Mesothelioma Health News

In June of this year, Steve Gillingham was living in China, an active cycler and avid player of soccer and Rugby. However, shortly after a diagnosis of mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure, Gillingham has returned to the U.K. to be with his children. Gillingham also plans to remarry his ex-wife, with whom he has been estranged for 15 years.

While certainly his children are happy to see the reconciliation of their parents, Gillingham’s prognosis is grim. Doctors have indicated that he likely has less than 18 months to live. Even as mesothelioma is an aggressive and deadly cancer, there is still little research as it is quite rare. This is something Gillingham would like to see changed.

“They’ve known asbestos is nasty stuff for 100 years,” he explained, “the least they could do now is try to help the people suffering.”

Pushes for funding not only in the U.K., but also the United States, have been greeted with tepid response by legislators and the scientific community, who believe that other more prominent cancers should receive the resources necessary for new treatments and curative research.

It’s likely hard to tell Gillingham and his family this though. Mesothelioma may not manifest within the body until many years after an asbestos exposure (in most cases 3-5 decades). This would seem to indicate that perhaps the full extent of the asbestos problem is not yet known and further research is necessary.

Asbestos cleanup at the former Public Service, Co. steam plant in Grand Junction, CO has hit another snag this week after officials informed the City Council that cleanup costs would be doubling after crews discovered far more asbestos-contaminated soil than they had anticipated.

Officials estimate that the cleanup will cost at least $1 million to finish.

Over a quarter of a million dollars was spent to demolish the former plant in 2002. During the demolition phase, officials discovered dangerous levels of asbestos within the rubble. Construction was put on hold to evaluate the extent of contamination. Abatement did not begin until 2004, after several environmental assessments and an additional $40,000 spent.

So far, approximately 2,600 tons of affected soil has been removed from the site. “Trace amounts” of asbestos have been found in the remaining soil.

Linda Romer Todd of the City Council said that the rising costs are “unfortunate,” but that it is “not unusual” that the costs have increased for this type of project.

City Council members decided to move forward with the abatement and removal projects on Monday night despite far exceeding their initial budget of $180,555.

Erie County will receive $1.3 million as a result of a lawsuit against the Celotex Corporation according the County Attorney Cheryl Green.

Celotex Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1990 as a result of thousands of asbestos claimed filed against the company. Claims related to both personal injury and property owners whose building contained Celotex asbestos fibers.

As a plaintiff, Erie County filed upon property damage grounds. Green detailed that a class action settlement was established for $1.2 million and interest. This amount, however, does not represent enough to pay for all asbestos cleanups in county properties. Removal of asbestos materials from a single floor of the Rath building, for instance, totaled nearly $400,000.

An Australian asbestos victims advocacy group is urging the government of New South Wales to take the initiative to clean up an abandoned white asbestos mine in the town of Barraba, which, they believe, poses a significant health hazard to those who live in the area.

The Asbestos Disease Foundation believes the government “owes it to the community” to clean up the mine, says a story aired by the Australian Broadcast Company. However, the Department of Primary Industries says the asbestos tailings left at the site pose no danger to the public. Barry Robson, president of the Asbestos Disease Foundation, disagrees.

“It’s only been 20 years, roughly 20 odd years since that mine closed,” he said. “It takes 20, 30, 40 years to come out, the disease. So for people to say it’s not dangerous or there’s been no health problems associated with this mine, well let’s see down the track.”

Even some politicians believe the government has taken the “band-aid approach” to addressing concerns about the mine.

“Successive state governments put enormous amounts of money into keeping the mine going when it was operating. Now it’s been closed for 25 years, there’s a clear obligation to secure the safety of the community,” says Peter Draper, parliamentary member from Tamworth.

An Iranian-American engineer has been awarded more than $14 million by a Los Angeles jury in a case against a construction contractor that was deemed responsible for causing his cancer – mesothelioma - an illness for which the only known cause is exposure to toxic asbestos.

According to a press release by the plaintiff’s attorney, Amanollah Shahabi worked at oil refineries for more than 40 years, including about 30 years at oil complexes in Iran. Shahabi was trained as an engineer and, according to the release, his area of expertise was in pre-commissioning and commissioning major oil refineries for the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

 Shahabi relocated to the United States in the 1980s and worked as a consultant in the industry while studying to obtain his American citizenship. He later worked for the Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo, California.

According to the suit, his work “exposed him daily over a period of nearly four decades to multitudes of asbestos-coated- and asbestos-containing parts.” Shahabi was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive form of pulmonary cancer, in June 2007.

The Los Angeles jury decided that Fluor Corporation and several Fluor-affiliated entities were “negligent in their engineering procurement and construction of several oil refineries which contained various asbestos products and components.” Manufacturers John Crane Company and Fisher Company were not held liable.

“This case is remarkable on several counts,” said Shahabi’s attorney. “It may well be the first-known asbestos exposure liability case where the construction contractor was held responsible for the effects of defective products that it installed but did not manufacture. It is also important to recognize that the jury held an American company responsible for negligence that caused injury to foreign nationals on foreign soil,” he explained.

Despite the fact that the government has officially “de-gazetted” the town of Wittenoom from all maps of Australia as well as cut off its electricity and water supplies, eight stalwart citizens of the tiny enclave refuse to leave, saying the rhetoric concerning thedangers of blue asbestos in the town has been greatly exaggerated.

From 1943 until 1966, blue asbestos was mined in a gorge near the town. According to an article in The Independent, about 20,000 residents lived in Wittenoom during that era and thousands worked at the mine. But today, only eight remain and the town has been dubbed Australia’s worst industrial disaster ever. Hundreds have already died and Wittenoom and Western Australia now has the highest rate of mesothelioma – asbestos-caused cancer – in the world.

Not only did the dangerous asbestos affect mine workers and their families, but also myriad residents who had nothing to do with the mine. These individuals were exposed to this most toxic form of asbestos because tailings were used to pave the streets and as fill in the town’s playgrounds.

Yet the eight remaining citizens of Wittenoom say they’re staying put. “This is my home, and I’m not going anywhere,” says Frank Tmewell, aged 72. “There’s nothing wrong with me, and I’ve been living in the area for 40-odd years.” Timewell and his wife say “they could not be happier.”

“The policy now is that everything here is contaminated,” says Mario Hartmann, 44, who moved to Wittenoom 18 years ago. “But it’s the psychological battle that they’re playing – burying things in front of us that were part of our town. They want to pretend the place never existed,” says Hartmann, who claims the government offered to buy his home for what he calls an “insulting” amount.

Robert Vojakovic, president of the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia, is angered by the statements of the Wittenoom 8. “These are people who parachuted in after the mine closed and bought a house for nothing, seeking to profit from the notoriety of Wittenoom,” he says. “They’re luring other people into an unsafe environment.”

But the remaining residents just want to stay in their homes and be allowed to live their lives, they say. “We’re not harming the environment, and we’ve got everything here that we need,” says Gail Malcolm. “We’ve got Utopia here. So leave us alone, we’re happy as we are.”

Employees who worked aboard Marine Atlantic’s asbestos-laden Atlantic Freighter and have tested positive for asbestos will be able to file claims immediately, states a union representative for the Canadian Auto Workers Local 4285 in Sydney, which represents the marine workers.

According to a Nova Scotia (Canada) News article, an asbestos issue aboard the 30-year old freighter surfaced late last year, after which more than 1,000 current and former employees were informed by letter that they may have been exposed to the toxic mineral while on the job. The Atlantic Freighter offers a drop-trailer service between North Sydney, N.S. and Port aux Basques, N.L.

Sue Irvine, president of Local 4285, said union groups have held meetings with Marine Atlantic to get updates on medical evaluation clinics.

“At the beginning of July, they held two more clinics and this time they concentrated on retirees and people with long service,” Irvine said. “To my knowledge, there are a couple of people who have tested positive for asbestos but are not sick.”

Irvine said she believes the asbestos has not yet been removed from the freighter, but it has been completely encapsulated by a licensed asbestos contractor.

“Everyone has been taking asbestos awareness training in order to work on the freighter,” she said. “Everyone is now aware that there is asbestos on the freighter, encapsulated, so if they see anything suspicious, they know how to properly address it and what to do to handle it appropriately.”

When a 157-foot-wide section of a water distribution structure fell from one of the huge cooling towers at Pennsylvania Power and Light’s (PPL) Montour Power Plant earlier this week, it immediately put workers and area residents at risk for asbestos exposure.

Much of the material in cooling towers contains asbestos, notes an article in the Sunbury Daily Item, and though there has been no evidence of asbestos found at this point, PPL will continue to monitor the air around the accident area, says spokesperson Teri MacBride.

“PPL is deciding how to approach the structure in a safe fashion and will not send employees or contractors into the area until we have a plan. They are still preparing that plan,” said MacBride.

“The first thing they are doing is assessing a safety approach and figuring a scope of work for repairs,” she said, noting that they were unsure as to why the structure fell. Terrorism has not been considered, she added.

“The plant [which burns bituminous coal] just went through another rigorous certification through OSHA and was recognized with the Voluntary Protection Program Star as a top industrial safety site,” she said.

In the meantime, the water spilled from pipes broken in the collapse has been contained in a detention basin and is being held there until it is tested for asbestos as well as chlorine and various metals. If it is clean, it will be released into the nearby Susquehanna River, MacBride said.

No one was injured in the accident as most of the employees at the power plant do not work in the area where the collapse occurred.

A judge said yesterday that he wanted to see “significant progress” within three weeks concerning the cleanup of asbestos at five buildings at Indianapolis’ Timber Ridge Apartments. The order came after officials from the Marion County Health Department identified asbestos contamination in numerous buildings at the complex, which is well-known for its health violations.

Though asbestos was identified in nine buildings, prompted dozens of health code violations, five have been targeted for cleanup because of the occupancy in those particular buildings, says a story aired on News 6 Indianapolis.

“The end game is that within three weeks that these five buildings that have been identified to have asbestos in them also have occupants living in these buildings will be cleaned up and that’s why it’s critical this be done,” said health department spokesman John Althardt.

Timber Ridge has had more than 70 violations filed against it in environmental court including another problem with asbestos in 2007. At that time, the owners paid a private company to rid the apartments of the hazardous mineral.

When health officials got their first look inside vacant apartments two weeks ago, they were shocked at what they found. In addition to exposed asbestos, inspectors also found human waste, trash, broken windows, and evidence of criminal activity, the story points out.

While officials, parents, and students at a Vermont middle school are waiting to find out whether asbestos clean up can be done in time for school to open at the end of August, it has been revealed that the company responsible for the release of asbestos fibers at that school may have allowed asbestos to be released at other Vermont schools as well.

A story aired on WCAX-TV quoted health department officials as saying that South Barre-based Morrison-Clark failed to follow protocol for removing asbestos tiles at the Main Street Middle School in Montpelier. In addition, the company may have done the same at the elementary and middle schools in nearby Barre Town and an elementary school in Williamstown.

Chris Crothers of the Crothers Environmental Group says that Morrison-Clark isn’t the only construction company that’s not obeying asbestos laws by improperly moving the toxic material. “It happens more than most people know,” he stressed, and many of these incidents go completely unnoticed, he added.

Lisa Lamoreaux, whose son goes to Williamstown Elementary, is quite concerned about the situation, especially since that school did not close after the asbestos removal as did the school in Montpelier.

“Your child’s health is a priority and why aren’t our children any more important than Montpelier or Barre? It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Lamoreaux.

Morrison-Clark has refused to comment on the incident. In the meantime, Montpelier School District officials say 30 people were inside the middle school when the toxic tiles were being removed, including 10 students.

“The risk is minimal because the amount of exposure is minimal. One-time exposure will likely not create any problems for people who encountered it, but there’s not way to know for certain,” said Chris Crothers.