said the pattern of asbestos exposure and disease observed in more industrialized nations in the 1970s is now repeating itselt in Mexico.
“Our results show a clear relationship between industrial use of all types of asbestos and malignant pleural mesothelioma, and in Mexico the major type of asbestos is chrysotile imported from Canada,” the researchers said.
They said deaths from mesothelioma appeared to be underreported in Mexico’s official death records, suggesting the scope of the problem was even greater. Of more than 100 patients diagnosed with mesothelioma, only about a third of patients who had died had mesothelioma listed as a cause of death.
In 2006, the World Health Organization said that all types of asbestos cause mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis and there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. Even if use of asbestos is eliminated soon, the World Health Organization has estimated there will be 5 to 10 million additional deaths from asbestos. The World Health Organization called for a ban.
But Mexico has not banned asbestos. To the contrary, Mexico’s government supported an effort by asbestos-exporting countries, led by Canada, to block the United Nations from including chrysotile asbestos on a list of recognized toxic substances.
Based of their findings, the researchers called on Mexico to ban the use and commercialization of all forms of asbestos to protect future generations and to require asbestos manufacturers and importers to pay the medical expenses and pensions of diseased workers. The researchers said if asbestos is not banned at once in Mexico, the incidence of mesothelioma would continue to increase in the population for 50 years.
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Labels: Asbestos, International News, Research
posted by Wade Rawlins at 8:25 AM
Monday, February 1, 2010
Italian researchers found an elevated incidence of mesothelioma in a study of more than 1,000 miners who worked at an asbestos mine near Turin, Italy. Their findings were reported in the scientific journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.The Balangero mine, located near Turin, Italy, used to be Europe’s largest open pit asbestos mine. By the 1970s, the mine produced 130,000 to 160,000 tons per year of chrysotile asbestos. It closed in 1990, two years before Italy banned the mining, marketing and use of all types of asbestos because of the human health hazards.
Medical researchers have been tracking the mine’s former workers to understand better the long-term health effects of breathing asbestos dust. Asbestos-related diseases such as malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen closely linked to inhaling asbestos fibers, typically don't appear until decades after exposure.
In the 2009 study in the scientific journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers from four Italian medical institutions reported a significantly higher than expected death rate from pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma among the Balangero miners. All of the cases of mesothelioma occurred more than 30 years after exposure, and two occurred more than 50 years later. Four of the five cases involved miners exposed to asbestos dust for more than 20 years.
The study expands on earlier published research that found an increased risk of oral, laryngeal and pleural cancers among the Balangero asbestos miners, based on health information and mortality data through 1987. The new research tracks 1,056 miners for 16 additional years —through 2003.
The researchers computed expected mortality rates from certain cancers and other causes of death in the province of Turin and throughout Italy. They then compared the expected rates to the actual mortality among the workers employed at the mines starting in 1946 and later. They found four times as many deaths from pleural mesothelioma as expected and increased mortality for pleural and peritoneal cancer combined.
The study also supports a recent conclusion by the U.S. Institute of Medicine that there is sufficient evidence to support an association between asbestos and laryngeal cancer. The study found a greater than 80 percent increased number of deaths from larynegeal cancer above the norm.
Overall, the researchers found excess mortality among the Balangero mine workers from asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis as well as other alcohol-related conditions such as cirrhosis of the liver.
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Labels: Asbestos, International News, Mesothelioma
posted by Wade Rawlins at 11:08 AM
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
In the United Kingdom, more 2,000 people die a year of mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure. The numbers have been trending steeply upward since the 1960s, according to Great Britain’s Health and Safety Executive.Asbestos-related disease exacts a steep cost in terms of lives lost, pain and suffering by Mesothelioma patients and their families and asbestos-related insurance costs. With more awareness and publicity about mesothelioma a greater proportion of asbestos-disease sufferers are filing claims against their employer after their diagnosis of cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen.
A new actuarial study doubles the projected asbestos-related insurance claims that the UK insurance industry will pay to about £11 billion ($17.8 billion) through 2050. The previous estimate of claims cost made in 2004 was £4.7 billion ($7.6 billion), but that only covered the period to 2040. The increase in the insurance market estimate was driven primarily by a near doubling of the observed number of mesothelioma claims since 2004.
The study was compiled by the UK Asbestos Working Party, part of Actuarial Professional, an organization representing the actuary industry.
The number of insurance claims has been increasing faster than the rate of mesothelioma deaths in Britain, the report said. In the past, about one-third of asbestos-related deaths resulted in insurance claims, but now nearly two-thirds of asbestos victims make claims. Still, there is uncertainty about the number of people who will be diagnosed with mesothelioma in future decades, making the projections less reliable in the outlying years.
The study noted that mesothelioma claims accounted for more than 90 percent of the United Kingdom’s asbestos-related claims cost.
The wide use of asbestos and its danger to human health have had and will continue to have profound consequences.
Link to UK Asbestos Working Party Actuarial Study
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Labels: Asbestos, International News, Mesothelioma
posted by Wade Rawlins at 3:49 PM
Monday, January 11, 2010
Scottish Parliament member John Park, a member of the Scottish Labor Party, urged the Scottish Government to support work to develop a national center to expand research into asbestos-related diseases in the United Kingdom.Park, who represents the coalfields region of mid-Scotland, made his appeal during debate in the Scottish Parliament last week.
“We have a proud record of dealing with the damages aspect of asbestos in the Scottish Parliament, but there is still a desperate need for research into the causes and treatment of asbestos-related diseases,” Park said in a press release.
According to the Office of Health and Safety Executive, exposure to asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths. About 35 trades people die every week from asbestos related diseases in Great Britain.
“This is why it is so important that the Scottish Government examines the role our professionals can play in Scotland in the development of a United Kingdom Center for Asbestos-Related Diseases," Park said.
Asbestos was used extensively in Great Britain for fireproofing and insulation until the mid-1980s, according to the Office of the Health and Safety Executive. If asbestos fibers are disturbed, they can become airborne. Breathing of asbestos fibers, which can lodge in the lung, is associated with serious asbestos related diseases including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen.
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Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:55 AM
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
In older homes, asbestos can turn up anywhere—wrapped around pipes as tape, overhead in ceiling tiles or attic insulation or underfoot in carpet.Australian health officials issued a warning this month to people replacing or pulling up old carpets to take precautions to avoid inhaling any dust. The warning came after traces of asbestos fibers were found in carpet underlay samples taken from a home in Perth, Australia.
Inhaling asbestos fibers is strongly associated with development of serious respiratory diseases including asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.
Jim Dodds, director of environmental health with the Government of Western Australia said that some carpet underlay manufactured before the early 1970s may have included recycled hessian from bags previously used to transport and store asbestos.
“While the liklihood of asbestos fibers being present in carpet underlay is low, people should remain vigilant when removing old carpets,” Dodds said. “We will continue to test carpet samples from homes with old carpets to get a clearer picture of the level of risk and the proportion of homes that might be affected.”
Health officials recomment wearing a Class P1 or P2 facemask and disposable overalls and removing the underlay carefully to minimize the amount of dust.
“This will provide protection against inhaling dust and other allergens as well as any asbestos fibers in the unlikely event they are present,” Dodds said.
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Labels: Asbestos, International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:35 PM
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Prosecutors in Italy describe the trial that just opened in the Palace of Justice in Turin as a world trial on asbestos-related disease. Two former top shareholders of a Swiss building materials company Eternit face criminal charges and a class-action civil lawsuit for alleged negligence in the deaths of more than 2,000 people of asbestos-related disease, according to Agence France-Presse, the French news service.
Prosecutors contend that Eternit former owner, Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, and former top executive officer Jean Louis de Cartier bear ultimate responsibility for lapses in work safety at four asbestos-cement plants in Italiy that led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and caused several hundred more illnesses
Schmidheiny and De Cartier are standing trial in absentia in criminal court. Under Italian law, a civil lawsuit also may be joined to the criminal proceeding. More than 700 people have joined the class-action lawsuit.
Lawyers for the two defendants say their clients have no direct responsibility.
The victims— who include former employees as well as residents of four Italian cities where the company had factories—allege that many illnesses and deaths were caused by exposure to asbestos in Eternit’s building products such as insulation. The victims are expected to seek several hundred million euros in compensation.
Prosecutors say it is the biggest trial ever held on the effects of exposure to blue asbestos or crocidolite, a fibrous mineral banned in Italy in 1992 over health concerns. Italian authorities have opened three additional courtrooms in addition to main courtroom for the overflow crowd folowing the trial.
“It’s a world first ,” Jean-Paul Teissonniere, a French lawyer representing the plaintiffs told AFP. “This trial will determine whether the judicial system is capable of handling such a complex case.”
After more than five years of investigation, prosecutors claim that former workers and residents of towns near four of Eternit’s factories had unusally high rates of cancer caused by asbestos dust in the air and Eternit products used in paving. The towns where the factories were located are Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Bagnoli and Rubiera.
Breathing asbestos is associated with lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.
A number of local government authorities also are suing for damages including all four municipal councils where the factories were located, as well as the Turin provincial government and the Piedmont regional authority.
The defendants face three to 12 years in prison if convicted.
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Labels: Asbestos, International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 10:05 AM
Thursday, December 3, 2009
A group of prominent Canadian public health officials has called on Canada's minister of health to end government financial support for mining and export of asbestos, a mineral fiber closely linked to fatal respiratory disease.The Globe and Mail newspaper reported that the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, an Ottawa-based think tank, sent a letter asking Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to take action on asbestos as a show of commitment to public health. They criticized what they called misleading, inadequate and, at times, false information on the risk of asbestos on Health Canada's and other government websites. It is the first time a federal health minister has been called on to oppose asbestos.
Pierre Gosselin, a professor on the medical faculty at Laval University and a researcher at the National Public Health Institute of Quebec who signed the letter, told the newspaper that criticism of asbestos has been taboo in Quebec, but that medical evidence of the health hazards of the mineral fiber is so overwhelming that it can’t be ignored.
Quebec has the country’s only asbestos mining at Thetford Mines, and Canada is the fifth largest exporter of asbestos in the world. While more than 40 countries have banned asbestos, Canada’s federal government has spent more than $20 million since the 1980s to promote its continued use. Much of Canada’s exported asbestos goes to developing countries where weak or non-existent workplace safety rules expose workers to breathing asbestos dust.
The World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die every year of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs.
In Canada, asbestos is the main cause of workplace-related deaths, according to the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
In August, the Canadian Medical Association General Council called upon the federal government to reverse its opposition to the international designation of chrysotile asbestos, the type mined in Quebec, as a hazardous chemical. The group’s resolution favored ending the use and export of asbestos.
The administration of Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper has remained a strong supporter of Canada’s asbestos mining industry and the export of asbestos. Harper reiterated his support during a visit to Thetford Mines in August. Health Minister Aglukkaq's office said she would respond to the letter in due course.
Read the Globe and Mail article
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Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 9:35 AM
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The north of Britain - the area associated with coal mines and shipyards - has the highest rate of mesothelioma, the incurable cancer associated with asbestos exposure, new government statistics show. The death rate for males rose to 89.5 deaths per million people from 2005 to 2007, according to statistics from the Health and Safety Executive.Mesothelioma is caused by inhaling microscopic fragments of asbestos which lodge in the lungs. Asbestos exposure often occurred in industrial settings or areas near where asbestos was mined or used in manufacturing, and the disease typically doesn’t appear for 30 to 40 years.
Nationally, 2,156 people died of mesothelioma in Britain in 2007, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year. More than 35,000 people died of the disease from 1977 to 2007.
Northern Echo article
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 3:39 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
Friday, November 6, 2009
Asbestos is the number one cause of work-related deaths in the Canadian province of Quebec which has Canada's only asbestos mine.Data collected by the Quebec workers' compensation board indicate that 104 Quebec workers died of occupational disease during the first eight months of 2009, and 61 of those deaths were asbestos-related disease, according to The Montreal Gazette.
Inhaling asbestos fibers that lodge in the lungs is closely associated with lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen, and asbestosis, a chronic respiratory disease caused by scarring of the lungs.
The trend of work-related asbestos death in Quebec is expected to continue for years because asbestos-related disease often doesn’t appear until 20 to 40 years after exposure.
Canada is the fifth largest exported of asbestos in the world, and much of the product goes to parts of the world where weak or non-existent workplace safety regulations expose workers to breathing asbestos fibers. The World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die every year of asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
Read the Gazette article
Labels: Asbestos, International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:32 PM
Monday, November 2, 2009
More than 35,000 people died of mesothelioma in Britain from 1977 to 2007, prompting a new government health education campaign to warn tradesmen of the ongoing risks of asbestos exposure. The government’s Health and Safety Executive, the agency responsible for workplace health and safety, is promoting an awareness campaign entitled “The Hidden Killer” during the month of November, warning Britain’s 1.8 million tradesmen of the dangers of handling asbestos. It is the nation's leading industrial killer. Statistics from the Health and Safety Executive show that about a fourth of the 4,000 people who die annually of asbestos-related disease in Britain are tradesmen such as plumbers, joiners and electricians.
“Sadly, there is nothing we can do to stem the tragic loss of workers who were exposed to asbestos in years gone by,” Steve Coldrick, the Health and Safety Executive’s asbestos program director said in a prepared startment. “But we can listen to their stories and the one thing we hear time and again from older workers is that they were never told about the risks of working with asbestos."
Tiny asbestos fibers can be inhaled and lodge deep in the lungs, causing serious respiratory diseases and cancer such as mesothelioma decades after exposure.
“With this campaign, we can educate today’s workforce about the risks and what action they need to take to protect themselves from this deadly dust.” Coldrick said. “We cannot allow this hidden killer to claim another generation of tradesmen.”
The regulary agency said its research suggests that tradesmen in particular think that asbestos is a historical problem and they are not at risk. But the health and safety executive said asbestos may be present in any building in Britain constructive or refurbished before 2000. An estimated 500,000 workplaces contain asbestsos, the agency said.
Britain’s latest statistics show that 2,156 people died of mesothelioma in 2007, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year.
Read the Government Campaign Announcement
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:18 PM
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
Thursday, September 17, 2009
In Australia, the Australian Workers Union is advocating to use economic stimulus monies to create a registry of buildings containing asbestos and to fund a 20-year removal program. Paul Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, called for a new national strategy to identify and remove asbestos from all homes, schools and worksites by 2030, The Australian newspaper reported. “This slow-moving catastrophe has destroyed the lives of thousands of workers and will kill and maim thousands more over the next 20 years,” Howes said, according to the newspaper. Announcing the campaign in Hobart, Howes said it was a disgrace that Australia did not have a register or a national asbestos removal program.
He conceded that the Workers Union and other unions shared responsibility for the failure to act to limit exposure to asbestos in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Breathing asbestos fibers is closely linked to serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.
A recent report by Safe Work Australia, which develops national policy on occupational health and safety issues, said the number of new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed annual in the nation down under had increased dramatically since at least 1982, the first year of complete national data.. In 2006, the most recent year of complete data, there were 486 deaths attributed to mesothelioma in Australia, the Safe Work report said.
The age-adjusted death rate in Australia due to mesothelioma was 23 deaths per million population, the Safe Work report said. That compares to a U.S. rate of about 14 deaths per million, according to a study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
The Australian article
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 6:19 PM
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Milan Italy's storied opera house La Scala has closed the uppermost seating gallery while workers remove recently discovered asbestos. About 270 seats will be sealed off during the remediation project that is expected to be completed in October.A La Scala spokesman said that asbestos was found in a “very limited” section of the lighting area near the cornice of the vaulted ceiling of the 230-year-old theater and the area was immediately sealed until removal could be carried out during the summer break, the Associated Press reported.
The city of Milan and the theater began work in August to remove the asbestos, working at night so rehearsals and performances can go ahead as scheduled.
La Scala was ordered earlier this decade by courts to pay damages in two cases involving stagehands who contracted asbestos-triggered diseases while employed at the theater. The workers had come in contact with asbestos while handling fire retardant material protecting stage curtains.
The asbestos was used as insulation and as a fire retardant decades ago before Italian law banned the use of asbestos nationwide.
Fat Lady Sings
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:35 PM
Monday, August 24, 2009
British researchers say they have developed a more refined test to diagnose mesothelioma in people with excess fluid around the lining of their lungs.Earlier detection of mesothelioma would allow doctors to treat symptoms more quickly and avoid invasive diagnostic procedures on people who don’t have the rare cancer.
The test, developed by a team at Oxford University, analyzes levels of a protein closely linked to the asbestos-related cancer in fluid around the lungs
A number of conditions may cause excess fluid in the lining of the lung, but more than 90 percent of people with mesothelioma suffer from the condition which can be accompanied by difficulty breathing and chest pain.
So the researchers sought to distinguish mesothelioma as a cause of a buildup of excess fluid in the cavity surrounding the lungs.
They looked at levels of the protein meothelin which is released in high quantities in the pleural fluid of most mesothelioma patients. They collected more than 400 fluid samples from 167 patients who had excess pleural fluid.
They found that levels of the protein were almost six times higher in patients with mesothelioma than in patients with lung cancer that had spread from another part of the body and 10 times greater than those with benign conditions, making it a useful new biomarker or indicator of the presence of mesothelioma.
The study is published in the current issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Article Abstract
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 4:41 PM
Sunday, August 2, 2009
A 60-year-old machine shop worker has sued BAE Land Systems for ₤300,000 in damages because he has been diagnosed with mesothelioma - called the industrial lung disease.The plaintiff began working at the Barrow shipyard in 1965 where he spent most of his time working in shops that had asbestos-lined roof and cladding on the walls. He then worked in constructing submarines which confined him in small spaces with other workers who mixed asbestos lagging (a type of insulation) and applied it to the walls. Even after the man was assigned to work in the office, he was frequently in the shop where he was exposed to asbestos dust.
He claims neither respiratory protection nor warnings of the danger of exposure to asbestos dust were provided to him by BAE.
The worker was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in January, 2008, and is now displaying gross symptoms of pain and disability.
Liverpool Worker Diagnosed With Mesothelioma
Labels: Asbestos, International News, Mesothelioma
posted by Nancy Meredith at 2:05 PM
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Investigators in South Korea have found asbestos is 99 percent of the schools examined by the Education Ministry. To allay public concerns about asbestos, the ministry has been conducting a full-scale inspection of all schools across the nation. Of 3,158 schools inspected to date, 3,138 contained asbestos, The Korea Herald, an English language newspaper reports. The material, which was widely used in construction materials and insulation, can cause serious illnesses if the microscopic asbestos particles become airborne and are inhaled.
Rep. Kim Choon-jin of the Democratic Party, who belongs to the National Assembly’s Education, Science and Technology Committee, said through a spokesman that he will work to rid schools of the asbestos hazard.
Korea Herald
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 11:32 AM
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A bill to address asbestos in a comprehensive way in Israel received a key committee endorsement. The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved the bill, meaning that it will have the support of the coalition when it goes to the floor of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, for a vote.The bill lays out guidelines for working with asbestos and its removal and includes funds for cleanup and treatment of crumbling asbestos, The Jerusalem Post reports.
The city of Nahariya and surrounding area on the northern coast of Israel have one of the highest concentrations of people with mesothelioma in the world. For 45 years, Nahariya was home to an asbestos plant that produced asbestos cement until it was shut down in 1997. Asbestos is no longer made nor imported into Israel. Mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer associated with asbestos, typically develops several decades after exposure.
There were about 600 cases in Israel of people getting sick from asbestos exposure, according to the Organization for Environment and Life in Nahariya.
“The bill is a product of a more than 10-year-old public battle to raise awareness of the danger of asbestos,” Orit Reich, found and director of the Organization for Environment and Life told The Jerusalem Post.
Jerusalem Post story
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 4:46 PM
Thursday, July 16, 2009
John Barnes will attempt to walk the 102-mile Cotswald Way in six days in August to raise money for the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. Barnes, 62, is undertaking the walk in memory of Graham “Len” Hutton, a retired British policy officer, who died of mesothelioma last year.“I am hoping my walk will not only increase the awareness of mesothelioma, an asbestos related disease, but also give some of Len’s friends a chance to remember him,” Barnes told Stroud News & Journal in England.
Hutton, 66, served for 30 years as a police officer in London and Gloucestershire. After retiring in 1991, he managed recreation centers. He died in December 2008, six months after diagnosis.
Barnes will walk the trail that passes through a number of picturesque villages from Aug. 26-31. The June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund, established after June Hancock’s death in 1997, support high quality research and assists with many patients information seminars.
The Challenge
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:55 PM
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The head of the British Safety Council said that 16 teachers die each year of asbestos-related illnesses and urged the government to conduct a nationwide effort to find and remove asbestos from schools. “It is unacceptable that the UK, in 2009, has not yet undertaken a national audit of asbestos in schools; has not comprehensively assessed the risks that teachers and pupils in each and every school face,” said Brian Nimick, chief executive of the British Safety Council, an independent non-profit that promotes health and safety issues.
Breathing microscopic fibers of asbestos which was used for decades in insulation, roof tiles and other building materials can lead to respiratory problems and forms of cancer including mesothelioma.
Nimick said that there had been 228 asbestos-related deaths among teachers in the United Kingdom over the last 14 years—an average of 16 a year. In 2009, he said more than 4,000 people would die of cancers related to asbestos exposure, making it the leading cause of workplace deaths in the United Kingdom
Nimick said the government has not allocated sufficient money to make asbestos removal a priority or even to assess the risks to teachers and pupils in every school.
“Without these actions, the tragedy of asbestos in schools will be left to fester and continue to kill the lifeblood of our society,” he said. “Teachers and pupils will continue to live with the deadly legacy of having once worked or studied in a school containing asbestos.”
Read British Safety Council Release
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 1:09 PM
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A new Australian government report predicts that incidence of mesothelioma in that country will keep rising until at least 2017. 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 1982, when national data first became available. The number of new cases increased from 156 in 1982 to 597 in 2005, the report said.
Asbestos exposure in the workplace is now regulated and minimized in Australia. But because mesothelioma, a cancer closely linked to asbestos exposure, can take 20 to 40 years to appear, the number of new cases is projected to continue increasing.
The overall number of deaths from mesothelioma generally increased over the period from 1997 to 2006, the report said citing data collected by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. In 2006, there were 486 deaths attributed to mesothelioma. More than 80 percent of the deaths across the time period were men.
Mesothelioma of the pleura, a cancer affecting the protective lining of the lung and chest cavity, was by 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.
Australian Mesothelioma Report
Labels: International News
posted by Your Attorney at 4:04 PM
Thursday, July 2, 2009
A team of cyclists is near finishing a 1,200-mile ride from Glasgow, Scotland to Southampton, England to raise awareness of the plight of asbestos-related cancer victims and promote the idea of a national research center.Since late June, the three riders have been riding through some of the areas most affected by mesothelioma to highlight the asbestos-related cancer’s deadly legacy. The Southhampton and Portsmouth areas have been particularly hard hit because of shipbuilding and railway industries.
The team, which includes two British lawyers who specialize in asbestos disease cases, is seeking to call attention to the fact that there isn’t dedicated government funding in Britain for asbestos cancer research, even though it's a leading cause of work-related deaths. The cyclists will finish the ride by July 5.
Here’s their blog of the journey: http://breathtakingjourney.blogspot.com/.
Labels: International News
posted by Your Attorney at 8:51 AM
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The city of Nahariya and surrounding area on the northern coast of Israel has one of the highest concentrations of people with mesothelioma in the world, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.The incidence of the disease in the area reached 5.72 per 100,000 residents between 2002 and 2008, Dr. Micha Bar-Hana, director of the Israel Health Ministry’s cancer registry, said at a conference at Petah Tikva’s Medical Center. That compares to a rate of 3.55 cases per 100,000 people seven years ago.
Nahariya was home to the only asbestos plant in the nation, which was shut down in 1997. Mesothelioma develops several decades after exposure. Most cases involve people who worked with asbestos. Health experts expect the number of cases will go up in coming decades.
The area around Genoa, Italy, has the highest rate of asbestos-related cancer cases in the world with 5.8 cases per 100,000 people, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Dr. Avi Weiner, an expert in work-related diseases in Haifa, said that people who were in close contact with those who were directly exposed also were at risk of developing mesothelioma. He said he’d seen two cases of wives who became ill because their husband’s clothes carried asbestos particles.
Nahariya Story
Labels: International News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 2:35 PM
A lawsuit has been filed against Dupont Co. by three former workers at the DuPont plant in Mercedes, Argentina. The three allege that their asbestosis was caused by decades of exposure to asbestos in the plant. The suit has been filed in the state of Delaware.The asbestos was found in the insulation covering the pipes, where significant heat passed through during production of nylon. The plaintiffs’ lawyer, claims that DuPont identified and cleared up the asbestos at a nylon plant in Delaware in the early 1970s. However, asbestos was still present in 2004 in the Argentina plant, at which time the plant was sold.
The lawsuit alleges DuPont applied a double standard when protecting workers from the asbestos. The suit also alleges that DuPont protected American workers but failed to ensure that the Argentina workers were protected and working in a safe environment. DuPont had been aware of the asbestos in the plant for several decades, according to the complaint.
The Delaware location was selected for filing of the lawsuit since the Delaware courts have experience handling international asbestos cases. All three of the men have asbestosis while two of them also have asbestos-related cancers.
Workers Sue DuPont
Labels: Asbestos, Cancer, Headline News, International News
posted by Nancy Meredith at 1:54 PM
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A long-running British study monitoring mortality among asbestos workers in occupations exposed to asbestos reconfirmed the link between asbestos exposure and mortality from lung, peritoneal and pleural cancer and mesothelioma, Great Britain's Health & Safety Laboratory reported.Health & Safety Laboratory Report
Labels: Asbestos, International News, Mesothelioma
posted by Your Attorney at 10:16 AM
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The chair of an expert panel commissioned by Health Canada to study the relationship between exposure to chrysotile asbestos and forms of cancer said he was surprised by the Canadian government's delay in publishing the panel’s findings, the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported. Exposure to chrysotile asbestos, the predominant asbestos fiber used today, has a strong relationship with lung cancer and some connection to other forms of cancer, the panel found, backing the conclusion of previous studies.
Canada is the fifth-largest exporter of chrysotile asbestos in the world.
Canadian Medical Association Journal Report
Labels: Asbestos, Cancer, International News
posted by Your Attorney at 5:01 PM
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Wade Rawlins is a former environmental reporter with the Raleigh News & Observer.
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