Copyright

(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Mesothelioma Asbestos Cancer Claims the Life of Ed Lauter, Prolific Actor

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org


Ed Lauter


The tragic loss of well-known actor Ed Lauter to mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, reverberated around the world. Mesothelioma strikes celebrities like Lauter, Steve McQueen and Warren Zevon, but also countless others whose suffering, as the disease chokes off their ability to breathe, is witnessed only by their heartbroken families. In the U.S. alone, 10,000 people die each year of this completely preventable disease.

The asbestos victim of 2013 is often someone who hugged Daddy when he came home from work with asbestos on his clothes, or did her husband’s asbestos-covered laundry. Why, then, are we still importing this toxin into the U.S.? Why don’t we have an asbestos ban? When will we protect our citizens from this tragedy?

“One more victim of asbestos to mourn,” writes Fernanda Giannasi and ABREA’s family from Brazil.  “Asbestos doesn´t only kill anonymous citizens and simple workers who are always paying with their lives for the common wealth. Today the world pays tribute to Ed Lauter, a celebrity from Hollywood who was murdered cowardly by a silent and insidious carcinogen which is currently very close to all of us and sometimes an invisible, subtle dust in our roofs, walls, heating.”

As a mesothelioma widow, my heart goes out to the Lauter family. Our community includes countless Meso Warriors like Mr. Lauter...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]

Monday, October 14, 2013

U.S. asbestos imports condemned by health experts, activists

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.publicintegrity.org


More than 50 countries have banned asbestos, a toxic mineral used in building materials, insulation, automobile brakes and other products.

The United States isn’t one of them. Last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, 1,060 metric tons — more than 2.3 million pounds — came into the country, all of it from Brazil. “Based on current trends,” the USGS says, “U.S. asbestos consumption is likely to remain near the 1,000-ton level …”

Public health experts and anti-asbestos activists find this distressing.
Linda Reinstein, who lost her husband to mesothelioma, an especially virulent form of cancer tied to asbestos exposure, said she’s “appalled and disgusted that the United States still allows the importation of asbestos to meet so-called manufacturing needs.