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Study of Childhood Exposure to Asbestos Focuses on former Libby Residents

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: Asbestos, National News
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Incidence of Some Cancers Increasing Including Mesothelioma

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Four out of 10 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and about a fifth will die of cancer, according to a sobering new report by the President’s Cancer Panel. Last year, about 1.5 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed and an estimated 562,000 Americans died of cancer.

The incidence of some cancers, including mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure, is increasing. Meanwhile, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the unacceptable risk of cancer resulting from environmental and workplace exposures that could have been prevented, the report says.

Asbestos joins a list of all-too-common carcinogens including formaldehyde and benzene, both combustion byproducts, and radon, a naturally occurring gas, that cause grievous harm and that the National Cancer Program has has not been adequately addressed, the report says.

The President’s Cancer Panel notes that the prevailing regulatory approach to potentially harmful chemicals and substances in the United States is reactionary than than precautionary. Instead of requiring an industry to prove the safety of a product before it’s put on the marketplace, the public bears the risk of harmful exposure until insurmountable evidence of a product’s hazard is shown. Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the U.S. have been tested for safety, the report says.

More than 70 percent of people diagnosed with mesothelioma have a history of asbestos exposure at work, the report says. Inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers is the primary cause of mesothelioma, though symptoms of asbestos-related disease may not appear for 30 to 50 years after exposure.

Workers who work with cement pipe, brake linings and acoustical and thermal insulation may be exposed to asbestos dust in the workplace. Other workers in the construction industry, shipyards and asbestos mines and mills also are at risk. Meanwhile, there is some evidence that the families of those workers may be at increased risk of developing asbestos-related diseases, if the workers bring home the toxic dust on their clothes, shoes or hair.

Annual deaths from mesothelioma in the U.S. increased 7 percent between 1999 and 2004, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The World Health Organization, labor groups and many public health researchers have urged a global ban on asbestos. More than 20 nations have banned it, but a number of countries including the United States continue to use asbestos. With more stringent regulatiosn on airborne asbestos in manufacturing, the exposure today occurs during industrial maintenance activities that stir up dust and during de-contamination of buildings that contain asbestos materials. An estimated 1.3 million U.S. construction and general industry workers still face significant exposure, according to federal estimates.

Labels: Asbestos, National News, News
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New York Contractors Face Charges for Alleged Illegal Dumping of Asbestos

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Two Buffalo, New York area contractors face charges for the alleged illegal dumping of more than five tons of asbestos-contaminated debris inside an abandoned warehouse in the city of Buffalo, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday.

Robert L. Bishop, owner of Peerless Environmental Control, Inc., an asbestos abatement company, and Salvatore P. Capizzi, a self-employed demolition contractor, are charged with endangering public health, safety or the environment, a felony, and criminal mischief in the second degree, according to a press release issued by the attorney general’s office. They face a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

“People who try to cut corners by illegally dumping harmful materials like asbestos endanger the public and hurt the environment,” Attorney General Cuomo said in a statement. “My office has no tolerance for polluters who fail to comply with the state’s stringent hazardous waste disposal laws.”

Asbestos poses a serious human health hazard. Inhaling asbestos fibers is linked to development of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen, asbestosis, a scarring of the lung, and other serious respiratory ailments.

According to the press release, Bishop, while operating as an asbestos abatement contractor for various New York construction projects, allegedly collected thousands of pounds of asbestos-contaminated waste in containers at a warehouse in Buffalo. When asbestos regulators with the New York State Department of Labor wanted to inspect Bishop’s warehouse, he allegedly paid workers to haul the waste to a different building, where it remained hidden for more than a year until its discovery by state asbestos regulators.

The asbestos waste was cleaned up by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at a cost of more than $137,000.

“In this case, the alleged reckless and dangerous acts of two individuals put public health and the environment at risk,” State Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis said in a statement.

Labels: Asbestos, National News
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Minnesota Pollution Officials say Air Testing Could Predict Asbestos-Related Illness

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Minnesota air pollution regulators are appealing a court decision that relaxed airborne asbestos testing requirements along the North Shore around the town of Silver Bay.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency contends that relaxing the air quality standards and testing requirements would be harmful to the health of residents of Minnesota.

From 1975 to 2007, Northshore Mining Company monitored asbestos particles in air emissions in the vicinity of its plant, comparing the numbers to asbsestos fiber counts in the vicinity of St. Paul, under federal court order.

Northshore Mining officials argued the testing requirement was outdated and unnecessary and tried for years to get the requirement lifted. Pollution control officials said the mining company should do an environmental study before dropping the air testing—a proposal the company disputed.

In 2007, State District Judge Kenneth Sandvik agreed with Northside that the air pollution agency had more than 30 years to justify the testing and the harm caused by the fibers.

In appealing the district court decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals this month, air pollution control officials contend the air monitoring will help predict how many residents will succumb to asbestos-related diseases including lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung, and asbestosis, a chronic scarring.

State investigators are not sure whether asbestos fibers detected in hundreds of tests are released from taconite mining near Babbit, or processing at the plant in Silver Bay.

Still, University of Minnesota health investigators have detected an unusually high incidence of respiratory disease in the northern tier of Minnesota counties. The University of Minnesota now has underway a comprehensive three- to five-year, $4.8 million study of the respiratory health of taconite workers in northern Minnesota. An earlier study linked taconite miners who had developed mesothelioma to commercial asbestos exposure in the mines.

Labels: National News
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Lawmaker Pushes Research to Detect Asbestos Cancer Sooner

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Omaha State Sen. Bob Krist’s father died of lung cancer related to asbestos exposure in 2004—less than two years after it was diagnosed. Like many asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma and asbestosis, the elder Krist’s symptoms appeared decades after exposure and his cancer was only diagnosed at an advanced stage. It was likely linked to his work as an electrician and service in the Navy.

To help Nebraska veterans have a better chance of surviving cancer, Sen. Krist is proposing that Nebraska spend about $650,000 for research on a non-invasive screening test using mucus from the respiratory tract that might provide an early warning of cancer.

About 500 older military veterans, age 50 or older who smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years, would participate in the study that would be conducted by the University of Nebraska Eppley Cancer Center, under Krist’s bill. The state’s $310 million health care fund, which received monies from the federal tobacco litigation settlement, would pay for the five-year study. Sen. Krist, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and veterans of Desert Shield and Dessert Storm, said he could think of no better reason to spend tobacco money than fighting cancer.

Lung cancer is curable when detected at an early stage, said Dr. Rudy Lackner of the Eppley Cancer Center. But only about 15 percent of lung cancers are detected at this stage because there isn’t an inexpensive detection tool.

Veterans are about 25 percent more likely to develop lung cancer, Lackner said. They are more likely to have been exposed to asbestos and other occupational risks and are more likely to have smoked.

People who have a history of asbestos exposure are at a higher risk of developing cancer if they also smoked. The Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs supports the legislation and would help find volunteers for the study. The research is part of a number of studies being done on a lung cancer screening tool being developed by Biomoda, Inc., a cancer diagnostics company based in New Mexico.

Read Krist’s legislation

Labels: National News, Research
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Virginia Senate Rejects Special Shield for Asbestos Lawsuits

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

A Virginia Senate committee has rejected a piece of legislation that would have helped shield a Fortune 500 company from asbestos lawsuits, handing a defeat to a group that has been pushing similar legislation across the country.

This week, Virginia senators voted 13-2 to defeat the bill that would limit asbestos-related liability for Philadelphia-based Crown Cork & Seal, which employs 300 workers at two plants in Virginia. Company leaders had lobbied aggressively for the legislation and threatened to close down the plants if it didn’t pass.

Crown Cork & Seal, a beverage packaging company that invented the bottle cap, has faced hundreds of lawsuits for asbestos-related illness related to Mundet, a family-owned business Crown Cork purchased in 1963 for $7 million. Mundet had been involved in asbestos insulation for years, and Crown Cork assumed the liability as a successor company.

About 3,000 Americans a year die of asbestos-related respiratory diseases such as mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. Millions more are still exposed to asbestos in building materials. Inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers can lead to cancer decades later.

Since the purchase of Mundet, Crown Cork has since been named in more than 300,000 asbestos claims and paid $600 million in expenses, according to the Washington Post. Since 2007, Crown Cork has spent more than $100,000 on lobbyists to get the bill passed and donated more than $100,000 to 46 Virginia lawyers or their political action committees.

The special bill would have limited the cumulative asbestos-related liabilities of successor companies such as Crown Cork to the fair market value of the gross assets of the company being purchased at the time of the merger or consolidation. It applied to company purchases made before 1972.

The legislation, championed by House Speaker William J. Howell, had narrowly passed the House in February. The American Legislative Exchange Council, which promotes limited government and free markets, has been pushing the bill in state legislatures across the nation since 2006.

Owens Illinois, a glass container manufacturer, opposed the bill, arguing that it would pay more in asbestos claims if Crown Cork was no longer held liable. Trial lawyers, manufacturers and some unions also opposed the bill.

Labels: National News
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EPA Investigates Asbestos Exposure in Kansas Prison Renovation

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Federal environmental regulators are investigating whether employees and inmates at the Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka, Kansas were exposed to asbestos dust during building renovations.

Renovation of older buildings that contain asbestos tiles and insulation is a common route of workplace exposure to asbestos today. Breathing tiny asbsestos fibers can eventually cause lethal respiratory diseases including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen.

Bill Miskell, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said that EPA investigators were focused on renovation of one building, a prison dormitory, in 2005. Investigators have interviewed current and former employees of the women’s prison.

The Topeka Capital-Journal said that former workers involved in asbestos abatement activities said that improper exposure occurred during the rehabilitation of several buildings. Robert Ames, who performed heating and air maintenance at the women’s prison and supervised inmate crews involved in rehabilitating the prison, told the newspaper that asbestos dust covered clothing and clogged air filters when asbestos floor tiles were ground up with heavy machinery. Some workers wore paper masks while others had no protection.

Ames said that prison administrators received complaints about lax enforcement of asbestos safety regulations with irritation and disbelief.

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson called the allegations alarming and said he endorsed the EPA investigation. “It does alarm me anytime we have an environmental problem in one of our state building, especially asbestos, which is an issue we’ve known about as a society for 30 years,” Parkinson told the newspaper.

Read the Capital-Journal article

Labels: National News
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Defense Department Increases Funding for Mesothelioma Research

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

It’s well known that veterans are at higher risk of asbestos-related diseases because of the wide use of the dangerous mineral fiber in thousands of buildings and Navy ships from World War II until the 1970s.

Now, the U.S. Department of Defense has announced plans to increase spending on research into new ways to combat the fatal disease linked to asbestos exposure.

The Department of Defense’s effort includes funding of several million dollars for three mesothelioma research projects. The funds will support research into early detection of the disease and the development of new treatments, including clinical trials on a vaccine that could improve the prognosis for patients with mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs, caused by inhaling asbestos fibers. The microscopic fibers become lodged in the lungs and can lead to development of respiratory diseases including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis decades later. Many veterans exposed to asbestos in the 1950s through 1970s may only now being showing symptoms of the disease.

Joseph Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox, a New York law firm that specializes in representing victims of mesothelioma, said the recent increase in research funding must be only the start of an effort to find a cure for asbestos-related disease that has killed thousands of veterans. “Veterans who were willing to fight for their country now must have their country fight for them,” Belluck said.

The shipbuilding acitivities from before World War II until the 1980s exposed thousands of Navy veterans to asbestos exposure on a daily basis.

During World War II, several million people employed in U.S. shipyards and U.S. Navy veterans were exposed to chrysotile asbestos products as well as amosite and crocidolite since these forms of asbestos were used extensively in military ship construction, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Asbestos was widely used in shipbuilding to insulate boilers, steam pipes and hot water pipes.

Veterans involved in mining, milling, shipyard work, insulation, demolition of old buildings, carpentry and construction, manufacture of brake linings and clutch facings and manufacture of pipes. Veterans may be eligible for health care and disability compensation if the VA determines the asbestos exposure was related to military service.
Learn more about VA health care and disability compensation at http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/benefits.asp

Read more of Belluck’s comments about DOD research on mesothelioma at http://www.prweb.com/releases/mesothelioma-help/research-belluck/prweb3615194.htm

Labels: Asbestos, National News
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Kentucky Senate Designates a Day to Reflect on Mesothelioma Disease

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

The Kentucky Senate unanimously approved a piece of legislation Wednesday designating Sept. 26 of each year as Mesothelioma Awareness Day throughout the Commonwealth.

The bill, which now moves to the House for consideration, directs the Governor to proclaim Sept. 26 of each year as a day to recognize Mesothelioma and to encourage Kentuckians to support research into effective treatments and early detection methods. Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer closely associated with asbestos exposure

If the House passes the bill, Kentucky would join a number of states that have designated Sept. 26 as Mesothelioma Awareness Day. The date was chosen because it is the wedding anniversary of a Pennsylvania widow who spent many hours making others aware of the disease that claimed her husband’s life.

New York lawyer Joseph Belluck, who represents victims of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, praised the vote by the Kentucky Senate and said he hoped the House would pass the bill without delay.

“For too many years, industrial workers including miners and railroad workers in Kentucky and shipbuilders in Virginia, were exposed to asbestos and weren’t informed of the risks,” said Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox, a firm nationally-known for asbestos litigation. “Many workers exposed to asbestos in the 1950s and 1960s are still being diagnosed with this terrible disease.”

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