Yourlawyer.com (Asbestos News)

Nanotubes May Be As Dangerous As Asbestos

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It seems as if Nanotubes may pose similar health risks as asbestos. Discovered in 1991, Nanotubes are basically rolled-up carbon sheets—tiny, super-strong carbon fibers—used to produce materials much lighter and stronger than steel. Nanotubes are found in a variety of common products, such as tennis rackets.

Scientists have long wondered whether needle-shaped Nanotubes might cause similar diseases to those caused by needle-shaped asbestos fibers. Breathing high levels of asbestos fibers is linked to increased risks of lung cancer, mesothelioma—a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdominal cavity—and asbestosis—in which lungs become scarred with fibrous tissue.

A team of researchers reported in an article published on the Website of the journal Nature Nanotechnology that injecting Nanotubes into the abdomens of mice induced lesions similar to those that appear on the outer lining of the lungs after asbestos inhalation. With asbestos, the lesions eventually become mesothelioma. Researchers injected four groups: One with short Nanotubes, five microns long; one with long Nanotubes, about 20 microns long; one with asbestos; and one with small carbon clumps. Those injected with short Nanotubes or small carbon clumps did not develop disease; those injected with long Nanotubes or asbestos developed lesions on the tissue lining. Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and one of the authors of the Nature Nanotechnology article, felt certain that, in time, the lesions caused by the long Nanotubes would have developed into mesothelioma.

When foreign particles, such as smoke or dust enter the lungs, macrophages cells surround and remove them. In asbestos, some fibers are too long for the macrophages, thus the lesions. The researchers theorized that long Nanotubes would cause similar problems. The researchers did not analyze how easily Nanotubes become airborne or if Nanotubes can lodge in the lungs when inhaled and indicated additional research was needed to determine the extent of such risks. Vince Castranova, chief of the pathology and physiology research branch of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in Morgantown, West Virginia, said that while the study was “very well done, so far, we haven’t done the studies long enough to determine the long-term pathology.”

Those currently believed to be in the most serious danger would work in laboratories or at Nanotube manufacturers. “I think there is clear evidence for caution in how they are used and handled,” said Andrew D. Maynard, chief science adviser to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and another author of the Nature Nanotechnology paper. Maynard feels Nanotubes should be subject to the same rules and regulations as asbestos adding, “That gives you a good baseline starting point. The rules could be relaxed if Nanotubes turned out to be less toxic.”

While experts believe consumers would probably not be able to inhale Nanotubes embedded in a golf club or bicycle frame, Maynard said there is concern that Nanotubes in products could be released later, in much the same way as asbestos in concrete or automobile brake pads was inhaled by construction workers or mechanics.

Asbestos Whistleblower Says He Was Demoted by New York City Schools

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

An asbestos whistleblower is claiming that has been demoted for speaking out about asbestos problems at New York City schools. According to a press release from his lawyer, John Kielbasa, a 22-year veteran steamfitter for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has been reassigned to sweeping warehouse floors. Nicknamed the “Serpico of the Schools” by co-workers, Kielbasa has been vigilant about reporting loose friable asbestos in a variety of New York City Schools over the last 15 years. Kielbasa was recently informed by a New York City Law Department employee that the city recovered and continues to pursue claims against asbestos manufacturers; however, recovered monies are earmarked for the general fund and not asbestos abatement. Breathing high levels of asbestos fibers is linked to increased risks of lung cancer, mesothelioma—a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdominal cavity—and asbestosis—in which lungs become scarred with fibrous tissue.

Until 2003, the notification method for loose friable asbestos in schools was to simply contact a supervisor by telephone. This outdated system did not mandate documentation so there is no known proof of asbestos notifications prior to 2003.† Kielbasa’s attorney, Pete Gleason, believes the system was more malevolent than incompetent, guaranteeing no legitimate record would ever be maintained, much less created. Public records confirm some city Schools were closed in the early 1990s for asbestos contamination. In 2003, the DOE set up a fax notification system for asbestos in the schools; however, this system has not resulted in increased asbestos in schools.

Kielbasa and his lawyer believe he is being punished for speaking up, “How can they label me a troublemaker if I'm bringing something important to people's awareness?” he asked. Gleeson contends Mr. Eric Wienbaum, who was recently and quietly transferred for undisclosed reasons, instigated the harassment Kielbasa has suffered over the past six years. When his notifications went unanswered, Kielbasa collected loose friable asbestos from the city schools to which he was assigned and sent them to the EMSL lab—a known leader in asbestos testing; all samples were confirmed positive for loose friable asbestos.† Rather than address the problem, the DOE chose to discipline Kielbasa.

Gleason sent a complete synopsis of the long-ignored asbestos condition in NY City Schools to New York City Comptroller, William Thompson; New York City Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum; New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn; Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer; and New York State Senator, Martin Connor. Apparently, only The Comptroller, William Thompson, seemed interested enough to address the situation and notified former NYC Police Commissioner, now Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, Richard J. Condon. Kielbasa has offered—at his own expense—to conduct his own investigation if allowed to dispatch a private, qualified asbestos investigatory team, under Condon’s purview, into the affected schools. As far as the elected officials who ignored the prima facie evidence sent to their office, Gleason said, “If Gotbaum, Quinn, Stringer, and Connor are not part of the solution then they are part of the problem and perhaps should find a different line of work.”

This matter is now the subject of a US Department of Labor complaint.

Nanotubes May Be As Dangerous As Asbestos

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Asbestos Found in Toys, Other Products, Consumer Group Says

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Asbestos is present in many toys and consumer products, according to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. The group, the nation's largest asbestos victim's organization, was created in 2004 by asbestos victims and their families, and has spent over $165,000 for government-certified laboratories to examine hundreds of consumer products and to determine asbestos contamination.

Studies confirm that breathing high levels of asbestos fibers is linked to increased risks of lung cancer, mesothelioma-a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdominal cavity-and asbestosis-in which lungs become scarred with fibrous tissue. The risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma increases with the number of fibers inhaled. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have banned several asbestos products and manufacturers have voluntarily limited asbestos use. Many feel every exposure to asbestos fibers is associated with an increased risk of disease, thus, using asbestos-containing products may explain-in part-why some non-smokers get lung cancer and persons with no occupational exposures develop mesothelioma.

The discovery of asbestos laced toys is one of the most disturbing discoveries made by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organizations. Among the asbestos contaminated toys found by the group: the CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit; three varieties of Ja-Ru Toy Clay, distributed by Omnimodels; and Art Skills' Clay Bucket, where asbestos was found in six colors of clay. Other consumer products testing positive for asbestos included Scotch High Performance and All Weather Duct tapes; DAP Crack Shot Spackling Paste and 33 Window Glazing; Gardner Leak Stopper, where one of the highest asbestos levels-at 30 percent-was reported; powdered cleansers; hair rollers; hot plates; and small appliances. Products tested were purchased from several national retail chains, including Wal-Mart, Costco, Toys "R" Us, Home Depot, Lowe's, Macy's, CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond, and others. The product of greatest concern to some public health experts is the fingerprint kit which includes fine powders; high levels of two types of asbestos-five percent-were found in the powders.

Some products contained less than one percent asbestos, which would not be prohibited under the Partial Asbestos Ban just passed by the Senate. Industry lobbyists succeeded in diluting the complete ban and the House will hold hearings on the legislation and is expected to attempt a complete prohibition of asbestos-containing products.

Health experts feel any asbestos is potentially hazardous and even one-percent can represent millions of fibers, so all asbestos, at any level, should be banned. A spokesperson for the U.S. Public Health Service, who has been researching asbestos health issues with the EPA for nearly a decade found the test results inexcusable, especially since children-to whom some of the products are marketed-have more time to exhibit the health effects from exposure to the disease-causing fibers.

The organization began testing, in part, because while continuing legality of asbestos doesn't cause public outrage, actual asbestos in everyday products might. Everyone involved with the organization's testing is convinced other products being sold contain asbestos. The organization reported its findings at a news conference in Washington Wednesday and will submit its information to the CPSC and EPA in the hopes the government will act responsibly and honestly and understand that political compromises have no meaning to a family devastated by an asbestos cancer.

World Trade Center Rescue Workers Made Ill from Toxic Dust Finally Hear from Former EPA Head, Christine Todd Whitman

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700

World Trade Center rescue workers, many of them sickened by contaminated dust, finally had a chance to hear from former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Christine Todd Whitman at a congressional hearing investigating the government’s response to the terrorist attacks. Many first-responders hold Whitman and the EPA responsible for health problems they’ve suffered since aiding in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero. They contend that statements released by the agency and its former head led them to believe the air around the fallen buildings was safe to breath.

Calling the accusation that she deliberately misled the public “utterly false”, Whitman claimed that assertions she made a week after the WTC attack regarding air quality in lower Manhattan was safe were based on what experts had told her. But her testimony contradicts a 2003 report by the EPA’s own inspector general which found that the agency did not have any scientific facts to back up claims it made following the 9/11 attacks. Shortly after the tragedy, the EPA issued a series of statements assuring the public and the WTC Emergency Rescue Workers that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe. On September 18th Whitman herself was quoted in a press release: “Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, DC that their air is safe to breathe.” As a result, many rescue workers spent weeks sifting through the debris with little protective gear.

Since then, many of the WTC Emergency Workers have faced chronic health problems. A study by the Mt. Sinai Medical Center found that of 9,000 WTC responders, 70-percent had suffered some type of lung ailment after the attacks, and that 60-percent still faced respiratory problems. When asked about the Mt. Sinai study, Whitman conceded that she had not read it. Another report released by the FDNY in early May reported that cases of the rare lung disease sarcoidosis had risen dramatically among firefighters and EMS workers who had spent time at Ground Zero. And the worst may not be over. Many of the chemicals that rescue workers were exposed to, like asbestos and dioxin, are dangerous carcinogens. Public health authorities are already bracing for what might be the next wave of health problems related to the 9/11 tragedy - a surge in cancer and cancer-related deaths among rescue workers.

Whitman attempted to defend her statements, saying they were aimed at Manhattan residents, not rescue workers. “Was it wrong to try to get the city back on its feet as quickly as possible? Absolutely not,” she insisted. But just last week a report made public by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered evidence that the EPA made misleading statements about dust contamination in residences around Ground Zero. The reported concluded that many people living in the area neglected to enroll their homes in a special decontamination program because they were told by the EPA that air samples taken from apartments close to Ground Zero had been found to be safe. What they weren’t told was that those homes had already been through the cleaning process.

Quite often, Whitman’s testimony was interrupted by boos and catcalls by the many WTC emergency workers who attended the hearing. Whitman and the EPA are defendants in three separate lawsuits brought by city residents and rescue workers.

First Mesothelioma Case of 2006 Filed in Madison County

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0800

A woman diagnosed with mesothelioma filed a lawsuit against 104 defendants in Madison County Circuit Court Jan. 3. The woman claims she was exposed to asbestos from her father’s clothing. Her father was employed as a carpenter, maintenance worker and stationary engineer at various locations across the country. The woman was diagnosed with mesothelioma on August 31, 2006.

The lawsuit states that, “Dust created by working with and around asbestos and asbestos-containing products would permeate the person and clothing of the plaintiff’s father,” “This dust contained asbestos fiber.” The suit alleges that defendants failed to require and advise their employees of hygiene practices designed to reduce or prevent carrying asbestos fibers home.

“It was foreseeable to a reasonable person/entity in the respective positions of defendants, that said documents and information constituted evidence, which was material to potential civil litigation-namely asbestos litigation,” the complaint states.

She claims that as a result of each defendant breaching its duty to preserve material evidence by destroying documents and information she has been prejudiced and impaired in proving claims against all potential parties.

“Plaintiff has been caused to suffer damages in the form of impaired ability to recover against defendants and lost or reduced compensation from other potentially liable parties in this litigation,” the complaint states.

“An award of punitive damages is appropriate and necessary in order to punish defendants for their willful, wanton, intentional and/or reckless misconduct and to deter defendants and others from engaging in like misconduct in the future.”

Woman Awarded $850,000

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800

A McLean County jury has awarded 850-thousand dollars to a woman whose husband died from a form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

The award for Judith Blessing is the third McLean County lawsuit in 14 months won by plaintiffs accusing a company of conspiring to hide asbestos dangers.

The plaintiff's attorney, said Judith's husband Robert Blessing first experienced symptoms of mesothelioma in June 2005 and died in December 2005.

He worked as a builder and inspector at Union Asbestos and Rubber Company's Bloomington plant from 1953 to 1960.

The jury yesterday ordered Honeywell International Incorporated to pay 150-thousand dollars in damages and 700-thousand dollars in wrongful death damages.

Jury awards in three lawsuits against Honeywell have totaled more than eleven (M) million dollars.

Asbestos, lead remain serious health hazards in the home

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0800

When thinking about our health, few of us consider the possible hazards associated with where we live. In this two-part series, we'll look at several substances related to the home that may pose a significant health threat but are usually not evident to a casual inspection.

For example, asbestos insulation or lead-based paints may be found in older homes. Radon gas could seep silently into a home of any age. Faulty heaters or poorly vented wood stoves could release carbon monoxide into the air. A home built on land previously used for industrial purposes could mean that there is hazardous waste buried on the property.

Although primarily used in the setting of public and commercial buildings, some asbestos has been used in the construction of private homes. Asbestos has been linked with severe respiratory disease and the development of cancers of the lung and pleura (the fibrous lining of the lung). Masses of asbestos fibers tend to break into a dust of nearly invisible particles that float in the air, cling to clothing and are easily inhaled.

The amount of lung damage depends of the quantity of asbestos fibers inhaled and the length of exposure.

From 1930 through the late 1970s, asbestos was used to provide excellent insulation as well as in the manufacture of vinyl floor tiles and sheet flooring, patching compounds, textured paint roofing materials and even some appliances. However, asbestos in these products usually is not a hazard as long as the product remains intact, since the dangerous inhalable fibers are only released when the material is broken up.

Most asbestos-containing products that are intact should be left alone. If the product is slightly damaged or beginning to show signs of wear, it is generally best to simply cover the involved area. Products containing asbestos should only be removed if they are significantly damaged or crumbling, or if they will be disturbed during remodeling or demolition.

If you are not sure whether a product in your home contains asbestos, ask the manufacturer or original installer. If this is not possible, you can hire an experienced consultant to determine whether there is any asbestos present. If you see debris that might contain asbestos, do not sweep or dust it. Do not vacuum the material, since asbestos fibers are so small that they are not trapped by the vacuum cleaner but instead pass through the filter and return to the air.

Never try to remove asbestos yourself. Always employ an experienced contractor who has had appropriate training and will take all necessary steps to make certain that asbestos fibers are properly trapped and do not enter the air that you will be breathing.

For further information about asbestos, you can contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at (800) 368-5888 and ask for a referral to your regional asbestos coordinator.

Lead in paint

Despite the banning of lead-based paints in 1978, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that there are still approximately 12 million homes (built before 1980) that have lead-based paint. Approximately 10 percent of these are occupied by children younger than 7 years of age. Experts claim that about two thirds of homes occupied by young children have excessive exposure to lead-based paint and dust. Thus, despite the overall decline of elevated levels of lead in the population, lead intoxication still remains a problem for the poor, nonwhite, low-income children of the inner cities.

Low-income children who often live in poor-quality homes end up exposed to the most concentrated sources of lead — dust and paint from deteriorating housing. In addition to lead-based paints, soil and dust contaminated by lead from gasoline emissions and industrial sources also are potentially dangerous to young children prone to ingesting foreign objects and might inhale this toxic dust.

Congress has addressed the problem by passing the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazards Reduction Act of 1992. This law requires that any time a home is sold, remodeled or renovated, there must be a disclosure of information on the amount of lead in the home.

Removing lead-based paint should be left to professionals, since it is a delicate and even dangerous undertaking. Trying to remove lead yourself could create an even worse problem.

Lead can also be found in drinking water. Lead solder on copper pipes was not banned until the late 1980s, and some faucet manufacturers continue to use lead washers in their products (though the major companies have agreed to end this practice). Home testing kits are available through the non-profit Environmental Law Foundation in Oakland, (510) 208-4555.

Exposure to lead can cause significant problems, especially for children during the developmental years when their nervous systems are rapidly maturing. Initially, lead poisoning may go unnoticed. The child may suffer from colicky abdominal pain, headaches, constipation and irritability. Severe lead poisoning can lead to convulsions or coma. Long-term effects include developmental delay, hearing and intellectual impairment, behavioral problems, short stature, neuropathy and anemia. A single exposure to lead should not pose any health problem.

However, continued exposure can result in blood levels that are high enough to require treatment. In general, the higher the lead level and the later the problem is discovered, the greater the chance of an unfavorable outcome.

Testing urged for ex-Texas Vermiculite workers

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Nearly a year after federal authorities revealed that hundreds of employees at the former Texas Vermiculite plant in West Dallas could have asbestos-related lung diseases, the state is getting ready to begin health screenings on the former workers.

That is, if they can be found.

"That may be a very difficult problem," said Brad Walsh, strategic planning projects director at Parkland Memorial Hospital, one of three institutions that perform the evaluations. "We've kicked around some ideas, but I probably shouldn't speculate."

Since state lawmakers from West Dallas held public meetings on the issue in October, no former workers have identified themselves to those legislators – Democratic state Reps. Rafael Anchia and Terri Hodge and state Sen. Royce West, all of Dallas. People signed in, but the meetings were designed to urge people who believed they had asbestos-related health problems to seek treatment; they were not designed necessarily to identify former workers at the plant, which was owned by W.R. Grace & Co.

Dr. Jeffrey Levin, chairman of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Department at University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, agreed that finding the workers could be difficult. UT-Tyler and UT Southwestern Medical Center also will participate in the screenings.

"Recruiting them is the next step," Dr. Levin said of the former workers and family members to whom the workers could have carried home asbestos fibers.

A 2005 report on the Texas Vermiculite site by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry lists numbers of workers – for example, 38 in 1980. But it is unclear whether workers' names are contained in a database that Grace gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The report states that the database contained "confidential business information as well as private information that is not available to the public."

Dr. John Villanacci of the Texas Department of State Health Services said up to $250,000 in grant money could be used starting Oct. 1 to do the screenings.

The legacy of repeated toxic exposure continues to anger certain members of the largely black and Hispanic neighborhood in West Dallas. A few residents are protesting outside a West Dallas health clinic where another state-sponsored Parkland-Southwest study is being done. It is asking people to release health records dating to the 1970s so investigators can look into possible lead-related birth defects.

The protesters say any money for studies should instead be used for treatment of illnesses related to lead and asbestos exposure.

"They're constantly asking people to do studies and treating people like they're laboratory research data," said neighborhood leader Diane Smith. "That's not treating their medical conditions. That's not giving them any reparations."

While Mr. Walsh is sympathetic to the protesters, he is concerned that a focus on reparations might prevent people from seeking health care.

"Nobody should be walking around Dallas County with untreated health problems. They can come into Parkland."

Jury awards shipyard worker's widow $10M

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

A jury awarded $10.4 million to the widow of a former shipyard worker who died of lung cancer after four years of working with materials that contained asbestos.

The Newport News Circuit Court verdict in Wanda Jones' wrongful death lawsuit against three companies that manufactured the materials was handed down Wednesday, the first anniversary of the death of 60-year-old Buddy Jones.

"It's a mixed day," Wanda Jones said. "At least there's been some justice and recognition for what he went through, certainly through no fault of his own. He just went to work and did what he was trained to do on the job."

Her attorney, Robert Hatten, called the verdict a landmark because one-third of the judgment will come from John Crane Inc., which has refused to settle other asbestos cases.

"A lot of these companies now accept responsibility and settle these cases regularly," said the palntiff's attorney, who has represented thousands of shipyard workers exposed to asbestos. "I hope this verdict will make companies like John Crane change their corporate attitude."

Attorneys for John Crane, a unit of British manufacturer Smiths Group PLC, said the company's products could not have harmed workers.

"We defend cases because we believe in the safety of the product," attorney Ed Mueller said. "If you were sitting here right now, I'd take a piece out and put it around my neck and wear it home."

Mueller said the company, which stopped making products with asbestos in the 1980s, will appeal the verdict.

The judgment is split with two other companies: Denver's Johns Manville Corp., a unit of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that makes roofing, insulation and other industrial materials; and Garlock Sealing Technologies, a Palmyra, N.Y., unit of EnPro Industries Inc. in Charlotte, N.C.

Buddy Jones was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos. Because the cancer can lie dormant for 20 to 50 years, some older shipyard workers are just realizing the effects of their asbestos exposure.

Dr. John C. Maddox testified at the three-week trial that he has seen about 500 mesothelioma patients in his practice at Riverside Regional Medical Center.

Jones spent four years sealing pumps and making gaskets at Newport News Shipbuilding now Northrop Grumman Newport News in the 1960s before returning to college and becoming a computer programmer in Richmond. When he suddenly got sick in late 2004, his doctor thought it was pneumonia. Then he found the tumors in Jones' lungs. Jones died within a year.

The shipyard stopped using products containing asbestos the mid 1980s.

Four asbestos lawsuits filed in Kanawha Circuit

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Two attorneys each filed two asbestos lawsuits in Kanawha Circuit Court last week.

One lawyer filed his lawsuits June 22 on behalf of Albert and Chestene Miller and David Murray.

The Millers name 107 defendants in their lawsuits. Albert Miller was a laborer with the United Steel Workers Association Local 721, working at an industrial site in Kenova that was "owned and operated by various entities including U.S. Steel Chemical, Aristech and Novamont Chemical.

Miller, of Proctorville, Ohio, has mesothelioma, a lung disease related to asbestos exposure. His wife is suing for loss of consortium.

They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as is Murray.

Murray, 59, was the son of James Murray, who worked at a Wheeling Pittsburg Steel plant in Benwood. David Murray says he was exposed to asbestos fibers that his father brought home on his clothes and has asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Murray, of Bellaire, Ohio, names 108 defendants.

The other lawyer is representing Walter and Carolyn Donat and Paul and Mildred Hunt. Their lawsuits were filed jointly and name 42 defendants.

It says the plaintiffs worked as laborers and welders from 1969-1996 and were frequently exposed to asbestos fibers.

Both wives are suing for loss of consortium. Both cases seek compensatory and punitive damages.

Visiting judges will be assigned the cases.

Asbestos deal 'a step closer'

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Asbestos victims are closer to receiving justice after a tax office ruling allowing James Hardie to tax-deduct payments to its compensation fund, ACTU secretary Greg Combet says.

Hardie said tonight it had been advised by the tax office that payments to its special purpose fund to compensate asbestos victims would be tax deductible.

The decision follows last week's adverse tax ruling refusing the compensation fund charity tax status.

Hardie says tonight's ruling does not go far enough to ensuring it can honour last year's historic compensation deal, and has called on the tax office to reverse last week's decision.

Mr Combet, who played a leading role in negotiating last year's agreement to compensate asbestos victims, tonight welcomed the latest ruling on tax deductions.

"It's a step forward, so we're certainly closer to nailing this deal down," he said.

"But the full impact of this ruling, plus the earlier ruling that went against the deal, needs to be examined in combination.

"The advice I've received is that the negative ruling (last week) could nullify the effect of the second ruling.

"But it means that we're a step closer, and we will nail this thing down."

Mr Combet said it would be up to tax experts to assess the full effect of tonight's ruling.

Bay Area asbestos removers settle suit

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700

An asbestos removal contractor and a property management company agreed to pay air-quality regulators $430,000 to settle claims they improperly removed asbestos from San Francisco Bay Area buildings.

The fines were the largest asbestos reporting and removal penalties the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has levied, the agency said Tuesday.

USA Properties Fund Inc. and USA Multifamily Management Inc. agreed to pay $300,000 on allegations it used unqualified workers to remove asbestos from the ceiling of a Concord apartment complex.

No more excuses on asbestos payouts, Australia tells James Hardie

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700

The Australian government has warned building products company James Hardie it had run out of excuses for not paying compensation to victims of its asbestos products following a special tax ruling.

On Thursday, the Australian Taxation Office ruled that James Hardie Industries' contributions to its planned asbestos compensation fund will be tax deductable.

James Hardie welcomed the ruling but said the tax office's decision not the grant its compensation fund charitable tax status placed in doubt last year's agreement to pay victims some 4.5 billion dollars (3.3 billion US) in compensation over the next 40 years.

Treasurer Peter Costello said James Hardie had previously tried to cheat victims out of compensation by moving its base to the Netherlands and wanted "every tax rort (loophole) it can find."

"It tried to cheat the victims then cheat the tax man; now that it has got an obligation to pay the victims with full tax deductibility, it has no excuse for not paying," Costello he told public radio.

"Would it like more tax rorts? Of course it would but it has now no excuse whatsoever but to pay the victims and I would say to James Hardie, now is the time to acknowledge that this is an extremely beneficial ruling for it and to get on and pay the victims."

Victims and their supporters also welcomed the tax deductable ruling but said denying the fund charitable status would cut into the money earmarked for those suffering crippling respiratory diseases caused by exposure to asbestos.

"I am very pleased we have got this result because without this we would definitely have had no deal," asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton said.

"But unless we get the charitable status any money generated by the fund will be taxed and over the life of the deal that could amount to billions of dollars. It would leak out like a hole in a bucket."

James Hardie relocated from New South Wales to the Netherlands in 2003, prompting anger in Australia after it was revealed the company had established an under-funded foundation to compensate asbestos victims and attempted to divorce itself from future liabilities.

Under a deal struck last year, James Hardie pledged to pay compensation into a special fund for at least 40 years to meet the personal injury claims of asbestos victims.

Owens Corning to pay 5.2 billion-dollar asbestos settlement

Wed, 10 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Building products maker Owens Corning has agreed to a 5.2 billion-dollar settlement of long-running claims for illnesses linked to asbestos, a lawyer in the case said Wednesday.

The deal is likely to be the biggest asbestos settlement in history, according to a lawyer who was appointed to represent plaintiffs after Owens Corning filed for bankruptcy protection in 2000.

Owens Corning could not immediately be reached for comment.

The agreement calls for the Ohio-based company to make an initial cash payment of 2.9 billion dollars in cash into a trust for asbestos victims. A further payment of 1.39 billion dollars would be made later this year and 28.6 million shares of equity in the reorganized company would be included as well.

The value of these payments and equity totals in excess of 5.2 billion dollars, and would allow Owens Corning to emerge from bankruptcy without any liability for asbestos claims, the lawyer said.

"The path to justice for victims of asbestos cancer and asbestos poisoning by Owens Corning has been a long and difficult one. Although nothing can ever repair the loss of lives that has occurred, today's settlement represents a fair resolution for both the victims and Owens Corning," said teh plantiffs attorney.

"Although we are pleased with the outcome of this settlement, it is an appropriate time to remember that countless lives were lost or destroyed as a result of the needless use of asbestos containing products."

Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral, was used until the mid-1970s in a variety of products, including fireproofing, insulation and car brakes, but was found to be a major cause of mesothelioma, a cancer of a membrane in the chest, and asbestosis, a progressive scarring of the lungs that can cause fatal breathing problems.

Between 1940 and 1980 more than 27.5 million workers were exposed to the substance and asbestos related ailments currently affect tens of thousands of US families.

Experts say that because asbestosis and mesothelioma both have long latency periods before the diseases surface, millions more people may yet fall ill.

3 LIRR WORKERS WIN $16.4M IN TOXIC SUIT

Sun, 07 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Three machinists suffering a potentially killer disease caused by asbestos exposure have won $16.4 million in a lawsuit against the Long Island Rail Road for flagrant worker-safety violations.

The former workers charged that the LIRR exposed them to dangerous substances in hellish conditions without any warning or protection.

In 1999, a jury awarded James Harrington, Albito Vélez-Zapata and Lincoln Aguirre $800,000 and the LIRR appealed, claiming that excessive.

The LIRR won a new trial, which began last month and ended with the $16.4 million verdict, one of the biggest for railroad workers.

"This is a vindication for these workers, who will suffer a lifetime of misery in the years they have left," said their lawyer, who represents about 50 other ill workers in similar suits against the LIRR. A half-dozen have died.

The three men have asbestosis; the jury awarded the damages for their chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The men said they had breathed air laden with asbestos fibers and other dust since the 1970s in the LIRR's former repair shop in Morris Park, Queens, and its current Hillside Maintenance Complex in Jamaica.

"You'd come home at night, blow your nose and all this black junk would come out," said Harrington, 54, who was awarded $2.4 million.

Aguirre, 62, who was awarded $6 million, and Vélez-Zapata, 61, who was awarded $8 million, declined to comment.

Harrington said the brake-repair shop was filthy, with only a window for ventilation. Diesel trucks idled outside, sending fumes into the shop. Steam from vats of lye and other solvents used to clean train parts also filled the room.

The machinists used a steam gun to blow dirt off large parts and wire wheels to grind and buff gaskets which they didn't know contained asbestos.

"Everything would go up into the air," Harrington said, adding that workers were given no safety gear other than protective eyeglasses.

Harrington, who lives with his wife and 16-year-old son in upstate Westbrookville, says he is unable to exert himself because of his illness.

"There's a good likelihood this will turn into cancer, which scares the devil out of me," he said.

LIRR spokesman Brian Dolan declined to comment, noting that the case was "still in litigation."

Environmental Working Group Highly Critical of White House Delay in Releasing Study Finding Toxic Rocket Fuel Chemical (Perchlorate) in Most Americans

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0800

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a highly credible public watchdog organization that has been dedicated to conducting environmental investigations since 1993.

Through the years, EWG has been in the forefront of the fight against dangerous toxins unleashed on the environment by various industries.

The group has been particularly involved with efforts to ban or significantly restrict such toxins and contaminates as: PFOA (Teflon-related chemical); Zonyl; asbestos; arsenic-treated wood; dangerous pesticides; potentially dangerous ingredients in cosmetics; MTBE; mercury; and perchlorate.

On July 14, 2005, EWG published its comprehensive and critically acclaimed “benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood.” (http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/execsumm.php).

Thus, the organization’s concern over what is a looming environmental and public health crisis involving perchlorate contamination deserves to be disseminated in as broad a manner as possible. To that end, and as a public service, newsinferno.com is reproducing the EFG’s call for the immediate release of an alarming study involving that extremely dangerous toxic chemical.

(http://www.ewg.org/issues/perchlorate/20060303/index.php)

“WASHINGTON, March 3 - Following a published report that the Bush Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state agencies can take steps to protect the public.

Risk Policy Report, an independent newsletter, reported Feb. 28 that the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy is pressuring the Centers for Disease Control to delay the release of a study that tested for perchlorate in human blood samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). An EPA source told the newsletter that CDC has found levels of perchlorate that "leave no margin of safety" for the public, compared to EPA's current risk limit.

Perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in solid rocket fuel, has contaminated drinking water and soil in at least 35 states, with most of the known contamination coming from military bases and defense contractors. Tests by EWG, academic scientists in Texas and Arizona, state officials in California and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have found perchlorate in milk, produce and many other foods and animal feed crops from coast to coast. Perchlorate is a thyroid toxin, and animal tests show that even small amounts can disrupt normal growth and development in fetuses, infants and children.

The NHANES study is a followup to a CDC study last year that found perchlorate in the urine of every one of 61 Atlanta residents tested, even though concentrations of perchlorate in the city's drinking water are very low. Last year, scientists at Texas Tech University also found perchlorate in every sample of human milk from 36 mothers.

In a letter to Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, EWG Senior Vice President Richard Wiles said the results of the study of Atlanta residents "indicate that food is likely a major source of perchlorate exposure, and that perchlorate exposure is likely to be widespread in the general population."

Although the EPA has no timetable for developing a national drinking water standard for perchlorate, both Massachusetts and California are moving forward with their own safety standards. The proposed standards 1 part per billion in Massachusetts and 6 ppb in California are far below EPA's recently adopted risk limit of 24.5 ppb, which is a level used as a guidance for cleaning up perchlorate- contaminated sites. When the EPA announced the risk limit, it acknowledged the need for "national guidance on relative source contribution" exactly the information the NHANES data could provide.

"In the absence of national safety standards, the CDC should not be sitting on data so clearly needed to protect the public from a chemical that appears to be widespread in drinking water and food," wrote Wiles. "The NHANES perchlorate data should be released immediately."
EWG sent the following letter to the CDC director on March 2.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director
Centers for Disease Control
1600 Clifton Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30333

Dear Dr. Gerberding:

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a not-for-profit watchdog organization that works to protect environmental and public health as well as scientific integrity. Since 2000, we have extensively studied perchlorate contamination of the nation's food and drinking water. We have documented widespread water and soil contamination, conducted groundbreaking tests that found perchlorate in supermarket produce and milk, and have repeatedly called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set a national drinking water standard that fully protects fetuses, children and other sensitive populations, and adequately considers all potential sources of exposure.

We were awaiting with great interest the results of CDC's project to analyze National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) samples for perchlorate. As the first phase of that work, CDC tested for perchlorate in the urine of 61 Atlanta residents. The results, published last year in Analytical Chemistry, found perchlorate in the urine of each person tested, even though concentrations of perchlorate in the city's drinking water are very low (about 0.2 parts per billion). These findings are important because they indicate that food is likely a major source of perchlorate exposure, and that perchlorate exposure is likely to be widespread in the general population.

The Atlanta tests were not the only recent signs that prompt action is called for to protect the public. Last year, scientists at Texas Tech University reported finding perchlorate in human milk from 36 mothers at levels up to 92 parts per billion. In January, the EPA issued a new perchlorate cleanup guidance instructing risk assessors to base exposure "contributions from non-water sources" on "site-specific data until further national guidance on relative source contribution is developed." The EPA, state environmental agencies and the public need more information on perchlorate exposure levels exactly the data that CDC's NHANES study was designed to provide.

Consequently, we were alarmed and dismayed to read in Risk Policy Report (Feb. 28) the article "Stalled CDC Study Shows Human Perchlorate Levels Near EPA Safety Limits:"

dmark biomonitoring research conducted by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) that shows most Americans carry perchlorate in their bodies at levels close to safety limits set by EPA, according to EPA and other government health officials.

The article reports that the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy has pressured the CDC to delaying its release of the NHANES perchlorate study. The study is said to have been completed last fall, and according to an unnamed Food and Drug Administration official, the exposure levels found in the study are close to EPA's current risk limit of 24.5 parts per billion perchlorate in drinking water. This EPA risk limit, which is not an enforceable safety standard, is of course well above the 1 ppb level that is being considered by Massachusetts and the 6 ppb Public Health Goal adopted by California. This is all the more troubling if, as an EPA source told Risk Policy Report, "EPA's current perchlorate policies leave no margin of safety" for the public.

This is unacceptable. In the absence of national safety standards, the CDC should not be sitting on data so clearly needed to protect the public from a chemical that appears to be widespread in drinking water and food. The NHANES perchlorate data should be released immediately.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Richard Wiles, Senior Vice President
Environmental Working Group

Deadly Risks Associated with Asbestos Have Failed to Stop Its Use in U.S. and Around the World

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Currently, the U.S. Senate is debating a bill (S.852) that would establish a 30-year, $140 billion asbestos victims’ compensation trust fund that, in essence, would eliminate asbestos lawsuits and create a 30-year fund financed by companies facing litigation and their insurers. Victims would lose their right to sue for compensation and would be required to go to the fund for relief.

In addition, personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits have already resulted in the payout of billions of dollars in damages in the U.S., asbestos manufacturers have sought bankruptcy protection, and significant settlements have been announced in other countries to resolve similar liability claims.

Thus, there is no disagreement or dispute that asbestos is a major health threat with long-term life-threatening implications to vast numbers of people worldwide.

In light of this indisputable fact it would be reasonable to assume that the U.S. and the rest of the world would have already banned the further use of asbestos or, at the very least, planned for its ultimate removal from the market. Amazingly, neither is the case.

As reported in the February edition of CancerWire, asbestos is still being widely used in the U.S. in existing structures as well as new applications.

The report is based on a recent interview with Linda Reinstein of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an organization she co-founded after her husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma.

ADAO is now an international organization that offers support, resources, and education for patients and caregivers affected by asbestos.

As pointed out by Reinstein: “Asbestos can cause or contribute to cancers such as mesothelioma, lung, larynx, esophageal, and stomach cancer and many non-malignant diseases such as asbestosis and chronic pulmonary respiratory disease. Ten thousand lives are lost in the U.S. every year to all asbestos-related disease. Each case is incurable and often deadly and every case could have been prevented because the dangers of this mineral were known in the early 1900's.”

As significant as the death toll and negative health effects are, they may be only a fraction of the actual problem for a number of reasons. These include:

Asbestos-related diseases are often difficult to diagnose in a way that conclusive links the illness to the mineral;

Many people who die of cardiac arrest or pneumonia are never diagnosed with the underlying asbestos-related diseases that caused their medical problems in the first place; and

A vast number of people are (or have been) exposed to asbestos without even being aware of it this happens in three ways: (1) the asbestos is present in man-made products the person is exposed too but unaware of; (2) the person is exposed to a natural asbestos source; or (3) second-hand asbestos exposure to the clothing or other possessions belonging to someone who works with or is directly exposed to asbestos or asbestos products.

Reinstein also observes that, while in 1989, the EPA announced an asbestos ban and phase out, only to have the ban overturned by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990. “So we don't have an actual ban on asbestos, but instead a regulation to reduce exposure.”

There is also the paradox that exists between often repeated statement by the EPA that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure and the rules allowing asbestos in certain concentrations in particular environments (which are virtually impossible to monitor on a continuing basis especially if a person is unaware of the presence of asbestos - OSHA regulations state an employee cannot be exposed to more than 0.1 asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of air for an average eight hour work day).

Aside from the asbestos presence in new products and materials, an estimated 30 million offices, homes, and schools are currently contaminated with the mineral. Any construction, demolition, or repair, of these older structures, therefore, can lead to asbestos exposure, just as what happened at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

“One life lost to an asbestos related disease is tragic; hundreds of thousands of lives lost is unconscionable. While we can't reclaim the lives of our loved ones, we can make the world a better place for those who come after us.” Reinstein concluded.

In December 2005, major settlements of asbestos-related death and injury claims were announced in Japan and Australia.
Simply stated, asbestos is as deadly a natural time-bomb as the world has ever known. Yet, it continues to be mined and exported from advanced countries like Canada and Russia to developing nations where more death and disease will eventually follow.

Asbestos producing countries have repeatedly blocked the addition of chrysotile (white) asbestos to the UN list of highly dangerous substances that cannot be exported to developing countries without their knowledge and agreement.

In September 2004, "prior informed consent" (PIC) listing of chrysotile was blocked at the Rotterdam convention meeting in Geneva primarily through the efforts of Canada and Russia.

Canada is the world's second-largest exporter of asbestos after Russia.

Numerous vocal critics of Canada's policy on asbestos call the country’s actions nothing more than exporting death to protect the profits of a handful of companies and the jobs of 1,600 miners.

"What's the difference between land mines and asbestos?" asks Dr. Barry Castleman, author of a respected book on the danger of asbestos. "A key difference, of course, is that Canada doesn't export land mines."

In countries like India where the exported asbestos winds up, unprotected workers slash open bags of asbestos fibers in order to mix it with cement. These workers have no choice but to work within swirling clouds of carcinogenic fibers.

In Britain, the Cancer Research Campaign has stated that its study into the European asbestos-linked cancer epidemic should sound alarm bells everywhere, "particularly in the developing world where uncontrolled asbestos is still very common," said CRC director Gordon McVie.
The asbestos industry, however, profits greatly from exporting to developing nations with seven of Canada's top 10 markets being so-called Third World countries.

To preserve that profitability, the Canadian government, the asbestos industry and lobby groups are doing there best to put a good face on the asbestos industry. Both diplomats and journalists are wined and dined and sent on first-class trips as part of this effort.

Philip Landrigan, of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine - the center that first linked cancer to asbestos in the 1960s says the asbestos lobby's claim that the fiber is safe is "absolutely untrue."

"Asbestos remains an important cause of human illness," says Landrigan. "All forms of asbestos are carcinogenic, and that includes Canadian chrysotile."

Julian Peto, head of epidemiology at the University of London, who wrote the study on the Euro-epidemic, says there's no safe way to use asbestos in developed nations. In developing nations, where there is little money for protective clothing and ventilation systems, workers are being poisoned by the thousands.

"There is no way you can control it in Britain, let alone the third world," Peto says.

Ten European Union members have banned asbestos. France, which banned it in 1997 for health reasons, now faces a Canadian challenge at the WTO. Canada argues the ban violates Canada's rights under international trade rules.

In a speech before an audience of occupational health professionals from around the world who had gathered in Italy, Dr. Joseph LeDou of the University of California's Medical School attacked Canada's asbestos-promoting efforts.

LeDou said Canada was engaged in "the exploitation of ignorance and poverty" in Asia, Africa, and Latin America." He accused Canadian policy makers of "setting up the developing world "for an epidemic of asbestos-related disease, the costs of which will fall on countries that can ill afford it."

Thus, as the asbestos “problem” becomes more acute, public awareness of the looming epidemic and its origins takes on even greater urgency.

One of the more severe health risks associated with asbestos is a chronic, non-cancerous respiratory disease called asbestosis. Asbestosis occurs when asbestos fibers are inhaled into the lungs causing lung tissues to become aggravated and scarred.

Some symptoms of asbestosis include shortness of breath and a dry, wheezing sound made by the lungs upon inhalation. Some of them more serious risks include cardiac failure which occurs primarily in advanced stages of asbestosis.

Unfortunately there is currently no effective treatment for asbestosis and it can therefore be completely disabling and even fatal.

Mesothelioma is another significant and widespread health risk associated with asbestos exposure and unlike asbestosis, it can affect individuals who are not directly exposed to asbestos but either live with someone who is an asbestos worker or live near asbestos mining areas or other places where the substance is widely used. Almost all cases of mesothelioma are directly attributable to asbestos exposure.

Mesothelioma is a rare and quite deadly form of cancer that occurs when tumors form on the membranes surrounding the lungs, chest, abdomen, and sometimes heart. Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 50 years following exposure to asbestos

Thus, there is the expectation that there will be a significant increase in the number of mesothelioma cases in the coming decades both in the U.S. and in all of the developing nations that are currently importing asbestos fibers for industrial use.

While asbestosis and mesothelioma are the most common health risks associated with asbestos exposure, lung cancer has also been linked to asbestos. In fact, lung cancer is responsible for the largest number of deaths related to asbestos exposure. Individuals who have been exposed to other carcinogens, such as cigarette smoke, are at an increased risk for developing lung cancer than people who have only been exposed to asbestos.

A study from the University of Montana found that people exposed to high levels of asbestos may face a greater risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and other autoimmune diseases

Another study, published in the May 2005 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine found a significant number of cases of mesothelioma in family members of asbestos workers.

According to the findings of Dr. Albert Miller of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center in New York, the cancer, which is mainly caused by exposure to airborne particles of asbestos, most often affects the wives and daughters of asbestos workers and may take over 40 years to develop. A few cases involving sons and other relatives were also found, however.

The study concluded that exposure to particles of asbestos carried home on workers’ clothing and bodies was directly linked to 32 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in family members since 1990.

About 90% of mesotheliomas in men have been attributed to asbestos because of their direct exposure to the material at work. In cases involving women, however, linking the disease to asbestos has proven to be more difficult.

Based upon the study results, Dr. Miller theorizes that many of these unexplained cases in women may be related to having lived with an asbestos-exposed worker at some point in their lives.

Another study published in the second issue of the October 2005 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of the American Thoracic Society, stated that Californians who live near naturally occurring asbestos sources and who are exposed to low levels of the mineral are at increased risk for developing mesothelioma.

Dr. Marc B. Schenker, of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, at the University of California, Davis, and four associates, examined 2,908 malignant mesothelioma cases reported from 1988 to 1997. Over 50% of the men and 58% of the women, all of whom were listed in the California Cancer Registry, either had no or little exposure to occupational asbestos at the workplace.

According to the study authors, California has more naturally occurring asbestos source rocks than any other state in the U.S. Previous studies all point to occupational exposure to asbestos as the cause of mesothelioma. But population-based studies, Dr Schenker says, have almost all showed some examples of mesothelioma cases where there was no exposure at work. The new study reveals that the living environment could actually be the culprit in such cases.

With respect to the proposed creation of a fund that would eliminate asbestos lawsuits, ADAO has already mounted a vocal campaign against the passage of the asbestos bill.

ADAO argues that the bill does not adequately protect the rights of asbestos victims and hopes that Senate does not support what he calls “this corporate bailout bill.”

ADAO, however, has serious problems with the proposed fund including outdated and incorrect medical criteria with respect to the symptoms, diagnosis, and severity of asbestos related diseases, inordinate compensation delays, and improper eligibility standards, inadequate funding for research, education, prevention, and outreach, and possible insolvency long before all present and future victims can access it.

While the group is not opposed to the idea of a trust fund, it would much rather see one that is fundamentally fair, adequately funded, free of bureaucratic delays, and guaranteed to be around long enough to ensure all victims would be properly compensated. ADAO also advocates giving the victims the right to choose between compensation from the fund or a trial.

Meanwhile, Senate opponents of the bill see potential dilemmas with the fund’s solvency and with the allocation of expenses between the participating companies and insurers.

Lawsuits continue to surface regarding asbestos exposure and asbestos related illnesses. At the moment, studies continue to persist in an effort to learn more about how asbestos affects people who are directly exposed to the substance as well as individuals who experience second-hand exposure.

In the 1970’s government regulations stopped the widespread and common use of asbestos. Today, however, it is still used under heavy regulation. Asbestos is still used in more than 3,000 products such as brake linings, engine gaskets, and roof coatings. Older buildings still contain asbestos as it was originally thought of as an excellent insulating material.

In many of those older buildings (such as schools), however, years of deterioration, leaks, careless alterations, and improper asbestos abatement operations have all played a role in producing airborne asbestos fibers.

The number of asbestos-related deaths continues to climb. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 77 people died from asbestos related illnesses in 1968 while 1,493 people died from asbestos in 2000.

Workers might be exposed to asbestos

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0800

West Virginia University settled a class-action lawsuit last week with 5,000 employees regarding potential asbestos exposure, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Although WVU did not admit fault in its handling and maintenance of the asbestos, it agreed to provide medical monitoring for employees for the next 20 years. Tom Beauchamp, a former employee of IU's Office of Environmental, Health and Safety Management who began work on an asbestos management plan before he was fired from his job in September, said some worker areas at IU, such as steam tunnels and crawl spaces, also provide the potential for asbestos exposure to employees.

"There's plenty of opportunities for workers to get exposed to asbestos," Beauchamp said. "There are lots of minor areas where, if workers go there, they can be exposed."

IU staffs 60 employees who are trained in asbestos compliance, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre. He said that as a precaution, they test worker areas for asbestos whenever it is necessary.

"They test anywhere that there's any type of construction or renovation work that could bring asbestos particles into the atmosphere,"

MacIntyre said. "In fact, whenever they contract with someone for construction work there's very specific contract language regarding how asbestos should be handled."

Asbestos is an insulation material that was mostly used in buildings before the 1980s, when it was identified as a carcinogen. Undamaged, asbestos poses no health risks. But when it is damaged, exposure to asbestos can pose health risks, including lung cancer.

MacIntyre said IU inspects areas for asbestos anytime there is a potential for exposure, especially during times of renovation and construction.

"Normally there would not be a reason to do an asbestos check if there's no work being done in a building," MacIntyre said.

Beauchamp said he was led on a tour of a steam tunnel by employees of the Utilities Information Group in May 2004.

"There was plenty of asbestos laying around," Beauchamp said. "The workers said that when it dried, the dust stirred up easily."

MacIntyre said IU's asbestos maintenance protects both students and employees.

"I cannot comment on what may or may not have happened (at WVU)," MacIntyre said. "What I do know is that at IU we have an excellent system in place to monitor our buildings for potential exposure to asbestos and other harmful substances."

MacIntyre also added that IU does not plan to change its system for asbestos management.

"The administration is confident that IU is taking every reasonable precaution to protect employees and students from potential exposure to asbestos," MacIntyre said. "We see no reason to change what we are currently doing. We will continue to be vigilant in our monitoring inspections."

Mike Jenson, associate director of OEHSM, refused to comment on the potential for asbestos exposure to workers at IU.

Settlement reached in W.Va. asbestos suit

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0800

West Virginia University has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit affecting up to 5,600 former and current employees who may have been exposed to asbestos, the school announced Tuesday.

As part of the proposed settlement, WVU will institute and pay for a medical surveillance program to be conducted for 20 years. WVU also agreed to pay $1 million to cover potential claims and attorney fees.

A judge must approve the agreement before it becomes final. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 22.

University employees sued in 2000 and sought medical monitoring for potential asbestos-related health problems as a result of working in university buildings containing asbestos insulation.

The workers, including professors, custodians, secretaries and other staff, alleged that asbestos in campus buildings put them at an increased risk of cancer.

The university said in a statement that the agreement had been reached in the "spirit of compromise."

"WVU maintains that all standard, recognized practices for asbestos removal have been followed over the years, and that the general population of employees, through routine monitoring of buildings and air samplings, remain safe from any harmful effects of asbestos-containing materials," the university said.

Until the 1970s, asbestos was universally prized for its resistance to fire and heat. Since then, the medical community has warned that asbestos fibers, when inhaled, can cause such illnesses as mesothelioma, a rare and inoperable form of lung cancer. It also causes asbestosis, an irreversible scarring of the lungs, and other lung ailments.

Exposure to Asbestos from Rocks Can Cause Malignant Mesothelioma

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0700

A new study published in the October 2005 American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has found that Californians who live close to naturally occurring asbestos sources are at an increased risk for developing malignant mesothelioma.

Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer of the membrane covering the lung. The study’s authors, Marc B. Schenker, M.D., from the University of California, Davis, and four of his associates, investigated 2,908 malignant mesothelioma cases reported in California between 1988 to 1997. Over half of the patients either had no or low occupational exposure to asbestos. Exposure to asbestos fibers is the only known cause for malignant mesothelioma.

Dr. Schenker said that while studies have confirmed the link between mesothelioma and occupational exposure to asbestos, almost all population-based studies have found that many mesothelioma cases have no known occupational exposure to asbestos.

The research showed that people who lived closer to an asbestos source had a greater risk of developing mesothelioma, and that the chance decreased as the distance from exposure increased. According to the study, the odds of developing mesothelioma decreased 6.3 percent for every 10 kilometers farther from the asbestos source.

Per the authors, California has more naturally occurring asbestos source rocks than any other state in the U.S..

In an editorial in the same issue, Marcel Goldberg, M.D., Ph.D. and Daniele Luce, Ph.D., of the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in Saint Maurice, France, wrote “while exposure in environmental settings is generally much lower than in occupational circumstances, the levels may not be negligible.”

They add that in studies in which elevated risk of mesothelioma was demonstrated, people typically lived in close vicinity of naturally occurring asbestos sources. “It is thus likely that lifelong cumulative exposure may have been as high (if not higher) as in some occupational settings.”

Report Finds 22 Asbestos Sites in Maryland

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0700

A recent report finds that 22 places in Maryland, including former mines and quarries, may contain naturally occurring asbestos, a carcinogen that can also cause fatal lung disease.

Federal geologists identified a total of 324 locations in 15 East Coast states, according to the report by the United States Geological Survey.

Asbestos has long been identified as a possible workplace hazard. But there's evidence that former mines, inactive quarries and ground containing asbestos might be hazardous if rocks and soil are disturbed.

The Maryland sites aren't a danger to the people living near them, says Richard McIntire, a spokesman for the state Department of the Environment. But McIntire said the agency doesn't examine the sites.

"Maryland does know where the naturally occurring sites are, but they are not monitored, as the material poses no health or safety threat as it is trapped in the rock formation," McIntire said. "As long as the rock is not hammered, crushed, mined, broken down, etc., it poses no threat."

But federal geologists and physicians said state and local agencies should inspect the sites for risk of exposure.

Naturally occurring asbestos isn't a health risk if it's not disturbed, says the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry. But potentially dangerous fibers can be released into the air by "weather processes" and activities including working in the yard, or running, hiking or bicycling on unpaved surfaces where asbestos is present.

The risk from naturally occurring asbestos is mostly unknown. There are no federal regulations dealing with it. Little research has been done on the risk until recently.

The Maryland sites are spread from Harford County in the north to Montgomery County in the south, with the largest number in and around Baltimore County.

Maryland has only one actively worked quarry. The Rockville Crushed Stone Co. quarry in Montgomery County is regulated by the state, McIntire said, and watched by the county.

The report was based on historical documents, mining reports and records listing mines and quarries, asbestos sites identified by prospectors but not rich enough to mine and other occurrences of asbestos sightings going back to the 1800s.

Tom Sinks, acting director of the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said the USGS report "tells us where asbestos has been found in the past. It does not tell us if asbestos is still present in these locations or if people are being exposed to asbestos fibers at these sites.

The number of potentially hazardous sites in the 15 states surveyed range from a low of one in Connecticut to 28 in Virginia, 37 in New Jersey, 41 in Pennsylvania and 52 in Georgia.

"Families will want to know what level of risk this asbestos exposure poses when compared to death by swimming pool drowning or auto accident," said Dr. Michael Harbut, one of the nation's leading authorities on asbestos disease. "These are gruesome but necessary questions because the potential impact of this study could be quite socially and economically disruptive."

COALITION OF ENVIRONMENTAL, CONSUMER, AND VICTIMS GROUPS AS WELL AS SPECIALISTS INTENDS TO MOUNT VIGOROUS OPPOSITION TO PENDING ASBESTOS COMPENSATION FUND LEGISLATION

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0700

A rapidly growing alliance called the Asbestos Victim Coalition was announced on Friday by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). The Coalition already boasts some 20 members including consumer groups, victims’ organizations, environmental groups, and various specialists.

The goal of the Coalition is to raise awareness about the inequities in the asbestos trust fund legislation proposed by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).

The Coalition is a worldwide group of broad based organizations including:
•   Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
•   Asbestos Victims Organization
•   Ban Asbestos and Eliminate Mesothelioma
•   Committee to Protect Victims of Mesothelioma
•   David Egilman MD, MPH, Brown University
•   Environmental Working Group
•   International Ban Asbestos Secretariat
•   Mesothelioma Support Organization
•   New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH)
•   Palmer Electric Company
•   Public Citizen
•   Sciencecorps.org
•   Society for The Advancement of Occupational and Environmental Health (SAOEH)
•   Terry Trent Biologist/Asbestos Activist
•   U.S. Action
•   White Lung Asbestos Information Center
•   White Lung Association
•   9/11 Environmental Action
•   Asbestos Diseases Advisory Services of Australia
•   Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia

The increasing list of members is available online and updated daily to accommodate additional organizations. The Coalition's opposition campaign will include asbestos victim “fly-ins” to meet and educate the entire U.S. Senate.

The priority theme will be to illustrate how victims will be adversely affected by the proposed bill. ADAO Co-founder and current Executive Director, Linda Reinstein, states: “There is strength in numbers and while the number of asbestos victims is unfortunately growing beyond anyone's control - so, too, are the number of voices coming forward to speak out for their rights,” She hopes the Coalition will “unite the key stakeholders through such a varied and committed group of organizations and individuals…and look forward to the substantial progress we can make together.”

According to Douglas Larkin, Co-founder and Communications Director: The efforts in Congress to pass legislation aimed at the problem “has unfortunately become one about corporate bailouts instead of asbestos realities.” He continued by stating: “In the recent Senate floor debate, for example, concerns were raised that companies may go bankrupt as a result of asbestos litigation. The bigger issue is whether or not asbestos victims and their families will get the support they need and deserve, in a timeframe that makes realistic sense, given the extreme realities of asbestos disease.”

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) was originally founded by victims and their families and seeks to give all concerned a united voice to help ensure that their rights are fairly represented and protected, while raising public awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure and often deadly asbestos related diseases.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted bill S.852 out of committee. By a 13-5 vote, the legislation that would establish a 30-year, $140 billion asbestos victims’ compensation trust fund was cleared for action by the full Senate where a number of Senators have already stated they will insist on significant changes before voting for it.

In addition, ADAO has already mounted a vocal campaign against the passage of S.852. ADAO’s president, Alan Reinstein, charges that: “This legislation does not adequately protect the rights of present and future victims and we hope the Senate does the right thing by voting ‘no’ on this corporate bailout bill.”

In essence, the bill would eliminate asbestos lawsuits and create a 30-year fund financed by companies facing litigation and their insurers. Victims would lose their right to sue for compensation and would be required to go to the fund for relief. Senate opponents of the plan see potential problems with the fund’s solvency and with the allocation of expenses between the participating companies and insurers.

ADAO, however, sees more serious problems wit the proposed fund including:
•   Outdated and incorrect medical criteria with respect to the symptoms, diagnosis, and severity of asbestos related diseases.

•   Inordinate compensation delays and improper eligibility standards.
•   Inadequate funding for research, education, prevention, and outreach.
•   Possible insolvency long before all present and future victims can access it.

While the group is not opposed to the idea of a trust fund, it would much rather see one that is fundamentally fair, adequately funded, free of bureaucratic delays, and guaranteed to be around long enough to ensure all victims would be properly compensated. ADAO also advocates giving the victims the right to choose between compensation from the fund or a trial.

FIVE-YEAR STUDY SUGGESTS VITAMIN E-RELATED COMPOUND MAY KILL CANCER CELLS CAUSED BY ASBESTOS RELATED MESOTHELIOMA

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Mesothelioma is a highly aggressive cancer found in the lining of the chest, the abdominal cavity, and area around the heart.

It is primarily caused by exposure to airborne asbestos particles and has a latency period of between 30 and 40 years (some experts put the latency period at up to 50 years). This form of cancer, for which there is currently no cure, is particularly lethal and resistant to all conventional therapies.

A five-year animal (mouse) study by researchers from several countries, however, has found that a vitamin E-related compound known as alpha-TOS may kill mesothelioma cells. The compound also halted the growth of mesothelioma tumors and showed promise with respect to suppressing tumors associated with melanoma and breast, lung, and colon cancer.

Dr. Jiri Neuzil of Griffith University (Gold Coast), who headed the study, hopes to begin human trials within two years. Although Dr. Neuzil is encouraged by the results, he is cautiously optimistic since "in the past many experiments showing promise in mice have completely failed in humans." One very positive finding in this study was that alpha-TOS selectively pursued mesothelioma cells and destroyed them while causing little, if any damage to normal cells.

Although alpha-TOS is already taken orally by many people as a health supplement, it loses its cancer fighting quality when it is converted to vitamin E by the digestive system. Dr. Neuzil made a cynical observation, however, when he stated that the pharmaceutical industry might not take on alpha-TOS as a cancer cure because the compound cannot be patented.

VICTIMS GROUP ASSAILS SENATE ASBESTOS COMPENSATION FUND BILL AS INADEQUATE AND NOTHING MORE THAN A "CORPORATE BAILOUT"

Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted bill S.852 out of committee. By a 13-5 vote, the legislation that would establish a 30-year, $140 billion asbestos victims compensation trust fund was cleared for action by the full Senate where a number of Senators have already stated they will insist on significant changes before voting for it.

In addition, The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) has already mounted a vocal campaign against the passage of S.852. ADAOs president, Alan Reinstein, charges that: "This legislation does not adequately protect the rights of present and future victims and we hope the Senate does the right thing by voting no on this corporate bailout bill."

In essence, the bill would eliminate asbestos lawsuits and create a 30-year fund financed by companies facing litigation and their insurers. Victims would lose their right to sue for compensation and would be required to go to the fund for relief. Senate opponents of the plan see potential problems with the funds solvency and with the allocation of expenses between the participating companies and insurers.

ADAO, however, sees more serious problems wit the proposed fund including:
Outdated and incorrect medical criteria with respect to the symptoms, diagnosis, and severity of asbestos related diseases.
Inordinate compensation delays and improper eligibility standards.
Inadequate funding for research, education, prevention, and outreach.
Possible insolvency long before all present and future victims can access it.

While the group is not opposed to the idea of a trust fund, it would much rather see one that is fundamentally fair, adequately funded, free of bureaucratic delays, and guaranteed to be around long enough to ensure all victims would be properly compensated. ADAO also advocates giving the victims the right to choose between compensation from the fund or a trial.

FIRST BLOOD TEST FOR MESOTHELIOMA IS ANNOUNCED BUT, WHO GETS CREDIT FOR IT?

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Although it seems clear that the first blood test for mesothelioma has been developed, there seems to some conflict as to who actually gets credit for this significant medical breakthrough. Some news sources attribute the test known as MESOMARK to Australian researchers headed by Professor Bruce Robinson of the University of Western Australia. Others credit the very same test to Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc. (FJI) of Tokyo, Japan, which announced the filing of an application for clearance to the FDA.

The test works by identifying serum tumor markers called soluble mesothelin-related peptides (SMRP) which are proteins released into the blood by malignant mesothelioma cells. Mesothelioma is a highly aggressive cancer found in the lining of the chest, the abdominal cavity, and area around the heart. It is primarily caused by exposure to airborne asbestos particles and has a latency period of between 30 and 40 years. As we reported yesterday, secondhand exposure of family members to asbestos particles on the clothing and bodies of those who worked with the material has also been shown to cause mesothelioma up to 40 years after the exposure.

DOCTORS FIND "SECONDHAND" ASBESTOS EXPOSURE CAN BE A CANCER TIME BOMB FOR FAMILY MEMBERS OF THOSE WHO WORKED WITH THE MATERIAL DECADES AGO

Tue, 31 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Secondhand smoke has been proven to pose a number of extremely serious health risks to those who live or work with a smoker. Emphysema, cancer, decreased fertility, eye disorders, heart problems and death have all been attributed to this type of indirect exposure to the hazardous substances contained in cigarette smoke.

Now, researchers have found that a similar link exists between asbestos particles brought home by those who worked with the material and asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, developed by family members decades later.

A study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine found a significant number of cases of the relatively rare cancer in family members of asbestos workers. According to the findings of Dr. Albert Miller of St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center in New York, the cancer, which is mainly caused by exposure to airborne particles of asbestos, most often affects the wives and daughters of asbestos workers and may take over 40 years to develop.
A few cases involving sons and other relatives were also found, however.

The study concluded that exposure to particles of asbestos carried home on workers clothing and bodies was directly linked to 32 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in family members since 1990. About 90% of mesotheliomas in men have been attributed to asbestos because of their direct exposure to the material at work. In cases involving women, however, linking the disease to asbestos has proven to be more difficult. Based upon the stud results, Dr. Miller theorizes that many of these unexplained cases in women may be related to having lived with an asbestos-exposed worker at some point in their lives.

Personal Injury & Side Effects News

Asbestos Exposure Might be MS Risk Factor

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0700

People exposed to high levels of asbestos may face a higher risk in the future of contracting certain autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. So says a study from the University of Montana.

While the study did not make a direct connection between asbestos exposure and autoimmune disease, it did find a higher link between asbestos and autoantibody activity in a group of people, suggesting that this could serve as a basis for future disease.

Expanding on Previous Studies

Jean Pfau, PhD, a research assistant professor with the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the university and her colleagues studied the risk in a small town in Montana. "The population in Libby, Montana provides a unique opportunity for such a study because of both occupational and environmental exposures that have occurred as a result of the mining of asbestos-contaminated vermiculite near the community," they wrote.

While previous studies have suggested increased immune activity in the blood of people exposed to asbestos, no comprehensive study has been published assessing the prevalence, specificity, or significance of autoantibodies associated with asbestos exposure, the research team wrote.

An Apparent Link

In all, 50 residents of the town were recruited for the study and were compared to 50 residents of a nearby town known to have no asbestos exposure. Blood samples were collected from each individual and tested for the presence of a specialized antibody known as antinuclear antibodies, or ANA. These are often found in people whose immune systems may be predisposed to cause inflammation against their own body tissues, similar to what is found in people with MS.

The researchers found that the level of ANAs in the blood samples from the Libby residents were nearly 29% higher than those in the adjoining town with no asbestos exposure. Additionally, those who had been exposed to asbestos for more than five years tended to have higher concentrations of ANAs in their blood than those with less exposure.

Pfau and her team also found significantly higher levels of immunoglobulin A in the individuals exposed to asbestos versus those who were not. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is a type of protein produced by plasma cells which makes up part of the immune system. Of the Libby residents tested, more than three-quarters also had asbestos-related lung problems, and those with more severe lung problems had higher levels of these autoantibodies.

"By demonstrating an association between asbestos exposure and measures of autoimmune responses, this study supports and augments other existing evidence that asbestos is an agent of systemic autoimmunity," Pfau's group concluded.

Significant Health Risk

Because asbestos-containing vermiculite from Libby, Montana is shipped and processed around the United States, "it remains a significant health risk" to other people both occupationally and environmentally, they wrote. Awareness of the link between asbestos and autoimmunity could have a significant effect on monitoring, testing, and treatment for exposed individuals, the investigators added.

While MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease, the researchers quickly stress that "the presence of autoantibodies does not necessarily suggest a disease process." Nonetheless, the study helps improve medical experts' understanding of the underlying processes behind autoimmune diseases "and could lead to improved interventions as an ultimate goal."

Court Sets Owens Corning Asbestos Damage At $7 Billion

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0800

A federal judge has determined that Owens Corning, the maker of building materials, is likely to owe $7 billion for asbestos damages.

The ruling signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge John Fullam of Philadelphia, is a key action in Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning's long-running bankruptcy case.

Financial creditors of the company argued that the company's asbestos liabilities should be pegged at a number between $2 billion and $3 billion.

Lawyers for asbestos claimants asked for an estimate of $11 billion from the judge, who took extensive evidence on the issue.

Owens Corning is one of the largest of many companies to seek refuge in Chapter 11 from an onslaught of claims for damages from asbestos products that it has long since ceased making.

The asbestos estimation proceedings before Fullam were hotly contested, as the liability amount assigned by the judge sets a baseline for Chapter 11 reorganization plan negotiations.

In broad outline, Owens Corning expects to appease both financial and personal injury creditors with shares in its still successful business operations.

The higher the amount estimated for asbestos liability, the more equity Owens Corning will set aside for people with claims for disease and death caused by asbestos.

Georgia-Pacific Hit With $9 Million Asbestos Verdict

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0800

A Dallas, Texas, jury has awarded $9.3 million to the family of an East Texas man who died from a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers as a child.

Attorneys for the family of Timothy Shawn Bostic argued the man was exposed to asbestos while working with his father as a child and teenager in the 1960s and 1970s. Witnesses testified Bostic frequently worked with a joint compound that contained asbestos and was made by Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp. The jury late March 14 found Georgia-Pacific negligent for failing to warn Bostic about the asbestos dangers in its joint compound and awarded Bostic's family $3.1 million in compensatory damages and $6.2 million in punitive damages. Texas law requires a cap on punitive damages. However, that cap is set specifically in each case.

Georgia-Pacific will appeal.

"We believe the evidence showed the Georgia-Pacific product did not cause Mr. Bostic's illness and the trial court erred in several significant rulings, which we will pursue on appeal," said Robin Keegan, Georgia-Pacific spokesperson.

Georgia-Pacific has been battling asbestos litigation for years. It recently reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the number of asbestos claims filed against it continued to decline in 2004, even as the amount of money it paid on claims hit the $200 million mark. At the end of 2004, there were 59,700 pending claims, down from 64,300 at the end of 2003. During 2004, 26,500 new claims were filed against the company, down from 39,000 new claims filed in 2003.

Court documents showed Georgia-Pacific officials knew about the health dangers of asbestos as early as 1967 but continued to sell products that contained asbestos as late as 1977. In 2003, Bostic was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. He died later that year at the age of 41.

UM Study Suggests Link In Asbestos Exposure

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Researchers at the University of Montana believe they have documented a possible link between asbestos exposure and the "red flags" for autoimmune diseases that the human body sends out.

Researchers say that while a lot of additional study is needed, the findings could be the first step in understanding how certain environmental exposure may trigger autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and schleroderma.

The study looked at blood samples from 50 residents of Libby and compared them to samples from a control group, matched by age and sex, of 50 people living in Missoula.

Libby was contaminated with asbestos fibers from a vermiculite mine that was operated by W.R. Grace & Co. from 1963 to 1990. Asbestos contamination has been blamed for some 200 deaths and health problems of hundreds of other area residents.

Jean Pfau, a researcher at UM's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, said the study found that the Libby residents were much more likely to have certain proteins in their blood known as antinuclear antibodies, or ANAs that the body mistakenly sends out and which attack tissues, organs and cells.

Those antinuclear antibodies occurred 28.6 percent more frequently in the Libby group than in the Missoula group, Pfau said.

The findings are printed in the January 2005 issue of a National Institutes of Health publication, Environmental Health Perspectives.

UM's study is small, but researchers intend to embark on a much larger study to determine whether higher ANA levels translate into actual autoimmune diseases.

UM is applying for grants from the National Institutes of Health to follow up with those residents. Results could take four or five years to publish, Pfau said.

The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association called the UM study promising. Heredity aspects of autoimmune diseases are well-known, but environmental triggers are less understood, according to the association.

High Levels of Hazardous Materials Found Next to Trade Center Site

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0800

High levels of asbestos, lead and other contaminants have been found in a vacant skyscraper badly damaged during the 2001 terror attacks, potentially complicating the rebuilding of ground zero.

A consultant to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. revealed the findings at a public hearing where neighbors, environmental advocates and union representatives talked about their concerns over plans to dismantle the 40-story Deutsche Bank building.

The consultant said concentrations of asbestos, lead and silica on the building's exterior and in elevator shafts, conduits and ductwork exceeded benchmarks set by the Environmental Protection Agency, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Critics of the plan fear the demolition will kick contaminants into the air and that workers inside the building would not be adequately protected.

"Workers are essentially, and unfortunately, the canaries for the community," said David M. Newman of the nonprofit New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

Government permits are needed before the plan can proceed.

EPA officials say they are not opposed to the dismantling, but support steps to reduce the environmental impact.

The building is across the street from the trade center site. Falling debris from the attack tore a gash in its facade, allowing in water that contributed to a severe infestation of mold inside. Officials eventually decided it was easier to tear it down piece by piece and rebuild than to repair it.

People Exposed to Asbestos Show Early Signs of Autoimmunity

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Exposure to toxic amphibole asbestos may contribute to autoimmunity, potentially laying the groundwork for future autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, according to a study published today in the January issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).

Researchers evaluated 50 residents from Libby, Montanaa town polluted by asbestosand found them much more likely to have a class of autoantibodies in their blood than a control group. Presence of these biological markers, known as antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), are often found in people whose immune systems may be predisposed to cause inflammation against their own body tissues.

Researchers found that ANAs occurred 28.6% more frequently in the Libby samples than in the controls. In addition, people who had been exposed to asbestos for more than five years tended to have higher concentrations of ANAs than those with less exposure. Of the Libby residents tested, 76% had asbestos-related lung problems, and those with more severe lung problems also had higher concentrations of autoantibodies.

Virtually the entire town of Libby was designated a Superfund National Priorities List site in 2002, after decades of mining vermiculite contaminated the mine, processing sites, and many homes, buildings, and properties in the town with amphibole asbestos.

By demonstrating an association between asbestos exposure and measures of autoimmune responses, this study supports and augments other existing evidence that, like silica, asbestos is an agent of systemic autoimmunity, the study authors write. Asbestos-contaminated vermiculite from Libby has been shipped and processed in many sites in the United States, and this material is still used in many applications. It therefore remains a significant health risk to humans both occupationally and environmentally, and an awareness of an association with autoimmunity could impact necessary monitoring, testing, and treatment regimens for exposed individuals or populations.

Based on the results of this relatively small-scale study, the researchers intend to continue their studies of actual autoimmune diseases among the Libby population.

Asbestos exposure has long been associated with cancers, fibrosis, and other diseases, but the link between subclinical markers of autoimmune disease and asbestos exposure is important information, says Dr. Jim Burkhart, science editor for EHP.

The authors of the study were Jean C. Pfau, Jami J. Sentissi, Greg Weller, and Elizabeth A. Putnam of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Montana

Man Settles Madison County Asbestos Lawsuit for $4 Million

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0800

A man from a Chicago suburb has settled an asbestos-related lawsuit in Madison County for nearly $4 million.

The attorney for 78-year-old Luke Lindau says the Arlington Heights man developed lung cancer from exposure to asbestos when he worked as a painter and drywall supervisor.

Lindau reached the settlement with several companies, including Georgia-Pacific and Bondex.

The defendants earlier unsuccessfully tried to get a judge to transfer the case to Cook County.

Critics say Madison County, which is near St. Louis, attracts more asbestos lawsuits than any other venue. About 950 new asbestos lawsuits were filed in the county last year.

Court Revives 'Second-Hand' Asbestos Case

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0800

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey may be liable for injuries resulting from "second-hand" exposure to asbestos at its work sites, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled yesterday.

Reversing Justice Helen E. Freedman's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Port Authority, the appellate court concluded that the Manhattan Supreme Court "erred in holding that the Port Authority owed no duty to the wife as a matter of law on the ground that an employer's duty to provide employees with a safe workplace did not extend to non-employees exposed to asbestos off premises."

Elizabeth Holdampf, a 59-year-old housewife from Queens, initiated an action against the Port Authority and more than 20 other defendants after being diagnosed in 2001 with mesothelioma, a usually fatal form of cancer associated with exposure to asbestos dust. All of the defendants except for the Port Authority mostly manufacturers of asbestos or products that require asbestos have settled or been dismissed from the case.

Ms. Holdampf's husband, John, worked as a mechanic at the Port Authority from 1960 until 1996 and was exposed to asbestos at at least eight of its sites, including the World Trade Center, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and all three major New York-area airports.

Mr. Holdampf, who does not have cancer, wore his work clothes home each evening, Mrs. Holdampf alleges, and her repeated exposure while laundering his contaminated clothing for 30 years caused her cancer.

Ms. Holdampf claimed that the Port Authority was negligent for "failing to warn its employees and 'other persons who were reasonably and foreseeably known to come into contact with the asbestos-containing products' against the dangers associated with exposure to asbestos," Justice Luis A. Gonzalez wrote in Holdampf v. A.C.S. Inc., 3478.

The decision will be published Thursday.

In its motion for summary judgment, the Port Authority contended that liability did not attach because Ms. Holdampf's exposure was not connected to her personally being employed at any Port Authority site. Neither common law nor statutory duty extends to non-employees, the defense argued, citing Widera v. Ettco Wire and Cable Corp., 204 AD 2d 306.

In a one-sentence short order form, the Supreme Court granted the Port Authority's motion, "based on [the] Widera case and absence of duty to plaintiffs."

In a 21-page ruling overturning that decision, the appeals panel relied on the principles of foreseeability that descend from the seminal case Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road Co., 248 NY 339.

In deciding on duty of care, Justice Gonzalez said, a court should look at such factors as the relationship of the parties, whether the accident was foreseeable and, citing Palsgraf, "whether the plaintiff was within the zone of foreseeable harm."

The Port Authority ignored this line of precedent, Justice Gonzalez wrote, and based its application for summary relief "almost exclusively on the Widera rationale that an employer owes no duty of care to non-employees outside the workplace."

That was misguided, the panel found, since Widera was distinguishable. That case, filed on behalf of an infant plaintiff who had been exposed to chemicals as a result of a pregnant mother's washing of work clothes, "involved the unique question of a tortfeasor's liability to an infant for injuries occurring while in utero."

The court also declined to "subscribe to such a narrow view of common-law negligence" as Widera's, one that precludes liability from extending "to any non-employees for injuries resulting from dangerous substances escaping from its premises."

Attorneys for the Port Authority could not be reached for comment.

Feds Warn Of Asbestos Threat

Sun, 31 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0700

A federal health warning has been issued for former workers of a closed Omaha insulation plant that they could have been exposed to a deadly form of asbestos.

The Western Minerals Products plant used vermiculite to manufacture insulation from the 1940s until it closed in 1989. The vermiculite was taken from a mine in Libby, Montana and it was later learned that the mine had a natural deposit of asbestos that contaminated the vermiculite.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is investigating to see if workers at the Omaha plant and 27 other sites around the country were unknowingly exposed to asbestos. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause lung diseases including cancer.

NY Judge Orders $500 Million Fund for Asbestos Claims

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0700

A Southern District bankruptcy judge yesterday issued orders that effectively bar tens of thousands of asbestos claims nationwide and provide a fund of about $500 million to pay claims against Travelers Indemnity Company that relate to the bankruptcy of the Johns-Manville Corp.

Judge Burton Lifland affirmed his determinations in the bankruptcy case, In re Johns-Manville Corp., including a 1986 indemnification agreement between Travelers and Johns-Manville and held that the agreement bars direct lawsuits against Travelers.

Johns-Manville collapsed under the weight of asbestos-related litigation and filed for bankruptcy in the 1980s.

Judge Lifland presided over the bankruptcy, the first and most prominent asbestos case in the country, including the creation of the Manville Trust. It was intended to resolve outstanding claims against the bankrupt company. The Manville Trust is still open, and paying an estimated 5 cents on each dollar of approved claims.

Travelers was Manville's primary insurer. Since Judge Lifland's 1988 confirmation order in Manville's bankruptcy, Travelers has been sued directly by claimants nationwide, who have argued that its 1988 agreement with Manville only defined its obligations to indemnify the company for claims, not direct actions against the insurer.

Claimants have argued that Travelers engaged in unfair settlement practices and committed a tort by settling some claims for too little when it knew of the harmful effects of asbestos.

In 2002, Judge Lifland granted Travelers a preliminary injunction against Manville-related claims filed directly against the insurance company and ordered the parties to mediation. His action yesterday reaffirmed the injunction.

Former Governor Mario Cuomo of Willkie Farr & Gallagher served as the court-appointed mediator.

During the past two years, Travelers reached three settlement agreements on direct action statutory claims, primarily in West Virginia; on direct action common law claims, primarily in Texas and Ohio; and in tangentially related cases in Hawaii.

Travelers agreed to provide some funds for resolution of the cases if a court ruled that the cases had been precluded by previous court orders. All three settlements were affirmed by yesterday's orders.

The statutory cases were brought on behalf of people who had previously settled cases against Travelers. They argued that the insurer should have paid them higher amounts.

The common law claims were brought by individuals with personal injuries who had no previous settlements. Most of their lawsuits had been rejected by the state courts, which held that making insurance companies liable to third parties would create a conflict of interest with their responsibility to the insured.

Travelers, represented by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, argued that all the statutory and common law claims were barred by its 1988 settlement with Manville.

Judge Lifland held an evidentiary hearing and heard expert testimony on July 6, before concluding that the settlement precludes direct actions against the insurance company.

An attorney for Travelers complimented Judge Lifland's enjoining of individuals from suing the insurer.

"It's a watershed development in bankruptcy law, because only the bankruptcy court has power to issue a nationwide injunction arising out of the reorganization of a company," said Barry R. Ostrager, a partner at Simpson Thacher who represented Travelers with partner Andrew Frankel.

CDC: Asbestos Deaths Climb Since '60s

Fri, 23 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0700

Asbestos deaths in the United States have skyrocketed since the late 1960s and will probably keep on climbing through the next decade because of long-ago exposure to the material, once widely used for insulation and fireproofing, the government said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 1,493 people died from asbestos in 2000, compared with 77 in 1968.

In fact, in 1998, asbestos-related deaths overtook those black lung disease, reflecting in part the decline of the coal mining industry, the federal agency said.

The CDC reached its findings by reviewing the death certificates of nearly 125,000 people who had lung conditions linked to inhaling dust or fibers from minerals such as coal or asbestos.

Asbestos use in buildings increased substantially after World War II and peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because asbestos related illnesses are slow in developing it can take up to 40 years between the time someone is exposed to the material and dies from it asbestos deaths will probably increase through the next decade, said Michael Attfield, a CDC epidemiologist.

"What you've got are folks in their 60s and 70s who might otherwise live longer, but because of the damage to their lung tissue, it leads to an early death," said Forest Horne, a Raleigh, N.C., lawyer who represents asbestos patients. "We're paying the price now for the use of this mineral in almost every construction insulation product used back in the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, all the way to the '70s."

Government regulations in the 1970s helped curb the use of asbestos. It is still used, though under heavy regulation. It is found in more than 3,000 products, including brake linings, engine gaskets and roof coatings, and is still present as insulation in older buildings.

"The disease that's being manifested now is basically the result of high exposures over a long period of time 20, 30, 40 years ago and don't reflect what current regulations requires," said Bob Pigg, president of the Asbestos Information Association of North America. "Today's products can and are being used safely."

Exposure can cause asbestosis, in which asbestos fibers get into the lungs and scar them. The lungs get stiff and it becomes difficult for them to take in air or to transfer oxygen to the blood. This can lead to frequent lung infections and heart or respiratory failure. There is no effective treatment.

Whether someone will develop asbestosis depends on such factors as the intensity and duration of exposure and the person's age when exposed.

For years, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or black lung, was a much more common lung disease. But cases have been on the decline, possibly because fewer people are employed in the coal mining industry today, the CDC said.

Also, asbestos was probably listed on death certificates more often in recent years as health officials became aware of its dangers.

Asbestos Found At Old Mine Smelter Site

Mon, 28 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0700

Federal officials are blocking public access to the old Quincy Smelting Works grounds because of asbestos contamination.

In tests this month, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that about half of the 27 buildings and eight outdoor locations at the Houghton County site have asbestos that could be broken into particles and inhaled.

Some of the outdoor sites are within a few feet of a state snowmobile trail, said Ralph Dollhopf, the EPA's on-site coordinator.

The endangered section of trail has been closed, but the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Keweenaw Convention and Visitors Bureau are seeking an alternative route, The Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton reported Monday.

The smelter, built in 1898, was run by the Quincy Mining Co. until area mines closed in the late 1960s. Franklin Township now owns the site.

The EPA discovered the asbestos while overseeing removal of chemical containers at the site.

"The more we see, the more we don't like the picture in terms of the amount of asbestos that seems to be there," Dollhopf said.

The EPA is building a 7-foot, chain-link fence around the site.

It's uncertain how much asbestos is in the buildings, but it is difficult to contain because the structures are deteriorating, Dollhopf said.

The site closure stalls plans by the township and the Keweenaw National Historical Park to repair and renovate the building for tours and interpretation projects.

"Its the best remaining example of 19th century copper smelting works in North America, perhaps the world," said Steve DeLong, landscape architect with the historical park.

The township is seeking state or federal assistance to clear out the asbestos, Superisor Glenn Ekdahl said.

Asbestos Lawsuit Goes to Trial

Wed, 14 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0700

A product-liability lawsuit filed by a dying retiree of the Fisher Scientific Co. almost four years ago has made its way to trial this week in the Indiana County Court.

The suit filed by Joseph Carl Smith of Homer City RD 3 has been consolidated with claims that two other retired Fisher Scientific workers, Stanley Maschak of Shelocta RD 3 and John Lee Harris of Indiana, who also contracted cancer from exposure to asbestos in Fisher Scientific's plant along Indian Springs Road in White Township.

Smith and his wife, Concetta, filed suit in July 2000, about three months after Smith had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs. Smith, 69, died in February 2001.

Joan Maschak filed a series of three lawsuits in 2000 and 2001, following her husband's death at age 69 from mesothelioma in November 1999.

Harris, 68, initiated his case in November 2000, less than three months after surgeons removed most of his right lung to prevent the spread of lung cancer. An attorney said Tuesday that Harris is in remission.

About 60 companies were named as defendants in each of the suits, but lawyers representing only two of them are putting up a defense against the claims in the trial this week.

The suits accused the companies of manufacturing or supplying asbestos-containing products that Smith, Maschak and Harris used in the assembly of medical and laboratory equipment in the Fisher plant. Fisher Scientific was not named as a defendant because Pennsylvania law prohibits workers from suing their employers.

On Monday, at least eight attorneys were at the defense table in Judge Gregory Olson's courtroom, helping to select the jury. When the trial opened Tuesday morning, only three lawyers remained to defend Pittsburgh-area industrial suppliers, Taylored Industries Inc. of Harmarville and Pittsburgh Gage and Supply Co., which now is owned by IU North America Inc.

Many of the claims against the other defendant companies had been dismissed "with prejudice" or "without prejudice" and, in some cases, the court had granted motions for summary judgment against them, according to court records. But attorneys on both sides declined to discuss whether the other companies had reached settlements with the plaintiffs.

In his opening statement Tuesday, an attorney representing Harris and Concetta Smith, told the jury that although Taylored Industries and Pittsburgh Gage simply furnished asbestos-containing products that were made by other companies, they were just as responsible as the manufacturers to provide sufficient warning of the dangers of asbestos to the Fisher Scientific Co. workers who used the products.

The attorney who represents Joan Maschak, said the men assembled ovens, furnaces, fume hoods and hot plates using insulating panels shipped to Fisher by Taylored Industries and were sickened by breathing microscopic fibers of asbestos from the panels. Beachler also said the men worked in the vicinity of pipes covered with asbestos-containing insulation furnished by Pittsburgh Gage.

Asbestos Shuts Down School

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

An elementary school in Brownsville, Brooklyn is closed because workers turned up asbestos in the gymnasium.

Workers were ripping up the floor in the gym at P.S. 219 when they noticed a white film settling on things. The school was closed.

Students, teachers and staff are being divided to three other schools -- P.S. 252, P.S. 232, and P.S. 268.

Asbestos removal work will be done before the gym floor is replaced.

The New York Edcuation Department says no students were near the gym when the asbestos fibers were scattered in the air.

Asbestos Worker Tasted It, Choked On It

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

At age 46, Tom Valachovic says he wakes each morning gasping for air. At middle age, he has the lungs of an old man.

"Last week my dog got out at 12 o'clock at night," he said. "I walked up the driveway and I almost couldn't make it back. That was the worst ever. I was scared. I thought I was going to die right there. I couldn't breathe."

Such is life with asbestosis, a long-term disease of the lungs that only gets worse. The incurable illness is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers that irritate and inflame lung tissue, scarring the lungs. The scarring makes it increasingly difficult to breathe.

More than 10,000 Americans have the disease. About 1,200 die from it each year. But what makes Valachovic unusual is that he developed symptoms less than five years after leaving his job removing asbestos from old buildings. Normally it takes 20 years or more for people to develop asbestosis, doctors say.

Federal prosecutors suggest in court records that hundreds of former asbestos workers in New York state may be at risk of developing the same problems as

Valachovic the price of working in a corrupt industry that placed profits ahead of workers' health and safety. A federal crackdown has led to guilty pleas or convictions of about 60 people from more than 30 companies in New York since 1999.

Valachovic, of Mayfield, Fulton County, is a former employee of AAR Contractor Inc. of Latham, once one of the largest asbestos cleanup companies in the state.

AAR and its owners are on trial in federal court in Syracuse in what the federal Environmental Protection Agency calls the most significant criminal prosecution of the asbestos cleanup industry in the nation's history. The trial will enter its fifth month this week.

AAR and its owners, Alexander Salvagno, 37, of Loudonville, and his father, Raul, 71, of Ormond Beach, Fla., are charged with routinely ignoring safety rules to save time and money. Employees ripped asbestos from buildings without wearing respirators and other protective clothing.

Valachovic said employees knew they were breaking the law but followed their bosses' orders. The asbestos was often removed dry, rather than wet, violating federal laws. That allowed particles to float in the air in choking clouds that some workers described as a blizzard.

Couldn't breathe

"Sometimes you would have to put on your mask because you couldn't breathe at all," Valachovic said. "It was nasty. When I was in an enclosure by myself, it was so intense you actually had to wear it."

Valachovic said he knew the instant the asbestos was in the air.

"It's got a taste," he said. "And when you got it on you, you could feel it stabbing you. Your eyes would be bad. I can remember my eyes being bloodshot all the time."

Valachovic's story mirrors the court testimony of his former supervisor and other officials from AAR and affiliated companies. Thirteen former managers from the operation have admitted their guilt in plea bargains made with prosecutors. They await sentencing.

AAR removed asbestos at more than 1,500 projects across Upstate New York, including 34 in the Syracuse area, according to the prosecution's evidence. The local projects included the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant near Oswego and the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse. Other projects include churches, hospitals, schools, theaters, military housing, banks and private homes, prosecutors say.

David Bernfeld, the lawyer representing AAR and Alex Salvagno, declined to comment for this story.

Starting with easy money

Valachovic, who has not testified in the case, said he worked from 1991 to 1994 for AAR and American Manpower of Glov- ersville, a company that witnesses said existed only to supply AAR with laborers.

Valachovic said his health problems surfaced in 1999, when he was working on a home construction project and started feeling chest pains. He thought he was having a heart attack. Doctors found a mass growing around one of his lungs and noncancerous spots on his lungs. In the process, they removed one-third of his lower left lung.

His doctors explained that small asbestos particles in his lungs are attacked by his body's defenses, forming tumors that fill up his air passages and making breathing difficult.

In October 2003, a state workers' compensation judge ruled that Valachovic's doctors provided "convincing proof" that his asbestosis was caused by exposures from his job.

Despite those problems, Valachovic said he continues to smoke about two packs of Marlboros every day. He has been smoking since the age of 10 or 12, and he knows cigarettes make his condition worse.

"I'm afraid to quit smoking," he said, laughing uneasily. "I think that the tar actually helps. Maybe the asbestos is staying buried under the tar."

Valachovic, at 6 feet 3 inches and 235 pounds, said he spent much of his working life doing the hard physical labor of construction. He worked as a general contractor, sometimes making his best money when he was paid off the books.

Lured by the cash

In 1991, he began removing asbestos for Anthony Mongato, owner of American Manpower. Mongato pleaded guilty in April 2002 to Clean Air Act violations and lying to federal agents about his work for AAR.

Valachovic said he was lured by cash. Tax-free.

"I generally worked a lot under the table," Valachovic said. "A friend of mine got a hold of me and said Anthony needed some guys to remove some asbestos. It started out at $13 an hour. A lot of it was under the table, right off the bat."

Without any training or a license, Valachovic said, he was put to work removing asbestos at a General Electric plant in Schenectady. He worked nights, when it was less likely for state or company inspectors to show up.

He said he worked under the name of a licensed employee. He picked up and bagged pieces of asbestos that had been ripped off the pipes by Korean immigrant laborers and left on the floor in foot-deep water.

A GE environmental manager who testified in the trial offered his own example of AAR's handiwork.

At one job at the GE Schenectady campus in 1998, federal agents discovered that AAR workers had left behind asbestos above the cafeteria salad bar, according to the GE manager.

A licensing scam

After his first few months, Valachovic said, Mongato suggested it was time for him to get a state license as an asbestos abatement handler.

When it came time to attend the training school run by AAR, Valachovic said, trainers told him not to worry if he didn't understand something. On the tests, trainers gave them the answers.

"Nobody ever studied one bit," he said. "Half the time we would go and have a beer."

Valachovic said the workers did not understand that asbestos, a cancer-causing material widely used as insulation on pipes and boilers until the 1970s, could be bad for their health.

"It was never explained to us like that," he said.

When he finally did quit in 1994, it wasn't because of the asbestos. He stormed off the job for good when a boss demanded that he handle a rooftop job. Valachovic said he's afraid of heights.

In his four years with American Manpower and AAR, Valachovic said, he did not wear a respirator on 90 percent of his jobs.

Valachovic said he made as much as $32 an hour on the books. But he said the best-paying work was under the table, when he'd collect $500 cash for five hours work, ripping asbestos out of old houses in Albany. None of it was done properly. In some cases, the asbestos was simply dumped in the trash.

Valachovic said he rarely saw inspectors from the state Labor Department, whose Asbestos Control Bureau regulates the industry in New York.

Mongato developed a warning system in case inspectors would come around, Valachovic said. Mongato would simply sit down outside the enclosed area where the work was done. If he saw an inspector approach, he would bang a door three times. That was the alert for workers to put on their respirators.

Once, AAR was caught breaking the laws at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Green Island in Albany County, according to testimony. A Ford representative cut open a chained door to find dry asbestos in a Dumpster. Irate, he demanded action from AAR.

A public firing

Thomas C. Reed, AAR's former general manager, testified about how AAR placated Ford. AAR called a hurry-up meeting with its supervisor on the job.

"We made this big, long, you know, yelling-at-him speech" right in front of the Ford manager, Reed testified. At the end of the meeting, Reed said, AAR fired its supervisor.

What the Ford guy didn't know was this: The "fired" manager was playing along and simply left that job for another AAR contract, Reed testified. It was a stunt AAR had pulled before, he said.

On other occasions, AAR officials didn't even try to be cagey, according to witnesses.

Reed testified about the removal of asbestos-covered boilers from Greenhaven Correctional Facility, a state prison in Stormville, Dutchess County.

The state paid $48,813 to AAR to dispose of the three, 50-ton boilers as hazardous waste. Reed testified AAR instead dumped them in a field it owned in Albany.

That worked until a state employee taking an asbestos training class from an AAR affiliate looked out a window and recognized the prison boilers, Reed said. Even after getting caught, he said, AAR didn't do the job properly.

Instead, Raul Salvagno and others took the boilers to a parking lot and cut them up, using no asbestos containment, Reed said. They sold the scrap metal for $8,000 to dealers who didn't know about the asbestos, he said.

Valachovic said such testimony makes him feel sick in a different way. He wants AAR and its owners to be held accountable.

"Right now, I've got spots on my lungs," he said. "I made good money. But what they did was a crock. If I could put them in one of those bags and let them suck in the air for a while, I'd like to do that. I definitely think they should go to jail for a while."

Pay Attention To Asbestos Threat

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

The mere mention of asbestos is enough to cause worry. Even so, it's hard to know if homeowners, health authorities and regulators are paying nearly enough attention to its threat.

Because of its extreme cancer-causing risk, asbestos is banned from all but a few consumer products (it ought to be excluded from those as well). But at one time, it was widely used in shipbuilding, home siding and various fireproofing applications. And it remains in millions of buildings.

As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last week, a new study identifies King County as having the fourth-highest rate of asbestos-related deaths in the country. A regional concentration of World War II shipyards likely is to blame.

New problems could be developing. By one estimate, a quarter million or more homes in the state could have asbestos-contaminated insulation. Nationwide, up to 30 millions homes have insulation with contaminated material from the W.R. Grace Co.'s now-closed mine in Libby, Mont.

The Environmental Protection Agency has undertaken steps to inform homeowners of the risks that may be associated with asbestos, particularly if it's disturbed. Most public health authorities don't see the collection of asbestos-related health data as a high priority. But with the material still in millions of homes, public officials must watch carefully to see how much of the asbestos suffering lies behind us and how much we might still prevent.

State Is 16th In Asbestos Deaths

Mon, 08 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Wisconsin ranks 16th in the United States in deaths from asbestos-related diseases, according to a new study from an environmental group.

The Environmental Working Group study says at least 716 Wisconsin residents have died from asbestos exposure since 1979. More than 100 of the deaths have been in Milwaukee County.

Asbestos is a fibrous material that was used as insulation and fireproofing. Its fibers, when inhaled, can cause various breathing ailments including lung cancer. One of the more deadly cancers, mesothelioma, usually doesn't show up until many years after the tiny fibers become embedded in lung tissue like a barbed hook.

California and Florida topped a list of states with asbestos-related deaths, according to the Washington, D.C., environmental group's study.

Asbestos currently kills about 10,000 Americans a year, according to the study. That rate is increasing as more Americans exposed during the peak years of asbestos use, the 1960s and 1970s, reach old age.

Currently, more than 400,000 asbestos-related claims are pending before U.S. and state courts.

While asbestos victims want compensation, Congress has been urged to protect companies from the lawsuits. Business groups have said the majority of claims have been from people who are not sick and may not be sick for years.

Environmental Group Study Ranks Alabama 19th In Asbestos Deaths

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

An environmental group opposing federal legislation on compensating asbestos victims issued an analysis yesterday on the number of asbestos deaths and injuries. Alabama ranks 19th in the United States in deaths from two asbestos-related diseases.

The Washington, D.C., based Environmental Working Group study says Alabama has had 741 deaths since 1979 from asbestos and 10,881 people have gone to court somewhere seeking compensation for injuries, including more than 3,000 cases in the Mobile County area.

California and Florida topped the list of states with asbestos-related deaths since 1979.

Attorneys familiar with asbestos litigation said the legislation opposed by EWG comes too late for many Alabama victims of asbestos-related disease because the state's Supreme Court in the 1980s blocked any suits.

EWG spokesman Jon Corsiglia said the proposed federal legislation is a "bailout bill" favored by asbestos manufacturers and their insurance companies. He said the measure could come up for a vote by the end of this month.

Asbestos Won't Go Away

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Crews around the nation have worked since the 1980s to rid homes, schools and businesses of asbestos, but a new report predicts a growing wave of deaths.

A survey by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., hopes to bring attention to asbestos-related illnesses and deaths in the United States.

The report, based on government mortality records and studies, shows that asbestos-related diseases caused up to 58 deaths in Saginaw County since 1979.

The county ranks sixth among the state's 83 counties for such fatalities.

"This certainty suggests that we have got some work to do," said Terry Miller, a member of the Lone Tree Council, an environmental watchdog group.

"We have to find ways to phase out the use of asbestos to avoid future tragedies of this nature."

The greatest danger is from inhaling crumbled asbestos, which was widely used as an insulating material in buildings and on pipes.

The report states that since 1979, at least 1,140 people died from asbestos in Michigan; they were among 43,073 nationally.

The death rate apparently is accelerating; asbestos-related diseases now are killing 10,000 people a year in the United States, said Richard Wiles, the report's author and senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group.

"Anywhere there's a heavy industrial base, there's a problem with asbestos because companies used it for insulation," Wiles said.

"The automotive industry, historically, used quite a bit of asbestos in brakes, so that is a possible reason" for the deaths.

Founded in 1993, Environmental Working Group receives most of its funding from private charitable foundations. The organization comprises scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers.

In 2000, the group prompted an on-air apology from ABC's "20/20" staffer John Stossel over an inaccurate report about organic food.

While the organization indicated that more people are dying from asbestos, Wiles said the numbers don't suggest that more people are developing illnesses from the material.

What's happening, he said, is that people who were exposed in the 1960s, '70s and '80s are getting sick of dying.

"This is the beginning of a huge wave of deaths that we will have to deal with over the next 10 or 15 years," Wiles said.

"It's a problem that is still with us and is in epidemic proportions."

Thousands of victims across the country have sued manufacturers of goods containing asbestos.

Since the 1980s, litigants in some 3,400 asbestos-related lawsuits reached settlements in Saginaw County. They each sought more than $10,000.

Lane Clack, a Saginaw Township attorney who represents asbestos victims across the country, said there are about 150 pending asbestos lawsuits left in Saginaw.

"But most of them are building trades workers, and you don't see the (suits related to General Motors Corp.) like you used to," he said.

Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Leopold P. Borrello once said that if he handled the asbestos cases one at a time, it would take him 600 years.

Last year, Congress announced a proposal to form a $108 billion asbestos liability trust fund in exchange for an end to litigation, but lawmakers have not taken action on it.

Besides GM, other companies that were sued are those that supplied products to Defoe Shipbuilding Co. in Bay City.

Thomas E. Defoe of Saginaw Township, whose father was president of Defoe Shipbuilding, said the dangers of asbestos weren't known initially.

Defoe, 61, worked at the company from 1964 through its closing in 1976. He said he has no symptoms of asbestos-related diseases.

He said many ship-building materials used were specified in government contracts, with the government furnishing some items.

"This is what a lot of people weren't aware of," he said.

Defoe said he doesn't know of anyone in his family who has experienced sickness, but he is aware that former workers died from exposure.

Miller said government officials and others must work to limit asbestos contact.

"We have to make sure that this isn't repeated, that we're able to limit people's exposure," he said.

Asbestos-Death Study Says Wayne Co. Number Is High

Fri, 05 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Wayne County, a place where asbestos-dependent industries flourished for decades and millions of pounds of asbestos-laden ore was processed, has the 15th-highest number of asbestos-related deaths nationwide since 1979, according to a study released Thursday.

The study, by the Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C., estimates raw numbers of deaths, not rates, so it is of limited value in identifying asbestos hot spots.

But it is the first time anyone has made a scientific estimate of deaths from mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer the government began tracking in 1999 separate from other cancers, said Jon Corsiglia, a spokesman for the environmental group.

The mesothelioma death numbers are drops in the bucket compared to other types of cancers, researchers admit, but they may be a precursor to a wave of illnesses in the coming decade as those exposed to asbestos 15 to 30 years ago begin to show symptoms.

"We have no idea how many people were seriously exposed," said Richard Wiles, a vice president with the group.

He also said people who lived or worked with Zonolite brand insulation manufactured for years in Dearborn and still in hundreds of thousands of Michigan attics may be at risk.

Wayne County had between 248 and 391 mesothelioma deaths since 1979, and 69 more from asbestosis -- a noncancerous scarring of the lungs caused by asbestos. The study used high and low figures, based on variables used to extrapolate the deaths from general cancer statistics before 1999.

Oakland County ranked 81st out of more than 2,300 counties in the study.

The news comes amid political battles over victim compensation playing out in Congress and the Michigan Supreme Court.

The U.S. Senate is expected to debate a plan this spring to establish a $114-billion trust fund financed primarily by industry and insurers to cover asbestos illness claims.

Backers say it will weed out frivolous claims and speed money to sick people. Opponents contend it is not nearly enough money and leaves out many victims.

In Michigan, the Supreme Court is considering shunting all asbestos lawsuits filed by people without malignant cancers to an inactive docket. When and if their disease progresses, the suits would reactivate.

A federal health investigation is under way into facilities across the country, including the former W.R. Grace plant on Henn Street in Dearborn, that processed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite for decades. Vermiculite is a mineral used for fireproofing and insulation, including the ubiquitous Zonolite insulation.

The environmental group's study tracked 325 million pounds of contaminated vermiculite to Dearborn, but found that other sites in Michigan received only small amounts of the mineral. They included Reed City, River Rouge, Grand Rapids, Warren, Elsie and Milan.

Asbestos was used in a wide spectrum of consumer products but has been removed from many. It is still used in brake linings, some cement products and some other applications.

Asbestos Diseases Viewed As 'Epidemic'

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

The United States is facing an "epidemic" of asbestos-caused diseases, with some 100,000 people expected to die in the next decade from their past exposure to the dangerous substance, according an analysis of health data by an environmental organization.

"Ten thousand Americans die each year a rate approaching 30 deaths per day from diseases caused by asbestos," said a report to be issued today by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund.

"Asbestos kills thousands more people than skin cancer each year, and nearly the number that are slain in assaults with firearms," said the environmental group.

The study comes as the Senate is preparing to debate legislation that would nullify tens of thousands of asbestos lawsuits and transfer all pending and future claims to a newly created $108 billion victims compensation fund financed by manufacturers and insurance companies.

The Senate is expected to take up this bill at the end of this month or in early April. The measure is backed by the business community, which is seeking to cap its liability and get out from under a flood of lawsuits, but it faces opposition from organized labor and trial lawyers who argue the fund will shortchange victims.

The report, based on an analysis of more than two decades of government mortality records and epidemiological studies, said the 20- to 50-year latency period for asbestos diseases means that a substantial portion of individuals exposed in the 1960s and 1970s are now just showing up.

"EWG Action Fund projects that over the next decade, four asbestos-related diseases mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and gastrointestinal cancer will claim the lives of over 100,000 Americans," said the report.

"The epidemic is national in scope, affecting every state. And for every life claimed, many more will be compromised by an array of serious, if nonfatal, asbestos-caused illnesses," the report said.

The study notes that New Jersey was a prime destination for asbestos mined in Montana, with some 338,000 tons shipped to the state between 1948 and 1993 for use in factories such as the Johns Manville plant in Somerset County and W.R. Grace plants in Edgewater and Trenton.

The environmental group said the government data showed at least 2,775 people in New Jersey were killed by asbestos from 1979 to 2001, the sixth-highest total among the 50 states. It added that its research suggests the number of deaths could be as much as double that figure because of chronic misdiagnosis of asbestosis and mesothelioma and the absence of federal tracking for mesothelioma for nearly all the time period analyzed.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was once used widely in many industrial processes because of its fire-retardant and insulating properties. The report said in the mid-1970s, more than 3,000 consumer and industrial products contained asbestos, asbestos product factories polluted neighborhoods and workers were heavily exposed on the job.

When inhaled, asbestos fibers can cause lung disease and cancer. As a result, its use has been sharply curtailed in recent years, though it is still found in vehicle braking systems, asphalt roof coatings and gaskets.

EWG Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group that focuses on researching toxins in the environment, said in its report that hazardous conditions persist today, even in workplaces where asbestos use is regulated.

Asbestos diseases overwhelmingly affect older men, according to the study. It found deaths from asbestos have been increasing steadily for the last 20 years in the United States, are still on the rise and will peak around 2015.

The study also said the highest death toll has come from asbestosis and mesothelioma. But it said the mortality rate of asbestosis was three times greater than the rate of mesothelioma between 1979 and 2001.

More than 625,000 people have filed lawsuits for asbestos-related injuries over the years. By the end of 2000, businesses and insurers had paid out more than $54 billion in claims, according to a 2002 Rand Corp. study.

Rand found that more than 300,000 cases were still pending and another 500,000 to 2.4 million claims could be filed in the years ahead, costing businesses upward of $210 billion. There are more than 3,000 asbestos lawsuits pending in the New Jersey court system.

In addition, 67 companies have filed for bankruptcy because of their asbestos liabilities, and additional companies are likely to seek Chapter 11 protection.

The defunct New Jersey-based Johns-Manville Corp. was the world's largest producer of asbestos when it declared bankruptcy in 1982 after being overwhelmed by lawsuits from people who had become sick from asbestos exposure. The company established a trust fund in 1988 that is paying only 5 percent of the value of the claims against it to reserve funds for future victims. As of October, the fund had settled 570,000 damage claims for $3.2 billion and had 43,000 claims pending.

One major bankruptcy case now pending in federal court in New Jersey involves five companies -- W.R. Grace, Owens-Corning, Armstrong World, U.S. Gypsum and Federal Mogul. All five firms sought bankruptcy protection after facing huge claims from those injured by asbestos exposure.

Two years ago, U.S. District Judge Alfred Wolin was assigned to try to resolve the extremely complicated case, but tactics he employed to move it along have been challenged by some of the parties who want him removed from the case. A federal appeals court is reviewing that issue.

Camco Is 6th In Asbestos Deaths

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

A new study ranks Camden County as having the sixth-most asbestos-related deaths in the nation.

Only counties with major cities Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and Houston had more deaths, according to the analysis of government health statistics by the Environmental Working Group.

In effect, the study suggests many of the region's elderly residents, the shipyard, refinery and factory workers of the past are paying with their health for the region's industrial might.

Jack Higgins was a longtime Camden city resident and worked in maintenance departments at two Camden shipyards and RCA. He was 80 when he died in 1997.

"You had to sit and watch the body deteriorate while the mind was sharp as a tack. It was heartbreaking," said his son, Timothy Higgins, a Collingswood attorney. He added his father had to use bottled oxygen the last years of his life.

"He would describe it as if he were drowning, like he was under water and couldn't breathe," Higgins said.

Camden County, which had an estimated 458 to 532 deaths between 1979 and 2001, even ranked just ahead of Somerset County, once home to the largest asbestos manufacturing plant in North America, owned by the Johns-Manville Corp.

The analysis, released today by the Washington, D.C.-based group, predicts the number of deaths will continue to rise as latency periods for some of the most serious forms of asbestos-related diseases end.

The analysis of government statistics lists 10 other New Jersey counties among the top 100 with the most asbestos-related deaths. Gloucester County ranked 50th and Burlington County is 59th.

Gregg Shivers is a Cherry Hill lawyer whose firm has represented some 2,000 asbestos-related injury cases over the past 15 years.

He was surprised by Camden County's high ranking, but said large numbers of county residents once worked in industries that used or made asbestos.

Camden's now-defunct New York Shipyard, for example, used asbestos in ship insulation, and Owens-Corning once manufactured asbestos insulation in Berlin, he said.

Anthony Olivo, 83, is a longtime Deptford resident. He worked around asbestos for 40 years as a pipe welder.

He says he has been coping well with the asbestosis, scarring of the lungs, that he contracted from decades of exposure. But he feels deeply responsible for the death of his wife, Eleanor, of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung linked directly to asbestos.

She died at the age of 82, less than two years after her diagnosis. She was exposed to the fibers from washing her husband's work clothes.

"Had I known, I would have thrown the clothes away and put a new set of clothes on," he said, crying in the living room of their small Cape Cod cottage where his wife spent her last days.

"I don't know why the good Lord didn't give it back to me. She didn't deserve what she got," he said.

The study comes at a time when Congress is debating financial bailout plans for asbestos manufacturers and their insurers.

Asbestos use and exposure peaked in the mid-1970s, the study said.

At that time, more than 3,000 consumer and industrial products contained asbestos, asbestos factories were polluting neighborhoods, workers were exposed on the job and bringing asbestos fibers home to their families. Asbestos was also widely used in many buildings, including factories and schools.

But asbestos-related diseases have a 20- to 50-year latency period, meaning a substantial portion of those exposed in the 1960s and 1970s are just now getting sick or showing up in government statistics, the study concludes.

Shivers expects an increase in the numbers of lung cancer and mesothelioma cases his firm will handle over the next decade because of the long latency periods for these diseases.

During the study period, at least 43,000 Americans died from mesothelioma and asbestosis. But the Environmental Working Group maintains the number could be much higher.

"The actual number of deaths from these two diseases could easily be twice as high due to chronic misdiagnoses of both diseases and the absence of federal tracking for mesothelioma for nearly all of the time period analyzed," the study reported.

The study adds that lung cancer deaths from asbestos exposure are not reported at all and asbestosis, a non-cancer disease, is still "dramatically underreported, even in worker populations where asbestos exposure is well established."

The federal government banned many uses of asbestos in the early 1980s, including use in ranges and ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, deep fryers, electric blankets and popcorn poppers.

At the same time, asbestos remains widely used in brake shoes and roofing products, and can still be found in a number of other products, including cement wallboard, heating duct insulation, boiler insulation, vinyl floor tile and sheet flooring and pipe insulation, the study asserts. It also notes that these products are not required to be labeled as containing asbestos. The group is looking for a complete ban.

L.A. Tops Nation In Asbestos-Linked Deaths

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Los Angeles County has more asbestos-related deaths than anywhere else in the country, and the incidence of illness caused by the mineral is expected to rise over the next 20 years, a report released today says.

The report by the Environmental Working Group estimated that 1,227 county residents died of asbestos-related illness from 1979 to 2001, slightly more than the 1,051 in Cook County, Ill., which encompasses the Chicago area. Nationwide, some 10,000 people died of asbestos-related disease in 2002.

Experts said Los Angeles' large population, plus the widespread asbestos use in the shipping industry and post-World War II construction, help explain the county's high death figures.

"We were just floored when we looked at the deaths from this substance," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group. "We need to think of this as a 50-year problem because we still haven't banned asbestos.

Asbestos fibers can become embedded in the lungs and cause asbestosis essentially, scar tissue in the lungs or a usually fatal form of cancer called mesothelioma. Not all people exposed to asbestos become ill, but even small amounts can cause mesothelioma.

Until its dangers became well-known, asbestos was commonly used in construction and insulation materials and as a fire retardant. Its use peaked in the mid-1970s, when there were more than 3,000 asbestos-laced products on the market, though there were few safeguards for workers and their families exposed to asbestos dust.

Even today, asbestos is used in some cement pipes, vinyl floor tiles, duct insulation, floor backing and decorative plaster.

Cancer and other diseases linked to asbestos can remain dormant for 20 to 50 years, meaning people who worked with the fibers before safeguards were phased in during the 1970s could still develop potentially fatal illnesses.

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proposed the creation of a trust fund, financed by asbestos manufacturers and insurance companies, to handle lawsuits filed by asbestos victims and their families without bankrupting businesses.

Insurance companies anticipate $120 billion in asbestos claims worldwide and have pushed for national legislation to cut litigation, streamline the compensation process and set aside money to help people diagnosed with asbestos diseases.

"We know that 90 percent of current claimants have no signs of illnesses, but they are trying to get in before all these companies go bankrupt," said Peter Moraga, spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California.

Already, some 70 companies have filed for bankruptcy protection.

Michelle Harrington has filed a $100,000 claim against W.R. Grace, which declared bankruptcy in 2001, in part because of damages awarded in wrongful-death suits stemming from its mine in Libby, Mont., where some 200 townspeople died from asbestos-related diseases.

The owner of Harrington Tools is seeking to be reimbursed for having to clean up asbestos contamination in the West San Fernando Road building she bought in 1992 a structure previously owned by a company that processed more than 100,000 tons of insulation, using asbestos from the Libby mine.

"Not being my responsibility or my fault, I was absolutely furious," Harrington said. "Private companies cannot be held responsible or accountable for something they never did."

California toxicologists are analyzing historical cancer and cause-of-death data in the neighborhood around the West San Fernando Road plant as part of a national study of plants that processed the Libby material potentially discovering a new group of victims who might seek compensation.

Asbestos Mesothelioma Lung Cancer Asbestosis Lawyer

Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0800

Asbestos

During the twentieth century, some 30 million tons of asbestos were used in industrial sites, homes, schools, shipyards and commercial buildings in the United States. Many asbestos-containing products remain in buildings, ships, industrial facilities and other environments where the fibers can become airborne. It is even possible that you could have been exposed by a family member, because microscopic asbestos fibers on their clothing can come off in your home.

Asbestos exposure is also responsible for several other serious health problems. Pleural Disease, Lung Cancer and Asbestosis are all linked to asbestos contamination.

Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is the most serious asbestos causing disease. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the cells that make up the lining around the outside of the lungs and inside of the ribs (pleura), or around the abdominal organs (peritoneum). For many years asbestos manufacturers have claimed that cigarette smoking caused mesothelioma, however medical research has clearly proven that mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure.

There are currently about 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed per year, mostly in men over the age of 40. It is estimated that there will be about 250,000 cases of mesothelioma before 2020. Mesothelioma has a latency period of 20 to 50 years after the first exposure to asbestos. That means that if you worked around asbestos 50 years ago, you could be developing mesothelioma now.

Asbestosis
Asbestosis is a non-cancerous condition caused by exposure to asbestos. It is caused by asbestos fibers that become lodged in the lungs. As the lungs try to protect the body from these foreign bodies, scar tissue develops and diminishes the lung's capacity for oxygen.

Asbestosis is a progressive disease: as the scarring of the lungs gets worse, the lungs' vital capacity continues to decrease. Asbestosis can cause severe shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, and lead to heart problems. Asbestosis may also be present in people suffering from asbestos-caused cancers such as mesothelioma and lung cancer.

Legal Help for Victims of Asbestos Exposure
If you or a loved one suffered side effects from Asbestos, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified pollutants attorney.