A Texas man has filed suit against 38 corporations, arguing that they are to blame for his asbestos-related illness. The man, Cleveland J. Savoy, says that during the course of his career as a carpenter, he was exposed to products that contained asbestos, a material linked to the development of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.

Asbestos exposure can also lead to asbestosis, pleural plaques, and lung cancer. Mesothelioma affects less than 3,000 Americans each year, and the disease can progress rapidly after being diagnosed. The majority of patients lose their battle with this form of cancer in less than two years after being diagnosed.

This is the second asbestos lawsuit Savoy has filed against the companies. The former suit claims a different asbestos-related illness. According to Savoy, the companies were negligent inasmuch that they failed to adequately test the asbestos-laden products they were selling, and also failed to release the information related to health risks associated with asbestos exposure.

The 38 companies named in the lawsuit include the following: A.O. Smith Corp., A.W. Chesterton Co., American Optical, Ametek, Babcock Borsig Power, Bayer Cropscience, Bechtel, CBS Corp., Certainteed, Cleaver Brooks, Coltec Industries, Crane Co., Crown Cork & Seal, D&F Distributing, Exxon Mobil, Fluor Enterprises, Fluor Maintenance Services and Foster Wheeler, Garlock Sealing Technologies, General Electric, Georgia Pacific, Goulds Pumps, Green Tweed, Henry Vogt Machine Co., Honeywell International, Industrial Holdings Inc., Ingersoll Rand, John Crane, Kelly Moore Paint Co., Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Pneumo Abex Corporation, Sepco Corp., Treco Construction Services, Uniroyal Holdings, Washington Group International and Zurn Industries.

Savoy claims he has suffered physical pain and impairment, as well as diminished financial capacity. He is seeking damages, trial costs, and whatever judgment the court decides is just. The trial will take place in Jefferson County District Court in Texas.

190 people who claimed they were injured during the remodeling of the courthouse in Salinas, California have received a settlement after filing a lawsuit. The plaintiffs were a motley crew of courthouse employees, attorneys, and even a judge who say that they were exposed to asbestos and other materials during the courthouse renovation. "All the plaintiffs are getting something. Everybody is being compensated," said Anne Kepner, a San Jose attorney who represented 181 of the plaintiffs.

"The terms of the settlement are confidential, which is a condition that is not atypical," she added.

While the terms of the settlement are confidential, one estimate placed the total amount of the settlement around $5 million. The settlement has been years in the making, with the incident that sparked the lawsuits occurring between 2005 and 2006.

Originally, three separate lawsuits were filed. These suits were later combined into a single case before Judge Barry Hammer of San Luis Obispo County. The defendants in the case, Nova Partners and Skanska USA Building were found to have covered up warnings that dangerous materials like asbestos would be released during the work. Exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma later in life. Mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, may not develop until many decades after asbestos exposure. Yet the cancer can kill within months of the onset symptoms in some cases. The cancer affects thousands each year.

"Everyone had an interest to settle. We had litigated for about a year-and-a-half before the special master got involved. No one was resistant to mediation," Kepner concluded.

An £85 million (about $138 million in US currency) asbestos compensation fund has been set up in the United Kingdom. Many experts have predicted that the number of asbestos-related medical claims will double in the next decade. The London Pensions Fund Authority set up the fund.

The agency also believes that by 2035, the number of asbestos claimants may rise even higher than double the current number of claimants.

Exposure to asbestos can lead to asbestosis, pleural plaques, lung cancer, and the rare cancer mesothelioma. Mesothelioma affects thousands each year, but there is still not a cure. Mesothelioma symptoms can take decades to develop, but once the symptoms have emerged, the average patient perishes within 24 months.

The London Pensions Fund Authority will also face an increase in claims after a landmark court case caused the organization to compensate a teacher who was not shown to have had direct contact with asbestos. The widower of teacher Joan Henry, who died from mesothelioma, received an out-of-court settlement in July. Mrs. Henry died in 2007, and had worked for 30 years in two schools in east London, both of which contained asbestos.

Mrs. Henry’s husband Stephen, told reporters: "I hope that this case will help others receive compensation if they suffer similar tragedies.”

The village of Potsdam, New York has been steeped in asbestos-related controversy for months. First, a series of cancer-related deaths of long-time village officials who worked in the civic center raised concerns about asbestos in the air.

Asbestos exposure can lead to lung cancer, as well as mesothelioma, a rare cancer that can manifest initially in the lungs, abdomen, or pericardium. A series of asbestos air quality tests were performed, with each test failing to detect asbestos. Then, a village worker raised concerns about the safety of her workplace that were published in a local paper. The next day, she was fired.

Now, asbestos is still a major concern for the people of Potsdam. The village is currently seeking grant money to renovate a facility to upgrade offices and move the courtroom elsewhere. The current courtroom is known to contain asbestos mastic adhesive in the ceiling. Officials are applying for a $600,000 historic preservation matching grant through the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Potsdam Supervisor Marie C. Regan said at the Town Council meeting last week that she hopes to get support for the town’s applications from state and county legislators. "Everybody knows we need to rehab this building. No one’s arguing that part," Mrs. Regan said.

The village has yet to determine how it will use the current courtroom in the civic center, which is currently undergoing an asbestos abatement project. Atlantic Testing recently took 80 samples of flooring and walls and tested the air for a number of substances in the town hall.

In Rockford, Illinois, construction crews are getting ready to conduct asbestos abatement and demolish a group of vacant homes in the Churchill Park neighborhood. This neighborhood was badly devastated by flooding two years ago, and the homes have deteriorated. Asbestos abatement must occur in some of these homes prior to demolition; otherwise, the asbestos in the structures could become airborne during the demolition process. Exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that can lie dormant for years before emerging and rapidly spreading throughout the body.

Local resident Craig Springer is glad that some of the homes are finally coming down, but he says that the process has been too slow, and that further work is still needed. A lifelong neighborhood resident, the 22-year-old has confronted vagrants and drug dealers in the area who took advantage of the vacant buildings. “I figured the city would be on it a lot quicker,” he said. “It’s past time for these houses to come down. They should have come down a long time ago.”

Rockford Local Development Corp. used a $10 million line of credit backed by the city last year to acquire 102 of the 128 flood-damaged homes in the area, says storm water manager Brian Eber. Additional help came in the form of a $3 million Hazard Mitigation Flood Grant awarded in June by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This was enough to deal with 36 of the properties.

“We didn’t make the citizens wait until FEMA gave us the grant,” Eber said. “If we had done that and forced them to wait, then more of the homes would have been foreclosed on and walked away from and ruined their credit. The city took unusual steps to try to salvage the situation for people who sustained significant damage a number of times.”

In Moss Point, Mississippi, it has been announced that repairs and improvements at the City Hall building should begin before the end of the calendar year. The building was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, and city workers have been doing their jobs out of trailers for some time while they wait to be able to use their building again. Leo Wood, project manager with Broaddus and Associates, said that architects on the project have been talking with companies that specialize in mold remediation and asbestos abatement. Once those two hazards have been dealt with, work might begin as early as next month. "We’ve got to pull out sheetrock and repaint," added Wood.

Asbestos exposure, in some cases, causes mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. Mesothelioma originates in the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or even the pericardium. Mesothelioma affects thousands of new patients each year in America and all over the world. Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy can all help a patient battling mesothelioma, but the cancer is incurable. The majority of patients succumb within two years.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding the project. Mayor Aneice Liddell is eager to get this project completed, telling reporters that "We’ve got to move and we’ve got to move quickly."

In addition to FEMA funds, the city of Moss Point is also reportedly in line to receive nearly $12 million from the Mississippi Development Authority. This money must be earmarked for downtown redevelopment projects. This could include a new City Hall and fire station, river boardwalk and marina repairs.

The Canadian province of Quebec is home to the country’s last remaining asbestos mines, despite the known health risks such as mesothelioma that are connected to asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma, a rare kind of cancer, affects thousands of new victims each year all over the world. When ingested or inhaled, asbestos fibers can lead to the manifestation of mesothelioma cancer in the lungs, abdomen, or even the lining of the heart.

This cancer can take decades to develop, but once symptoms emerge, patients often survive only a few months. An estimated 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis according to the World Health Organization.

Now, British Columbia MP Nathan Cullen has introduced a bill that would ban the mining and sale of asbestos in Canada. In Quebec, a total of 7,000 workers are employed as miners, with asbestos mining being only a portion of that figure.

Total public expenditures on the asbestos mining industry were $107.7 million in 2002. The World Health Organization has condemned the use of chrysotile asbestos, the most commonly used type of asbestos. The U.S. surgeon general has also spoken out against this form of asbestos. Since asbestos was banned by the European Union in 2005, Canada has been forced to market asbestos products predominantly in the developing world, especially India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Brazil. These four countries import over $100-million worth of asbestos. Only time will tell if Mr. Cullen’s proposed ban will become a reality. If it does, it could potentially save thousands of lives.

After a recent asbestos debacle at SUNY New Paltz, two federal indictments have been passed down. According to federal officials, Salvatore DePaola, a resident of Staten Island, has been charged with asbestos abatement violations related to work he did for Milestone Environmental on the New Paltz campus. DePaola has a questionable past, as he was charged nine months ago with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. These charges stem from an incident where two firefighters were killed during a fire at the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero.

The SUNY New Paltz violations stem from work done over the summer to remove asbestos from the Bouton, College, and Shango dormitory buildings. DePaola and a second man, Espitia Oliveros have been charged. Both men did work on the dorms while employed by Milestone Environmental. College officials were quick to note that no students were exposed to asbestos during the incidents. "We moved quickly, and there was never any risk to students or staff," SUNY New Paltz spokesman Eric Gullickson said last week.

Asbestos violations are taken very serious by federal officials, as those who are exposed to asbestos may develop mesothelioma. This condition is a rare but aggressive form of cancer that has no known cure. The disease has a long latency period, meaning that it can be several decades after asbestos exposure occurs before the symptoms of mesothelioma are apparent.

DePaola has entered a plea of not guilty in the Deutsche Bank case, and is free on $50,000 bail in the SUNY asbestos case.

A children’s play park in South Shields, England has been shut down after asbestos was discovered during a routine investigation of the site. The site, known as Temple Park, was closed after asbestos was found in soil samples taken from the area. Temple Park was built on the site of a former landfill, but the top levels of soil were brought fresh to the site after the landfill was closed.

Dr Tricia Cresswell, of the Health Protection Agency, said: "The main health risks associated with asbestos are from inhaling the fibers in confined spaces. As the asbestos identified on the site is outdoors and is covered by soil and grass, it appears unlikely that anyone will have been exposed to sufficiently high levels or duration to cause significant health effects. The play area is now closed to the public so there is no ongoing risk to the public, and as soon as we receive more details about the levels of asbestos found, we will be able to carry out a more accurate risk assessment about any possible exposure.”

Asbestos exposure has been conclusively linked to the development of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. This disease affects thousands of patients each year worldwide. The disease has a long latency period of up to five decades. However, once symptoms develop, patients rarely survive for more than 2 years.

Fiona Brown, executive director of neighborhood services at South Tyneside Council, said: "The council is working with the Health Protection Agency and the primary care trust to identify any potential risks associated with this site."

Cautious parents may want to read the label on play sand purchased for use in playgrounds and sandboxes. Some brands of play sand may contain particles that could sicken children, including silica and tremolite asbestos. Crystalline silica dust from the engineered sand is considered a hazard to respiratory health.

The material is regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in industrial settings. However, silica is present in some types of play sand. It should be noted, however, the silica is considered most dangerous when inhaled repeatedly, such as in an work environment.

Despite the fact that there are no documented cases of children becoming ill from silicosis, asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma from playing in sandboxes, some parents are avoiding sandboxes, or filling them with premium play sand guaranteed not to contain silica, quartz, or tremolite. Quikrete and other brands marketed as play sand have been found to contain not only crystalline silica but traces of the mineral tremolite.

Tremolite is a form of asbestos. In the state of California, bags of play sand are required to be sold with a warning label that states that the product has the potential "to cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm." Quikrete recommends that parents keep the sand damp in order to minimize the amount of airborne particles.

For parents who are concerned about the presence of tremolite and other potential hazards in play sand, here are two options for purchasing premium sand:

• Safe Sand, (415) 971-1776, is tremolite-and silica-free. Cost: $60 for a 50-pound box.

• Sandtastik Classic Play Sand contains no silica, quartz or tremolite. It is sold on amazon.com in 25-pound boxes for $21.92. Call (905) 734-7340 for more information.