Mesothelioma Health News

Ireland’s Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has introduced a new mesothelioma bill in Parliament which will extend payments to all sufferers of the disease, including those with second-hand mesothelioma. This week, the bill passed through the second stage on its way to becoming a law.

According to a BBC News article, 40 to 50 Northern Ireland residents die each year from mesothelioma. Ritchie believes the bill is groundbreaking and will greatly benefit those suffering with the disease, providing assistance while they’ve still living.

“It will give early access to a lump sum payable within weeks of diagnosis,” she said. “This means sufferers will get compensation while they can still benefit from it during the final months of their lives.”

“Under the new Bill it will not be necessary to prove an occupational or causal link to access compensation,” the article points out. “This means that wives who contracted mesothelioma from washing their husband’s asbestos work clothes or the children who played with these overalls are to benefit, as will people who lived near factories that used asbestos.”

Mesothelioma typically takes from 20 to 50 years to develop and those who worked with the hazardous mineral directly are not the only ones affected by the disease. More and more cases of secondary asbestos exposure have been reported during the last several years, prompting bills like this one that will provide monetary compensation for these individuals as well.

Due to a national power shortage, New Zealand has decided to reopen the New Plymouth Power Station, despite the fact that it was closed last year due to the presence of asbestos. Now, employees will have to wear protective suits all day long until all traces of the dangerous mineral are removed.

According to an article in The Dominion Post, the individuals who will be running the plant will have to wear the same protective gear as those who’ve been working to rid the plant of asbestos. That includes full head-to-toe overalls, respirators, and gloves.

There are also full “wash-down decontamination” processes for all staff leaving the asbestos areas and traveling into non-contaminated areas. All will be made to shower at the end of the day before going home to their families and none of the protective clothing will leave the plant.

“Some Contact staff are already working in the containment area as part of the asbestos removal project, and every person involved in recommissioning and operating this unit will have the same level of protection as those involved in the asbestos removal program,” said David Baldwin, chief executive officer of New Zealand’s Contact Energy.

Currently, 60 contractors are involved in asbestos removal and another 15 will be running the power station on a daily basis.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that a stop work order is being leveled against contractors cleaning up asbestos pollution in Libby, Montana, a town plagued by years of asbestos mining and manufacturing.
According to a story aired by a Billings, Montana CBS affiliate, Air, Soil and Water, a contractor involved in the project, failed to use proper respiratory protection and used river water in their portable pumps.

“These were all very, you know, we thought very serious health and safety problems so, oversight crews as soon as they discovered them, we put a call stop to the game until we get this sorted,” said EPA local team leader Paul Peronard.
Peronard says he hopes work can resume by early next week. In the meantime, the article notes, residents are waiting for news about testing to be done at the former W.R. Grace vermiculite mine, the source of all the contamination.
Peronard says the EPA is starting to finalize some of the smaller areas for cleanup. “We’re going to start working at some of those areas where we’ve done extensive clean-ups, we’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s going on there, were still 2 or 3 years out from getting to final decisions on the larger Libby.”
So far, the EPA has supervised the cleanup of 1,000 residences and businesses. Approximately 150 are slated for this year. In addition, the agency will work to clean up two local creeks also contaminated with asbestos-containing vermiculite.

The emergency closing of Kansas State University’s oldest building occurred late last week when the possibility of asbestos contamination was discovered.

 According to an article in The Wichita Business Journal, Steve Broccolo, emergency management coordinator of Public Safety for the university, ordered the closing of Leasure Hall last Friday due to a concern over asbestos exposure.

“A contractor was in Leasure Hall today doing exploratory work for installation of an elevator shaft,” Broccolo said. “The contractor’s employees were drilling small holes in the wall. Unfortunately, during this process, asbestos may have been released into the air.”

Broccolo took air samples and sent them to a laboratory for analysis, he said, noting that clean-up has already commenced and will probably take several days to complete. He hopes that the building will open at the end of this week, at the latest.

Leasure Hall houses the American ethnic studies program and women’s studies, according to the article. Currently, classes scheduled to take place in the building have been moved and students were notified of the change and the reason for it.

Leasure Hall was built in 1908 when the use of asbestos building materials was commonplace. Asbestos is a known carcinogen and when released into the air, it can be inhaled by those in the vicinity. Decades later, the inhaled fibers, which lodge in the chest area, can cause serious pulmonary diseases such as asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma.

Union leaders for correctional officers in Nova Scotia believe the government was trying to cover up the presence of asbestos at the Cape Breton Correctional Centre and that an anonymous whistle blower blew their cover.

According to an article in Metro News, yesterday union officials made public a number of documents showing inspectors knew about the asbestos as far back as 20 years ago.

“This is nothing short of a cover-up. There’s no two ways about it,” said Jim Grosse of the NSGEU, the union to which correctional centre workers belong. “It’s negligence, perhaps criminal negligence.”

Justice Minister Cecil Clarke dismissed the old reports and noted that recent air quality tests deemed the air in the prison safe. He found the notion of a cover-up absurd.

“That’s just not the case,” he said. “Clearly we did follow the protocols and we followed the actions that were necessary.”

NSGEU officials say the government never told guards about the asbestos, though officials have known about the presence of the toxic mineral since tests came back on April 25. At that time, the only people told were management and maintenance workers.

The union says a maintenance worker leaked the news to them in early May. They demanded a meeting with management, which was held on May 15.

Clark disputes the union’s timeline.  “That’s not the facts as they are known to the department.” he said.

Inspectors for the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) of Iowa have fined the state Department of Corrections in excess of $11,000 for failure to protect inmates and employees from asbestos exposure.

According to a story aired on WHO-TV Des Moines, OSHA administrator Mary Bryant claims that eight inmates and their supervisor may have inhaled dangerous asbestos particles while renovating an office building on the prison grounds in Newton, Iowa.

She added that a report issued in March determined that the Department of Corrections did not supply respirators for the eight men doing the renovation work nor did it pre-test for asbestos or monitor air levels for asbestos concentration. The corrections officer supervising the work was also unprotected.

“The asbestos was in the glue that had been used to put tile down,” Bryant explains.

The Iowa Department of Corrections has not issued a statement about the incident. However, a spokesperson did indicate that “the department is in negotiations with Iowa Occupational Health and Safety to resolve the matter and determine what type of corrective action should be taken.”

Earlier this week, an 85-year-old water main burst beneath New York City’s West 57th Street, releasing torrents of water that was laced with asbestos. This area of West 57^th is one of the city’s busiest commercial districts.

According to an article in the New York Times, the water main break created traffic chaos and cut off the water supply to several buildings in the area. Asbestos fears closed the Fortunoff jewelry store at Fifth Avenue at 57^th after 100 gallons of tainted water spilled inside, according to a spokesman from the NYC Fire Department. The rupture also disrupted bus routes and prompted fears of damaged foundations at four buildings.

“Road repair work was delayed after a sample of mud from 57th Street was found to contain asbestos,” the article explains. However, eleven other samples did not contain the dangerous mineral. Authorities believe the source of the asbestos was a 12-inch steam pipe owned by Consolidated Edison (Con Ed), located near the water main. Its asbestos wrapping probably came dislodged when the main ruptured, officials theorized.

“Con Ed decontamination crews washed down the street and cleaned whatever mud was left. The authorities said they planned to keep air monitoring equipment in place and suspend repair work if asbestos was detected,” the article noted. 

Environmental officials now say that residents of a Boulder apartment building that suffered a fire a few weeks ago may not be able to return to their homes until August because state health officials found asbestos in the walls of many of the units.

According to a story aired on MyFox Colorado, representatives from the state department of health have told residents of the complex that it may be 12 to 15 weeks before they can move back into their units. They were advised to remove their belongings last weekend or risk not being able to gain entry into their apartments again for at least six weeks.

The management company for the apartment building has now told tenants that they may opt out of their leases. Many of the tenants were college students from the nearby University of Colorado at Boulder. Because school had just let out before the fire, many of the apartments were unoccupied for the summer.

A spokesperson for the complex says that a bush outside the building caught fire and spread to the structure and damaged seven units in the complex which has 31 units. Asbestos was an immediate concern after post-fire inspections revealed asbestos dust covering furniture and other belongings inside some of the units.

A large study on mesothelioma conducted by doctors in the United Kingdom and Australia and published in this month’s issue of The Lancet suggests that adding chemotherapy to established methods of symptom management does not appear to enhance the quality of life or survival of patients suffering from the aggressive disease.

Richard Stephens of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Unit, one of the authors of the study, said: “While thousands are and will be affected by this deadly disease, our trial, which is one of the few large trials ever conducted in this disease, emphasizes how difficult mesothelioma is to treat. This is mainly because mesothelioma forms in the lining of the lung. This makes it hard to target. Although one of the chemotherapy drugs we looked at, vinorelbine, showed some promise, blanket chemotherapy may not be the way forward. Whilst continuing to try to palliate symptoms and improve quality of life we probably need to concentrate on developing tailored and targeted treatments to improve survival”

Kate Law, Cancer Research UK’s director of clinical trials, added: “Mesothelioma is very difficult to treat and treatment options are limited. These results showed no real benefit from adding these chemotherapy drugs compared with just treating the symptoms of the disease. Any treatment can have serious side effects for patients and these findings highlight that people should not have treatment that is not of proven benefit. Studies like this mean that patients and their doctors can make better informed decisions about the advantages and disadvantages of treatments.”

The study involved 409 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma from 76 treatment centers in the UK and two in Australia. About a third of the participants received only active symptom control (ASC). Another third received ASC plus MVP chemotherapy (four cycles of mitomycin, vinblastine, and cisplatin every three weeks). The remaining patients received ASC plus vinorelbine chemotherapy (one injection of vinorelbine every week for 12 weeks). The patients’ progress was monitored regularly by the study team.

The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. About 2,000 individuals die of the disease each year in the UK. Experts in that country say those numbers continue to rise. Australia posts similar figures.

Toledo’s Southwyck Mall reopened to the general public on Monday, despite the fact that city inspectors said they still found large pockets of asbestos in the mall’s anchor store, which once housed a Montgomery Ward department store.

Over the weekend, crews were hired to clean up potentially toxic asbestos and mold, notes a story aired on My Fox Toledo. However, asbestos remained when the mall reopened and the city has determined that if the problem is too big to handle, the mall will probably shut down for good. Currently, only a few vendors remain at the once crowded mall, which is slated for a potential development project known as The Village at Southwyck.

“If the store remains open, the question of safety for the shoppers remains,” the story noted. “The mayor says if the potential safety problem in the former Montgomery Ward store can be fixed, the actual mall area will need to make some changes by June 2” if it is to remain open.

The mold and asbestos was found on May 2 after inspectors received a complaint from a concerned citizen. Many individuals use the mall as a place to walk on a daily basis or when the weather outside is inclement. Officials feared that maintenance persons walking through the old Montgomery Ward store were tracking asbestos dust into the public areas.