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Ten-Fold Increase in Mesothelioma Deaths in Great Britain

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Deaths from mesothelioma, a respiratory cancer associated with asbestos exposure, have increased more than ten-fold in Great Britain over 40 years.

A study in the July issue of the British Journal of Cancer noted that mesothelioma deaths now represented more than 1 percent of all cancer deaths in Great Britain. Mesothelioma develops in the lining of the lungs or abdomen, typically 30 years or longer after workers inhale asbestos fibers.

The researchers predict that mesothelioma will claim the lives of 91,000 people in Great Britain between 1968 and 2050, with about 61,000 of those deaths occurring after 2007.

While mesothelioma can strike anyone, about 85 percent of victims of mesothelioma in Great Britain are males, many of whom worked in trades where asbestos use was common such as plumbing, ship building, construction and sheet metal work. Asbestos is now banned in Great Britain, but was widely used in building materials until recent decades. The peak year of asbestos exposure was 1963, the study said.

The researchers predicted that mesothelioma mortality among males would peak in the year 2016 with more than 2,000 deaths annually, then decline.

The annual number of mesothelioma deaths in Great Britain has risen fairly steadily from 153 in 1968 to 1848 in 2001, according to the British Health and Safety Executive. Because of the long latency period, many of the recent mesothelioma deaths are a result of heavy asbestos exposure in earlier decades. Britain’s mesothelioma register recorded the deaths of more than 1,700 men in 2006, according to the article.

Labels: International News, Mesothelioma, News
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More Oversight of Private Asbestos Inspectors After NY Case Shows Gaps

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

New York City environmental regulators are making changes to the city’s program that licenses and monitors private asbestos inspectors after a recent criminal case revealed significant lapses in oversight.

Former asbestos inspector, Saverio F. Todaro, pleaded guilty in March in federal court to environmental crimes and fraud, admitting to falsifying hundreds of reports that buildings were free of asbestos, though he never surveyed them. In fact, Todaro continued to falsify reports even after the city had suspended his license in 2004 for excessive notices of violation.

The case raised serious concerns about the oversight of New York’s more than 500 private asbestos inspectors who are licensed by the city. It also prompted questions about how many people were exposed to asbestos because of the fraud and lapses in oversight. Asbestos exposure is associated with serious respiratory disease including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, and lung cancer.

The city conducted a two-month internal review of its program and areas where improvements in oversight were needed.

In a memorandum obtained by The New York Times, the New York Department of Environmental Protection said it plans to increase the annual number of field inspections and nearly double the office audits of private asbestos inspectors. The city agency will share its database of licensing information to alert state and federal regulatory agencies of inspectors with suspended or revoked licenses. It plans to convert to an Internet-based filing system that will automatically reject asbestos surveys by inspectors whose licenses have been suspended or revoked.

Before older buildings are remodeled or demolished, building owners are required to survey a structure for the presence of asbestos. Certified asbestos investigators are hired to do that. All asbestos fibers must be carefully contained and removed before a building is remodeled or demolished because asbestos dust, if inhaled, can cause serious respiratory disease including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of lungs or abdomen.

Labels: Asbestos, News
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World Bank Urges Use of Alternative Building Materials to Avoid Asbestos

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Guidelines published by the World Bank Group outline the health hazards of asbestos and specify that the use of asbestos-containing products should be avoided in new construction and remodeling, including in buildings constructed as part of disaster relief.

Inhaling asbestos fibers is linked to development of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen, as well as other serious respiratory ailments including lung cancer and asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lung. The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide 90,000 people die each year of asbestos-related diseases from exposure to asbestos in the workplace.

The World Bank Group, which offers low interest loans and technical assistance to developing countries, expects loan recipients to avoid the use of asbestos-containing materials and use alternative materials wherever feasible.

The vast majority of asbestos fiber produced today is chrysotile asbestos, which is used in asbestos-cement construction materials, asbestos-cement corrugated sheets, asbestos-cement pipe and water storage tanks. Other products still being manufactured using asbestos include vehicle brake and clutch pads, roofting and gaskets.

Construction materials are of particular concern, because of the large number of workers in construction trades, difficulty of instituting control measures and continuing threat posed by existing asbestos building materials that will eventually have to be removed, the World Bank’s guidelines say. For example, cutting an asbestos-cement sheet with a power saw or grinding a brake shoe can release very high levels of asbestos fibers into the air.

The International Labor Organization established an asbestos convention in 1986 to promote national regulations to protect workers from exposure to asbestos. As of 2008, 31 countries had ratified the convention, and 17 had banned asbestos.

Labels: Asbestos, International News, 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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Scientist Who Predicted Scale of Asbestos-Disease Epidemic Honored

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Prof. Julian Peto, who has done influential research defining the environmental factors that affect development of asbestos-related cancer in the workplace, received the Medal of Honor this week from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization.

Peto was the first researcher to predict the scale of the continuing mesothelioma epidemic. He holds a joint appointment at the Institute of Cancer Research in Great Britain and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The dose response models that Peto developed for asbestos-related lung cancer and mesothelioma have been adopted internationally for assessment of occupational and environmental asbestos risk. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung related to asbestos exposure.

Peto began his research on asbestos in 1974 at Oxford University, under Richard Doll who was the first researcher to publish definitive evidence of the carcinogenicity of asbestos 55 years ago.

In the 1990s, Peto and colleagues predicted that asbestos-related cancer would claim a quarter of a million lives in Western Europe in the next 35 years. He predicted that one of every 150 men born from 1945 to 1950 in Western Europe would eventually die of mesothelioma, because of the prevalence of asbestos as insulation and building materials in the workplace in earlier decades.

According to the World Health Organization, about 125 million people are exposed to asbestos at work, and at least 90,000 die of asbsetos-related disease each year.

Labels: Asbestos, News, Research
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British Salesman Beat the Odds, Enjoyed Life After Mesothelioma Diagnosis

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

When Jon Matthews received word in April 2006 that he had mesothelioma and only months to live, the retired salesman decided to bet that he could outlive his doctor’s prediction.

Refusing to accept a quick death sentence, Matthews, who lived in Buckinghamshire, England, placed a £100 wager with odds of 50-to-1 that he would live until 2007. He won £5000—the equivalent of about $7,500 U.S. dollars.

Defying the odds, Matthews placed another bet of the same amount and odds that he would survive until June 1, 2009. He pocketed another £5000.

Bookmaker Graham Sharp, who took what he called the unique bet, told The Daily Mail newspaper that the bets had given Mr. Matthews an incentive to fight the disease, which is closely linked to asbestos exposure. Sharp said he was delighted to pay out the winning bet twice.

Sharp described Mr. Matthews as a positive man who had given much of his winnings to charity, but also spent some of it enjoying himself and betting on horses and dogs.

Matthews placed a third bet of £100 with 100-to-1 odds that he live until June 1, 2010. He would have collected £10,000 if he’d lived another few weeks. But he passed away on May 4 at the age of 60.

Still, he focused on enjoying life after receiving the diagnosis and lived far longer than expected.

Sharp said he was very sad when he heard that Mr. Matthews had died and was delighted that the wagers had given him so much enjoyment.

“He proved that what is often dispiriting news from a doctor doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t make the most of the time you have left,” Sharp said.

Labels: News
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Sheet Metal Production Linked to Mesothelioma

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

In the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, a new study was published showing that sheet metal workers have an increased risk of dying from mesothelioma. The study which involved 17,345 sheet metal workers confirms that workers with 20 or more years in the industry run a significantly higher risk of dying from the asbestos-related disease.

New York injury attorney, Joe Belluck, of Belluck & Fox, LLP states,”We have represented many sheet metal workers and it is clear, both anecdotally and now through scientific data, they have an increased risk of dying from mesothelioma.” Belluck also went to add that it was not surprising that sheet metal workers would be at risk since their job involves using many asbestos-containing materials.

Belluck & Fox, LLP is a New York personal injury law firm that handles many types of work-related injury cases including mesothelioma. The firm has helped numerous victims and their families through their hard times battling mesothelioma.

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Labels: Asbestos, Cancer, Mesothelioma, News, Research
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Water Wells in Hawaii Possibly Contaminated With Asbestos

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

County officials on Maui told reporters this week that the Kawela water wells on Molokai have contaminants on the site, reports Maui News. Asbestos, the material linked to the deadly lung disease, mesothelioma, is one of the contaminants found on the site.

One of the chain-link fences surrounding the area has been broken down and a cinder block wall was started at that site, but not completed, leaving the area a prime spot for dumping waste. Included in the trash left at the water well site is an old truck, broken pipes, hydrants, electric panels, and chunks of paving, asbestos pipe and gravel.

The hazardous site was reported to the Department of Water Supply by a resident who also made his letter to the department available to the local newspaper. Officials are investigating his allegations that poor maintenance and security are to blame for the contamination.

Asbestos Contamination in Hawaiian Water Wells

Labels: Asbestos, News
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North Carolina Community College Building Closes Due to Asbestos

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

The Sun Journal reports a Craven Community College building in New Bern, North Carolina, scheduled to house students on the first day of classes, has closed after asbestos was found in the old floor tile.

New Bern’s required testing for a permit needed for renovation of buildings uncovered the asbestos. Asbestos was used in construction materials especially in fireproofing, insulation, acoustical materials, and in floor tiles.

Ten full time employees were in the building during the renovations, but testing shows their exposure was minimal. Health problems from asbestos exposure include lung diseases, mesothelioma, and asbestosis, and typically take years to develop.

College employees have been moved out of the building until the building has been professionally cleaned, the asbestos removed, and renovation complete.

The college hopes the building will reopen on or before September 1, 2009.

Asbestos Found in College Building

Labels: Asbestos, Mesothelioma, News
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Iron Range Mesothelioma Study Underway

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Monday, July 27th, one month after the initial planning meeting, University of Minnesota health researchers began sending letters to both current and former taconite workers, and their families, of Minnesota’s Taconite Iron Range mine. The University is enlisting them in a wide-ranging study of mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

The research is being conducted to determine why so many Iron Range workers have been diagnosed, or are dying, from mesothelioma. To date there has been no link between mesothelioma and taconite. However, 52 workers at the mine have been diagnosed with the rare cancer.

A university spokeswoman said the first batch of thousands of letters have been sent to those selected, regardless of their health status, inviting them to participate in the screening program.

$4.9 million was funded by the Legislature last year for the five-year study.

University of Minnesota Researchers Contact Taconite Workers

Iron Range Meeting to Plan Mesothelioma Study