Mesothelioma Lawyers

Posts Tagged ‘Asbestos Diseases’

The military is constantly developing ways to ensure soldiers safety. New materials are always being developed, tested, and used in different applications to ensure that our armed forces are able to protect the United States utilizing the most advanced means possible. Asbestos has been used in many different applications throughout all branches of the armed services. Asbestos can cause many different illnesses, including the rare form of cancer mesothelioma. Asbestos caustic and dangerous properties, in regards to it’s properties that are harmful to people, were not fully recognized in the early twentieth century. The materials versatility and resistance to heat, fire, and many chemicals were apparent, and this led to every branch of the military using the material in a wide array of applications. As asbestos was researched more and it’s dangerous properties were recognized, the military began to phase out the use of this mesothelioma causing material. Navy ships and shipyards seemed to have had the highest instances of mesothelioma and asbestos related diseases. This is most likely due to the fact that during demolition and maintenance of ships in the shipyards the asbestos dust was at a high level, making nearly impossible to escape exposure. It is estimated that nearly thirty percent of mesothelioma patients are veterans. Mesothelioma takes years sometimes before visible symptoms are shown by a victim. This makes it very difficult to treat mesothelioma in it’s early stages. Most veterans who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma served twenty to thirty years prior to their diagnosis. It is not known exactly how many living veterans were exposed to asbestos during their military service, but it is estimated in the millions.
Courtesy of XViD Codec

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Sydney, Australia—Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently announced the opening of a foundation which will pay tribute to mesothelioma sufferer and social justice campaigner Bernie Banton.

The Bernie Banton Foundation will not only help patients who have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, but will also help fund research into the treatment and cure of those diseases.

Banton was the public face of asbestos diseases, including mesothelioma, until his death in November 2007. He is also remembered for battling corporate giant James Hardie in order to secure compensation both for his own family and for all asbestos victims. An average workingman who contracted mesothelioma, asbestosis and asbestos-related lung cancer after being exposed to asbestos while working in a Hardie plant, Banton was only 61 when he died from complications of peritoneal mesothelioma.

One of the rarest forms of mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma is a cancer which affects the membranous lining of the stomach and abdominal cavity. Caused by inhalation or ingestion of asbestos fibers, it has no known cure and is difficult to treat, owing in part to the fact that it is often not diagnosed until its latest stages. Sufferers from mesothelioma endure great pain, and generally do not live more than two years after diagnosis.

One of the foundation’s initiatives is a program called “Bernie’s Angels.” The angels will be both volunteer and professional aides who will assist newly diagnosed asbestos-disease sufferers in their home or in the hospital, and provide emotional support, information and practical advice. Banton’s widow, Karen, will be one of the first angels.

The Bernie Banton Foundation estimates that some 40,000 Australians will have contracted a cancer due to asbestos, like mesothelioma, by the year 2020. Even though asbestos use is now heavily regulated—although not entirely outlawed, as many people mistakenly believe—the reason for this delay is the disease’s long latency period. Mesothelioma may develop within the body for up to 50 years before becoming symptomatic.

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Over nearly a century, thousands of residents and workers in Libby, MT, have been exposed to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite ore, leading to markedly higher rates of lung disease and autoimmune disorders, and causing to Libby in 2002 to be added to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s “National Priorities List.”

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, leading a team of investigators from four institutions, are now launching three investigations into disease pathology in the town and to determine recommended cleanup efforts.

The Principal Investigator of the project is Stephen Levin, MD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a nationally known expert in occupational medicine and asbestos-related diseases who has also served as PI of the nationwide World Trade Center Medical Monitoring & Treatment Program, coordinated by Mount Sinai since 2002.

“The asbestos-related disease in Libby is far more aggressive and rapidly progressive than what’s seen in most asbestos-exposed workers, with high rates of cancers and severe effects on respiratory function,” said Dr. Levin. “For that reason alone, the health problems in Libby are important to study and understand.”

The first of the three programs will focus on particular risks of exposure to Libby asbestos during childhood, when lungs are still developing and maturing. This research may determine the level of environmental cleanup necessary in Libby to protect children, who are a particularly sensitive target population.

A second study will compare lung scarring among Libby residents who were exposed to asbestos only in their environment (and not at their place of employment) with lung scarring seen in workers with historically long-term, heavy exposure to common commercial forms of asbestos. Researchers hope to discover why Libby residents have advanced rates of lung scarring. They will also investigate the mechanism for asbestos-related scar formation and approaches to preventing scar formation after exposure has already occurred.

The third investigation will examine the relationships between autoimmune disorders, autoimmune antibody abnormalities, and CT-scan evidence of scarring lung disease in the context of exposure to Libby asbestos. Auto-immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have been found to occur more frequently in Libby, and antibody levels to the body’s own tissues are found in Libby residents more frequently and at higher concentrations.

Mount Sinai researchers will collaborate on the research effort, to be known as the Libby Epidemiology Research Program, with Libby’s Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD), investigators from the University of Montana and Idaho State University, and a national scientific advisory group. The research will be supported by a grant of over $4.8 million from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) of the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The crisis in Libby, a mining town whose history has been shaped by vermiculite-producing corporations since the 1920s, is the result of community-wide occupational and environmental exposure to Libby’s naturally occurring vermiculite, contaminated with asbestos and asbestos-like silicate fibers up to 26% by weight.

Health effects have been detected not just in mine and processing plant workers, area lumber mill workers and loggers (from asbestos dusting of forests) and their families, but also among other Libby residents and their children. Many were exposed through ambient air or to mine tailings and other contaminated materials provided to the town by mining companies for the construction of ball fields, school running tracks, playgrounds, public buildings and facilities, as well as for private gardens and house and business insulation.

There is evidence that even relatively low-level exposures to Libby asbestos can cause serious scarring lung diseases, which markedly impair respiratory function, as well as asbestos-related cancers like lung cancer and mesothelioma, which occur at higher rates among the Libby population than elsewhere in the United States.

The health crisis potentially extends far beyond the borders of Libby, since millions of homes and businesses in North America have used vermiculite from Libby as attic insulation, fireproofing and soil conditioner. The ore from Libby was shipped by rail to 49 plant locations throughout North America and the Caribbean for processing, exposing many more workers and communities to the hazardous dust.

CARD Director Brad Black, MD, said, “The pattern of asbestos disease caused by exposure to Libby amphibole asbestos has led to excessive morbidity and mortality for the Libby population, and has been exceedingly challenging for the medical community. The severity of nonmalignant pulmonary disease in non-occupational exposure has been very unusual, raising question as to the potency of the unique amphibole mixture. We look forward to working with Dr. Levin and Mount Sinai to find some of these answers.”

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