“Neither the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) nor the Department of the Environment is doing enough to protect residents and workers from the potential risks of asbestos or lead,” the IG reported in a management alert that was outlined in an article in The Examiner. “Gaping holes in existing laws allow basic renovation work to go unregulated,” according to the findings.

The warnings emerged from an inspection of the DCRA, which the inspector general has not yet completed. However, he deemed the issues of asbestos and lead as urgent enough to justify the alert.

The IG also warned that DCRA’s renovation permit process could allow asbestos fibers to be disturbed if applications aren’t reviewed by the Department of the Environment. “DCRA permit application forms do not require applicants to identify renovation work that may involve removing, disturbing, or encapsulating asbestos,” the IG found.

DCRA Director Linda Argo maintains that the permit process does not need to be revamped because she insists that the Department of the Environment currently reviews all construction permits.

According to an article in The Western News, asbestos victims in the small Montana town worry that there is a lack of specific information about how funds will be dispersed among claimants.

”The issue of health care for those contaminated by asbestos in particular is raising suspicion among claimants,” the article notes. “While the settlement offers approximately $2.9 billion in cash and equity, it does not specify the future of the several health care programs currently operating in Libby.”

The largest of the programs in question is the W.R. Grace-funded Libby Medical Program, established in 2000. William Corcoran, head of Media Relations at the company, insists that “Grace is committed to and will keep funding the Libby Medical Program.” However, there is no legal requirement in the settlement that requires them to do so.

Another program, known as the Libby Asbestos Medical Program (LAMP), is also in question. It resulted from a one-time payment by Grace in order to settle a fine imposed by the Department of Justice.

Red Busby, who suffers from “severe” asbestos poisoning, says he has received no assurances, in writing, that his medication, oxygenation and yearly check-ups will continue once the settlement is agreed upon.

“I’ve heard nothing,” he said. “Whatever they do will be on their own part.”

John Heberling, a lawyer in Kalispell who represents Busby and other Libby victims, is concerned as well. He also noted that “there is no specific agreement that Grace will continue funding the Libby Medical Program or if the plan would continue now that the settlement is reached.”

Only a few specific elements of the deal are known, the article points out. A trust fund will be established with an initial deposit of $250 million, followed by an additional $1.55 billion over from 2019 through 2034. The fund will be guaranteed by 50.1 percent of Grace common stock. Claimants will also be allowed to buy 10 million shares of Grace stock at $17 a share

Of the eleven members on the Personal Injury Committee, Libby represented the only vote against approving the settlement.

The Residents Against Asbestos Waste (RAAW) is battling a plan by Aspect Contracts to build a “waste transfer station” in their neighborhood, notes an article in The Derbyshire Times. Those involved in the campaign say they fear health-related problems as three-quarters of the waste dump will contain asbestos debris.

Louise Kendrick, age 38, whose home on Langtree Avenue overlooks the proposed site, said: “It’s outrageous [that] this is being suggested in a densely populated area close to homes and a children’s playground.”

“We’re appalled and concerned about potential health implications and Chesterfield becoming the dumping ground for everyone’s waste,” Kendrick added.

The company claims that waste would be in enclosed, lockable containers that would be sealed at all times while not in use and that the containers would not present a health hazard to neighbors.

Aspect Contracts claim the development would fulfill a waste management need as it would be the only in the area, and the company points out that it would reduce landfill. The 0.139 hectare site would be swept weekly, they stress.

“All asbestos waste is inspected and packaged and sealed in accordance with legislation and as a result no escape of waste, dust or debris occurs,” said a company spokesperson.

According to an article in The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, filmmaker Linda Garmon asks in the opening to the thoughtful documentary, The Truth about Cancer, why Americans can put a man on the moon but can’t cure cancer.

Garmon says she grew up, “with unquestioning faith in America’s ability to solve problems with science and technology. So nothing, nothing at all, prepared me for (my husband’s 2001 death from) cancer.”

Six years later, Garmon returned to the Boston hospitals that had treated her husband as he struggled with cancer and mesothelioma treatments, intent on exploring researchers’ progress in combating the disease. Her documentary tells the stories of several patients struggling to treat their illnesses and deal with the ultimate outcome.

Film subjects include Jamie Klayman, age 38, who suffers from aggressive pancreatic cancer. The movie profiles her disappointment when neither conventional nor experimental treatments work.

Also part of the film is Jennifer Riley, age 37, who has suffered with breast cancer for 8 years. Riley says she has been able to add years to her life by continually trying new drugs and enrolling in clinical trials. Even though the drugs remain effective only for months, she says she is “grateful for every additional moment medicine can give her with her family.”

Garmon notes that what she discovered after talking to cancer patients like Klayman and Riley that there might be no cure, but there are small victories.

“Many of us grew up in the era of the ‘war on cancer,’ ” says George Demetri, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“And when there’s a war, maybe one day you’ll wake up, and there’s a peace treaty. But that’s not the right expectation here. What’s more likely to happen is that we will see the war won one battle at a time.”

According to an article in the Honolulu Advertiser, Carbone’s team of experts in genetics, thoracic oncology, geology and pathology has discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages. They have demonstrated that the epidemic is caused by an interaction between a human gene and the environment.

A University of Hawaii news release said Carbone and colleagues have identified that exposure to the mineral fiber erionite is the suspected cause of the epidemic. The researchers will use the AACR Innovator grant to identify the predisposing gene or genes for mesothelioma among this ethnic group and map the genetic risk factors by genetic linkage studies. Mesothelioma is an asbestos-related cancer that attacks the linings that cover the body’s internal organs, such as the lungs, heart, and abdomen.

Also part of the study were Haining Yang, Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii; Nancy Cox, Ph.D., and Ian Steele, Ph.D., University of Chicago; Harvey Pass, M.D., NYU School of Medicine and Clinical Cancer Center; Joseph Testa, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center; Y. Izzetin Baris, M.D., University of Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey; A. Umran Dogan, Ph.D., University of Iowa; and Salih Emri, M.D., and Murat Tuncer, M.D., Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.

]]> http://www.asbestoscancertreatment.org/scientists-win-grant-for-meso-research/feed/ http://www.asbestoscancertreatment.org/journalist-lauded-for-shedding-light-on-asbestos-victims/ http://www.asbestoscancertreatment.org/journalist-lauded-for-shedding-light-on-asbestos-victims/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:18:12 +0000 Marc http://www.asbestoscancertreatment.org/?p=51 A South African journalist who recently passed away is being lauded for his undying dedication to exposing the plight of asbestos victims in that country.

According to an article in Business Report, journalist Ronnie Morris “brought passion and a deep sense of social justice to his journalism, especially when writing about workers or communities standing up to big firms.”

“He cared deeply, to the point of taking the side of the underdog,” said columnist Jabulani Sikhakhane. “Many times in recent years, editorial management had to rein him in because he had crossed the line of impartiality in his reporting, but his unflinching empathy for the victims of asbestos poisoning always seemed to overpower him.”

Morris became a friend to many of South Africa’s faceless asbestos victims, exposing their plight and writing about their struggles in his columns. He spent his vacations with the victims of asbestosis in Kuruman in the Northern Cape, the article points out, spending time recording their progress or – in most cases – their lack of progress.

“On those occasions, when he fused his journalism and his deep sense of social justice into one whole, his prose came alive,” says Sikhakhane. “Like this introduction to his October 2006 article on the plight of mine workers: ‘They toiled in the asbestos mines where poor ventilation exposed them to murderous levels of dust and fibers.’”

“The mines have closed down and years later, these former workers become either ill from asbestos-related diseases or die from lung cancer. What, then, is a life worth?” Morris asked.

“We will miss him, but I suspect it’s the people of Kuruman who will miss him most,” said Sikhakhane. “They will miss his journalism of caring, of empathy and a great sense of social justice.”

According to an article posted on Lawyers and Settlements, the crew responsible for ripping out floors and drywall at the Highline Terrace Apartments in Denver were given no respirators or other protective gear, despite the fact that the company they worked for was fully away of the presence of asbestos, a hazardous mineral known to cause mesothelioma and other asbestos cancers.

“About five months into the job, Denver city and Colorado state health officials found asbestos in the building,” says Justin S., a member of the demolition crew. “The state told management to evacuate all residents within 24 hours; they didn’t even let them take their clothes or furniture because it was all contaminated.”

“They closed down the entire apartment complex and when it was tested, most of the materials we ripped out had 25 percent asbestos ratings - which is really high. There was even asbestos found in the soil.”

“We were never issued safety gear or masks, nothing at all. Our 15-man crew was exposed to asbestos daily. We were eating it for breakfast every single day without knowing it. Some of the crew had been working there months before I even started. We had no idea,” Justin notes, adamantly.

“Once it was closed down, the company that hired me–Commercial Services Building Incorporated (CSBI )– sent us to asbestos classes. I guess they did this gesture to reduce their fines,” he adds.

“Once we got done with those classes, I knew a lot about asbestos. The only reason that CSBI didn’t tell anyone was because it was a lot cheaper to act like asbestos wasn’t there. They are a huge corporation and they didn’t care in 2006. But they care now that they got caught. I quit working for them last November. We were never offered any compensation. Apparently the only ones who knew about asbestos were upper management and the property owners…”

Justin says that the state ordered CSBI to provide physical exams for the 15-member work crew at least once a year to check for asbestos-related diseases. The exams have yet to be provided, he notes.

Though the apartment building reopened in mid-2007, more than 120 residents are involved in an asbestos-related lawsuit against CSBI. The work crew is considering a similar suit.

According to an article in the Madison County Record, Kimberly Kluntz said her stepfather, with whom she grew up, has worked as a machine operator at Unas Grinding since 1972 and claims she developed the asbestos cancer because the company did not provide adequate protection for its employees nor did it take steps to ensure that employees working with asbestos did not bring home dangerous asbestos dust on their clothes or person.

Kluntz was employed from 1989 through 2006 as a customer service supervisor at various locations in Illinois and Connecticut but makes no claims as to asbestos exposure while on the job at any of those locations. She was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma in December 2007.

Kluntz claims that she “has sought, but has been unable to obtain full disclosure of relevant documents and information from the defendants leading her to believe the defendants destroyed documents related to asbestos.”

“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.

The suit claims that as a result of each defendant breaching its duty to preserve material evidence by destroying documents and information, Kluntz 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.

Kluntz is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

According to an article in the Irish Examiner, the dump in question was opened in 1978 by the Raybestos Manhattan Company, which operated a brake pad plant in Ovens from 1978 to 1980. At the time the 1.4-hectare dump site was opened, it sparked widespread protests from area residents.

“Children were removed from local schools, and bags of the material were dug up overnight and dumped on the grounds of the company’s factory,” the article notes. The confrontations cost the company an estimated £1 million and eventually caused them to make the decision to close the plant, eliminating jobs for 130 area residents.

Now, say local officials, the operation to remove almost 800 tonnes of hazardous material will start within two weeks and is expected to take about 10 weeks to complete. The material will be shipped to Germany for disposal.

The board of the IDA, the organization responsible for industrial development in Ireland, has decided the safest option is to remove all the material and restore the site to its pre-landfill condition, said Brian Conroy, the IDA’s southern director. It will be removed under controlled conditions, sealed inside special containers and shipped to a waste facility near Hanover in Germany, he said. “We have a team of specialist contractors on board and independent health and safety experts to monitor the operation. And there will be 24-hour security on site.”

The IDA has made contact with area residents who live close to the site to inform them of what will be happening during the removal process and the agency will keep them abreast of potentially dangerous asbestos levels. Asbestos exposure is known to cause diseases such as malignant mesothelioma, an asbestos cancer that attacks the pleura, peritoneum, or pericardium.

The former asbestos mining town once housed the Defense Force’s infamous 32 Battalion, but many old and infirm residents remained behind when the unit was disbanded in 1993, though most of its members integrated into the South African National Defense Force. The community - many of them retirees and children - is Portuguese speaking.

According to an article in Independent Newspapers of South Africa, the government had planned to relocate those who still lived in Pomfret and eventually demolish the property in the town. Asbestos contamination was cited as the major reason for demolition. The community, however, denied that there had been any communication with government authorities on the alleged asbestos threat.

So far, no one has been reported the incidence of any asbestos-related illnesses in the tiny town and many residents of Pomfret believe the government is using asbestos contamination to mask the real reasons for removing them from the property.