Health officials in South Korea are recording significant increases in asbestos-related diseases among the country’s population, including asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. According to a report by TIME Magazine, the number of mesothelioma diagnoses increased from just 12 in 2001, to 55 new cases in 2007, the most recent year that data is available. [...]
Reuters news service reported on Friday that W.R. Grace & Co. stock value jumped 36 percent following the company’s aquittal on criminal charges. The company, along with seven of its executives, had been on trial since Feb. 19 in the U.S. District Court in Missoula, Montana.A federal grand jury charged the company and executives in [...]
University of Minnesota researchers made a call in mid-September for more participants in its study of a possible link between Iron Range taconite mines and mesothelioma. The five-year reserach program received $4.9 million in funding from the Minnesota state legislature in April 2008, and is being directed by the university in partnership with the Minnesota [...]
According to the Jackson NJ Online, New Jersey Senator Tom Kean (R-21) has introduced legislation to declare Sept. 26 as Mesothelioma Awareness Day in New Jersey annually. The legislation, SJR-77, has been approved by the New Jersey Senate and is waiting for consideration in the General Assembly.The report quotes Sen. Kean as saying, “We don’t [...]
Everyone following Debbie Brewer‘s story on this site knows that last December it was determined she was in remission from mesothelioma – a miracle! – following successful chemoembolization treatment in Germany. Then, in September, she received a worrying report that appeared to show growth in a lymph node in her chest, which showed up on [...]
Our good friend Debbie Brewer, in the UK, (pictured with sons Rich and Kieran) who has been in remission from her mesothelioma since December 2008, had a worrying report from her latest medical checkup. She visited her oncologist in the UK on Sept. 16, and they have detected some increase in size in her lymph [...]
The results of a study published recently in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery supports the use of extrapleural pneumonectomy-based multimodal therapy in carefully selected patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The Journal is published by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery.According to the research summary, the objective of the study was to evaluate the [...]
Asbestos is still not completely banned in the United States. It can still be found in a great number of products. WHY?Asbestos industry documents from as early as 1924 indicate that manufacturers knew there was a danger to workers who inhaled asbestos fibers.Then in 1953, Dr. Irving Selikoff, a pulmonary specialist, began studying the link [...]
More than 230 people gathered in Washington, D.C., last week to attend the 6th Annual International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma, presented by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. This was the largest attendance to date for the event, and 170 of that number also participated in Advocacy Day events, visiting their Congressional delegates on Capitol Hill.This [...]
The W. R. Grace & Co. criminal trial continues in Missoula, Montana, but this week two executives on trial for environmental crimes have been dismissed from the case. Robert Walsh was dismissed Monday, and William McCraig was dismissed from the case Thursday morning. Judge Donald Molloy is presiding over this case. Defense attorneys have been [...]
Variety magazine, famous for entertainment reporting, announced this week that famed columnist Army Archerd will be honored posthumously by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADOA) at its Sixth Annual International Asbestos Conference on April 10 in Chicago. Archerd will receive the organization’s inaugural Warren Zevon Keep Me in Your Heart memorial tribute.The award was established [...]
On Tuesday, June 9, House Bill No. 211 was introduced in the Ohio legislature, which would designate September as “Mesothelioma Month” in the state. The bill is sponsored by Ohio State Representative Kenny Yuko (D-7th District), and co-sponsored by Reps. Hagan, Ujvagi, Evans, Domenick, Oelslager, Newcomb, Fende, Skindell, Winburn, Okey, Letson, Luckie and Bacon.H.B. 211 [...]
As part of its look back at the year 2009, the Missioulian newspaper spoke with residents of Libby, Montana, the “poster child” for mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases. Libby and its people have been decimated by asbestos exposure from the vermiculite mine that for generations operated in the town. Even those who did not [...]
Among the many wonderful speakers at the 2009 International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma, presented by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation in June, was Dr. Jill Ohar of Wake Forest University. She has been researching mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases for more than 20 years, and currently is heading a study to determine if there could [...]
A clinical trial for patients with malignant mesothelioma is currently recruiting participants. The trial is sponsored by Papworth Hospital in the UK, although it is open to any mesothelioma patient that meets the criteria. This study will evaluate video-assisted surgery to see how well it works compared with talc pleurodesis in treating patients with malignant [...]