Mesothelioma Law Blog

Asbestos victims offered billions

W.R. Grace & Co. said yesterday that it has reached a deal that could be worth more than $3 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits by people who say they were sickened by exposure to the company's asbestos products.

The deal potentially clears a path for the Columbia-based chemical maker to emerge by year's end from one of the most complex bankruptcy reorganizations in U.S. history.

The accord, which would depend on approval by a bankruptcy judge in Pittsburgh, would establish a trust fund to pay current and future asbestos claims, which date back decades to when the company produced and sold products containing the substance.

Read further

Payout threat to asbestos cancer victims

Patients with an asbestos-related form of cancer who had been hoping for compensation now fear they will run out of time under new government rules on payouts.

Around 2,000 people a year in Britain die from mesothelioma, a cancer which attacks the thin membrane coating the lungs and abdomen. The disease is triggered by exposure to asbestos fibres in building materials and most commonly affects workers involved in construction, as well as shipyard and metal workers.

Compensation is already available for those who were exposed to the dust at work, as it is classed as an industrial injury, but last year ministers said they would extend compensation to people who had been exposed to the fibres at home or elsewhere in their environment, such as those who breathed in dust off the clothes of their partners.

Read Full Story

Researchers improve anti-cancer treatment

BETHESDA, Md., April 19 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a simple modification in an anti-cancer treatment currently in clinical trials that greatly improves the drug's effectiveness.

The improvement by Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s David Filpula and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute is said to also reduce side effects in experiments with laboratory mice.

The research centers on an immunotoxin called SS1P that targets and destroys cells producing the surface protein mesothelin.

Ovarian, pancreatic and malignant mesothelioma cells all produce abnormally large amounts of mesothelin and, therefore, are targets for SS1P.

FULL STORY :---  via UPI 

Grandmother's fight for compensation in Asbestos matter

A grandmother is fighting for compensation for her husband's death, caused by decades handling asbestos.

Josephine, of Tudor Way, Mill End, is battling for compensation over the death of her husband John, who worked for Cape Universal in Tolpits Lane, Watford for more than 20 years.

In January 2005, he was diagnosed with asbestos-related disease mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the lung) and died in June the same year, aged 59.

However, in Scotland, widows have claimed up to £30,000.

Josephine is backing a campaign for equal compensation across the UK.

Lisa Temple, John's daughter and Josephine's step-daughter, believes supports the campaign.

READ FULL STORY

In England and Wales compensation for death by asbestos is fixed at £10,000.

Hardie victims say fund welcome but too late for too many

AIR escapes from Ian Moore's lungs in a low rasp. His voice is thin, his sentences punctuated by long pauses as he struggles to catch his breath.

He suffers from mesothelioma. X-rays of his lungs show them riddled with dark clouds. An oxygen bottle is a near-constant companion.

This is the price he pays for a life spent handling asbestos.

James Hardie, the company that made most of the products that gave Mr Moore his disease, yesterday agreed to establish a $4 billion fund for victims, after six years of bitter legal wrangling.

READ FULL MESOTHELIOMA NEW STORY

Jury awards widow $850,000 in asbestos case

-- A McLean County jury awarded $850,000 to a widow whose husband died of mesothelioma.

It was the third McLean County lawsuit in 14 months won by plaintiffs accusing a company of conspiring to hide asbestos dangers. The jury awards in the three lawsuits against Honeywell International Inc. have totaled more than $11 million.

Robert Blessing first experienced symptoms of mesothelioma in June 2005 and died in December 2005, said Lisa Corwin, one of the attorneys who represented Blessing from Walker & Wylder, a Bloomington law firm. He filed the lawsuit, and his wife, Judith, carried on the litigation.

Robert Blessing worked as a builder and inspector for pipe covering at Union Asbestos and Rubber Co., also known as Unarco, from 1953 to 1960 at its Bloomington plant, she said.

Asbestos exposure is the only known cause for mesothelioma, a slowly developing cancer.

A jury also awarded more than $5 million in October 2005 to the wife of Merlan Dukes, who died of mesothelioma and worked for Unarco in the 1950s. And another jury awarded $5.5 million last month to the wife of John Hoogerwerf, who installed insulation on pipes and boilers locally using materials sold by Bendix Aviation Corp., which eventually became part of Honeywell.

READ FULL STORY

Mesothelioma News Source

A very good mesotheliona web site is located at Mesothelioma News.com

Mesothelioma News is dedicated to bringing you comprehensive information on a full range of topics about mesothelioma, including treatment, support, and legal help.

On Mesothelioma News you’ll find a great deal of information including:

• The types of mesothelioma, symptoms, and diagnosis of the disease
• Up-to-date information about treatment options for mesothelioma
• Support groups and resources for patients and their families
• The relationship between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma
• Protecting your legal rights

History of Asbestos

The term “asbestos” comes from a Greek word that means “unquenchable” or “indestructible.” The term can be used to refer to a group of mineral fibers that share properties of chemical and thermal resistance. It is also flexible and has a high tensile strength. Because of its many useful properties, asbestos has been referred to as the “magic mineral.” It has been incorporated into over 3,000 different products used in industry or households.

Even though asbestos has been used in a variety of products during the Industrial Revolution (and continues to be used in many products today!), modern industry was not the first to use this hazardous mineral. Asbestos use can be traced back to around 2500 B.C., when it was used in the manufacture of Finnish pottery. One of the earliest accounts of asbestos use, during the fourth to fifth centuries B.C, was for the wick of a gold lamp crafted for the goddess Athena. During this same time period, cloth made of asbestos was used as a funerary cloth to retain the ashes of the dead during cremation. According to Pliny, asbestos was also used in a similar fashion in the funeral dress of kings during this time. In a dramatic show, Emperor Charlemagne is said to have displayed a tablecloth made from asbestos that was used during great feasts. After the feast, the cloth and its contents would be thrown into a fire, and the cloth would then be removed unharmed to the amazement of his guests! In the year 1250, Marco Polo made reference to a cloth in the northern provinces of the Great Khan. It had the property of being unconsumed and purified in fire.

Around 1720, industrial uses of asbestos began on a limited scale shortly after the discovery of relatively large deposits of asbestos in the Ural Mountains in western Russia. The discovery of these deposits led to the establishment of factories making asbestos products. The products included handbags, gloves, socks, and textiles. In the following years, discoveries of different types of asbestos were made on several continents, setting the stage for many uses of asbestos.

In 1860, chrysotile asbestos was discovered in Quebec, Canada. Mining of these chrysotile deposits started in 1878, with fifty tons being produced during this mine’s first year of operation. In 1815, crocidilite asbestos was discovered in South Africa. Mining of larger amounts of South African fibers began around 1910. Another type of asbestos called amosite was discovered in central Transvaal in 1907, and the mining operations began in approximately 1916. The beginning of mining operations, along with the Industrial Revolution, set the stage for the use of asbestos and the public health crises that resulted.

Source: Pathology of Asbestos-Related Diseases (Victor L. Roggli et al. eds., 2004)

Health Watch: Battling Mesothelioma

Good article from KFOXTV.com.

Mesothelioma is a rare, but devastating cancer diagnosed in approximately 3,000 people each year in the U.S., mostly in men. Researchers now have encouraging news that a combination of surgery and radiation treatment is extending some patient's lives.

Countless U.S. workers were exposed to asbestos before it was banned in the early 1980s. Two years ago, when his doctors suspected he developed Mesothelioma as a result of being exposed to asbestos, John Ross and his wife Dorothy weren't given many treatment options.

Dorothy Ross-Wife of Cancer Patient: "So few people know about Mesothelioma, really. And it's a deadly disease. It is deadly."

That's when Mr. Ross enrolled in a clinical trial at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston treating Mesothelioma patients with a combination of surgery followed by intensity modulated radiation therapy or IMRT.

Dr. Craig Stevens-M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: "What we've done here at M. D. Anderson has actually been to develop some treatments that would probably work quite well in early stage disease."

Mesothelioma develops in the lining between the lungs and the chest wall. It can invade the lungs, abdomen and lining of the heart. Surgeons remove the affected lung and nearby tissue and implant titanium clips along the chest wall to mark where tumors were found. The clips are used to create computer-generated images and give doctors more exact targets for radiation therapy. Using IMRT, targeted doses of radiation are delivered only to the areas where the disease is found, sparing nearby organs, such as the lung and heart. In the clinical trial, Dr. Stevens says IMRT following surgery has greatly reduced the number of recurrences.

Dr. Craig Stevens-M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: "This is in contrast with historical series that used surgery alone that has as high as 80% recurrence right in the area where the tumor was originally."

Dr. Stevens reports a 55% three-year survival rate. Typically patients diagnosed with Mesothelioma are only given months to live. Dr. Stevens and his colleagues are continuing their research by now giving patients chemotherapy before surgery to prevent the disease from spreading to other organs.

Now that treatment options are lengthening and improving quality of life for people with Mesothelioma, researchers urge those with previous asbestos exposure to talk with their doctor about screening options.

Asbestos Awareness Day

Today, recognized by Senate Resolution as "National Asbestos Awareness Day," the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation called on the nation to commit to curing the lethal, asbestos-related cancer.

Mesothelioma or "meso" has been known since the 40's and its connection to asbestos exposure known since at least the 60's. It kills several thousand Americans each year, its incidence is growing, and dangerous exposures are still occurring. Literally billions of dollars have been sucked from the economy by the transaction costs of asbestos litigation and lobbying over who is to blame and how much should the injured or dead should be "compensated." But -- as MARF points out -- lost in all of this has been a commitment to address the tragedy itself by funding the research needed to develop effective treatments.

MARF is the national nonprofit organization whose mission is to eradicate mesothelioma as a life-ending disease. For more information or to sign the petition for federal meso research funding, see www.marf.org or contact MARF Executive Director Chris Hahn, 805-560-8942, c-hahn@marf.org.

Source: Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation