In a unanimous decision, the Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday determined that BNSF Railway Company is not shielded from liability for its role in spreading [ asbestos dust ] in the Northwest Montana town of Libby, where hundreds of people have died and thousands more are sick due to exposure. Facing hundreds of asbestos-related damage claims … [Read more...]
Philly School District poised to pay $850K to teacher diagnosed with mesothelioma
Lea DiRusso, the career city teacher diagnosed last year with a deadly asbestos-linked cancer, is in line to be paid $850,000 by the Philadelphia School District. The school board on Thursday night will consider a resolution allowing the district “to execute, deliver, and perform a settlement agreement” with DiRusso and Amr Osman, her husband, … [Read more...]
State Proposes ‘Asbestos Watch Area’ Near Old Davidson Mill
State environmental officials want to designate part of the west side of Davidson as an “asbestos watch area.” But the renewed discussion about asbestos from an old factory nearby is reviving concerns among residents in the historically African American neighborhood. The neighborhood around the former Carolina Asbestos factory near downtown … [Read more...]
Powder Keg: FDA bowed to industry for decades as alarms were sounded over talc
At an invitation-only gathering late last year, U.S. regulators and their guests huddled at a hotel near Washington, D.C., to discuss the best way to detect cancer-causing asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics. The “Asbestos in Talc Symposium,” sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration [ and intended to investigate asbestos in talc powders … [Read more...]
Cancer in the classroom
[Lea DiRusso was exposed to asbestos while teaching at schools for nearly 30 years, then this teacher is diagnosed with mesothelioma.] Every week during the school year, teacher Lea DiRusso climbed on a chair and hung her students’ best work on a clothesline strung between two old heating pipes. As she tugged the line down to clip on artwork or … [Read more...]
Hey, government people, have you heard about mesothelioma?
Just when you think it cannot become worse, it does. For many decades, we have known about the hazards of asbestos, as well as its relationship to mesothelioma and other thoracic and abdominal malignancies. We even see there is a growth industry among our friends in the legal world, with the emergence of for-profit firms apparently devoted only … [Read more...]
A Most Reckless Proposal — A Plan to Continue Asbestos Use in the United States
Each year, nearly 40,000 Americans die often painful, protracted deaths from diseases caused by asbestos. These deaths occur in firefighters, police officers, construction workers, miners, military veterans, shipyard workers, and maintenance workers whose exposures to asbestos are primarily occupational. Death also occurs in partners and children … [Read more...]
Malignant pleural mesothelioma: from bedside to bench and from bench to bedside
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare but very aggressive cancer of the thin tissue layer (pleura) covering the lungs. The development of MPM is strongly linked to previous exposure to the fibrous mineral asbestos, which has been widely used until the 1980s, in particular in the building industry. Although patients are generally eligible … [Read more...]
NIOSH considers mesothelioma registry; seeks input
The [ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ] is gauging the feasibility of a national [ mesothelioma registry ] intended to track cases of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer linked to on-the-job exposure to asbestos. According to a Request for Information published in the April 8 Federal Register, the agency is asking … [Read more...]
More than 200 teachers died from asbestos – and kids are at risk in classroom
More than 200 teachers have died in the past 10 years from the effects of being exposed to asbestos. And for each teacher fatality, nine ex-pupils can also be expected to fall victim to the silent killer, a study claims – an average of almost 200 per year. Breathing in asbestos fibres can lead to mesothelioma, a cancer that develops in the … [Read more...]