Mesothelioma Blog

The Senate Health Committee’s employment and workplace safety subcommittee held a hearing yesterday and the widow of Bruce Vento testified. Vento was a congressman who died several years ago from mesothelioma. Senator Patty Murray is continuing her crusade to ban asbestos, and reintroduced her bill to ban the material. Murray has tried to get this [...]

General Electric is charging $115 million after-tax charge on its accounting books to cover asbestos cases. The company has already paid $500 million to settle asbestos cases, and has 509,000 claims pending. Like many large industrial companies, GE used asbestos in its products, even though it was not a primary asbestos maker. [...]

The British Press Association is reporting about 47-year-old woman with mesothelioma who was exposed to asbestos dust as a child. Her father died last year from cancer, and the woman Debra Brewer remembers asbestos on his work clothing when she was young. There are unfortunately many such cases of children being exposed through [...]

James Hardie, maker of building products and a long-time seller of asbestos goods, had agreed with the New South Wales government to establish a compensation fund for people with asbestos diseases. The questions was whether the fund would be considered a charity for tax purposes. If it was not, the tax man would take a [...]

The Associated Press reports that the United Nation’s Environment Programme did not add chrysotile asbestos to the list of hazardous chemicals with special shipping requirements. The Rotterdam Convention, which includes 110 countries, could not agree on this type of asbestos, mainly because of opposition from the countries that export asbestos. Canada, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran [...]

There’s a story out of Wisconsin about former employees of CSX Railroad looking into the use of asbestos in their workplace. “They claim asbestos was present in various types of packing materials, gaskets, floor tile, ceiling paint, brake shoes, steam hoses, firebrick, and welding gloves.” More on asbestos exposure.

Auto mechanics have long been known to be one of the occupations most at risk for asbestos exposure these days. The EPA just released its latest guidance on how to reduce exposure risk for mechanics. The draft brochure is available at http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/goldbook.html

This article out of Australia describes the concern of geologists and health officials on the effects of natural asbestos. People living near these deposits can be put in danger when there is roadworks, construction, farming, or other disturbances. There has been no systematic medical assessment of this risk.

The Hill has an article today on Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy still trying to get Senate passage of a bill to replace the asbestos-litigation system with a $140 billion trust fund. Specter is quoted as saying this is the last chance for this bill, and there are significant obstacles to passage, including [...]

The Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia (ADFA) is holding a conference this weekend. One thing they are talking about is the legacy of the Baryulgil asbestos mine which operated between 1944 and 1976. There are all sorts of health problems in the area even today. Story here.