Copyright
Saturday, September 10, 2011
What Congress Really Needs To Do To Solve the Asbestos Epidemic
Asbestos has been known to be a fatal carcinogen for decades. It is a cause of latent disease that may take decades to manifest after the initial exposure. Minimal exposure to asbestos may be fatal. Asbestos has been linked to asbestosis, and malignancies such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. There is no universal ban on the use of asbestos fiber in the US. Asbestos victims have been held hostage by Congress to give up more rights for compensation as the debate for imposition of a national ban on asbestos continues.
Decades of litigation, originating in US workers' compensation claims, and liability claims, has revealed that employers and manufacturers concealed important information from employees who were exposed to deadly asbestos fiber. That malfeasance has resulted in benefits and awards to injured workers and their families through the US civil justice system and bankruptcy claim process.
Asbestos litigation has evolved in waves or surges of claims over the decades. It is very long term litigation. Sometimes amounting to decades of processing after manifestation of the disease process. Recently there has been an upswing in the number of bystanders and household contacts who suffer disease. This is caused by yet another generation of workers, their family members and bystanders who have been exposed to asbestos fiber. Some has been the result of mere home demolition and rehabilitation. Ironically, many of the victims, first responders and innocent bystanders of The September 11th Attack were exposed by the pulverization of asbestos containing building materials on the attack on the World Trade Center.
It is an unfortunate turn of events when the Republican dominated Congress points the finger at the innocent asbestos victims. The nation would be better served if the focus were on the real culprits, those who manufactured the epidemic of asbestos disease, and an effort made to increase research for a cure to asbestos related illness. It is hopefully time for Congress to help the victims get access to benefits, invest in medical research, and to impose a universal ban of asbestos in the nation.
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Asbestos: Not Banned in US But Use Declining
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Garlock testimony switches to financial liability
Bates |
Friday, February 12, 2021
Health Advocates Petition 9th Circuit for Asbestos Relief from EPA’s Flawed Final Risk Evaluation for Asbestos
Joined by five public health groups and six leading asbestos scientists, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure, today asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the asbestos risk evaluation issued last month by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Saturday, August 28, 2010
There is No Good Asbestos -- It Is All a Killer
Chrysotile Asbestos and Mesothelioma
Assuming an average latency of 42 years, the authors predict that incidence rates will peak in 2009 and that diagnoses will peak in 2014. However, they caution that ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos (which has been implicated but not conclusively established as a cause of mesothelioma) and the release of asbestos fibers from older buildings during demolition or renovation may slow the projected decline.
Epidemiological evidence has increasingly shown an association of all forms of asbestos (chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite, and anthophyllite) with an increased risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma. Although the potency differences with respect to lung cancer or mesothelioma for fibres of various types and dimensions are debated, the fundamental conclusion is that all forms of asbestos are “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1).
Although the mesothelioma incidence is anticipated to decline in the coming decades, it may not decrease to background risk levels given that chrysotile consumption has not been banned under the current legislation and that secondary asbestos exposure from the environment will likely continue. Nevertheless, the hypotheses generated from this ecologic study need further confirmation by subsequent analytic studies. The present study provides supportive evidence for an immediate and global ban on asbestos use.
References Top
- IARC 1977. Asbestos. IARC Monogr Eval Carcinog Risk Hum 14: 1–106. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
- Straif K, Benbrahim-Tallaa L, Baan R, Grosse Y, Secretan B, El Ghissassi F, et al. 2009. A review of human carcinogens—part C: metals, arsenic, dusts, and fibres. Lancet Oncol 10: 453. –454. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
- Tse LA, Yu IT, Goggins W, Clements M, Wang XR, Au JS, et al. 2010. Are current or future mesothelioma epidemics in Hong Kong the tragic legacy of uncontrolled use of asbestos in the past? Environ Health Perspect 118: 382–386. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
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- Is there still a lot of asbestos in American homes? (greenanswers.com)
- Quebec government urged to rethink loan for resumed mining in Canadian town of Asbestos (guardian.co.uk)
- Tell Canada to Quit Targeting the Developing World With Deadly Asbestos (globalpoverty.change.org)
- Ban asbestos worldwide: doctors (cbc.ca)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, A Pioneer of Mesothelioma Medical Research
I met Dr. Suzuki in the early years of my career when I litigated some of the initial claims involving asbestos exposures at The Union Asbestos and Rubber Company's (UNARCO) plant in Paterson, NJ. Dr. Selikoff, and my late father, a lawyer, both of Paterson, were involved in the "original 17" asbestos worker claims in 1954 before the New Jersey Division of Workers' Compensation.
Following the successful disposition of those claims, Dr. Selikoff expanded his research at the ESL in New York City. Dr. Suzuki became the lead pathologist of that pioneering medical-investigative team. Dr. Suzuki played a critical role in the Paterson Asbestos Control Group that followed up, through autopsy, the cohort of 933 former workers of the UNARCO facility and their families. His analysis of the pathology of the asbestos-related tumors produced, along with Dr. Selikoff and his knowledgeable team, some of the sentinel epidemiological studies linking asbestos-related exposure of workers and their families and bystanders to asbestos exposures.
The following obituary was published by the Collegium Ramazzini
Professor Suzuki received his M.D. degree from the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo in 1953. He completed one year internship in Tokyo at the Setagaya National Hospital, and was licensed in 1954 by the Japanese Government.
In 1954 he joined the Department of Pathology in the Keio University School of Medicine starting as an "Assistant of Pathology". Dr. Suzuki's early work on the kidney he proved the presence of the mesangium, the third structural element of renal glomerulus. Working with new technology - the electron microscope, he was able to further define the structure of the mesangium.
In 1959, he was awarded the Doctorate of Medical Sciences in the field of Pathology. In 1960 he was sent abroad as an International Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) training at New York University School of Medicine under Professor Johannes Rhodin. In 1961 he trained at the Mount Sinai Hospital Renal Pathology Division under Dr. Churg. He returned to Keio University 1962 as a faculty member. In 1966, Dr. Suzuki was invited to re-join Mount Sinai as a Research Associate. In addition to renal pathology with Dr. Churg, he started to investigate pathology of asbestos related diseases with Dr. Dr. Irving J. Selikoff.
The research on asbestos-related diseases included seminal work on pulmonary asbestosis, the development and formation of asbestos bodies and electron microscopy of human malignant mesothelioma. In 1973, Dr. Suzuki again returned to Japan to serve as Chairman and Professor of Anatomy at Fujita-Gakuen University School of Medicine.
He returned to Mount Sinai in 1975 as Research Professor of Community Medicine and Research Associate Professor of Pathology. For the next 31 years, from 1975 to 2006, he devoted his time solely to the investigating the pathology of asbestos-related diseases. One of his most significant contributions was providing support to Selikoff's ground-breaking epidemiological study on asbestos insulation workers. Slide by slide, he reviewed the pathologic autopsy and biopsy samples taken from approximately 5,000 cases of insulation workers and confirmed the diagnosis of asbestos-related diseases.
He was promoted to Professor of Pathology in 1989 and in 1991 to Professor of Community and Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Suzuki published 171 peer review scientific papers. Dr. Suzuki estimated that over the course of his career in research, he had examined and written up approximately 538,000 individual slides.
Suzuki received several honors in addition to those conferred by the Collegium Ramazzini. Other awards include the honorary title of Guest Professor at Tokai University School of Medicine (1993-1996) and Honorary Visiting Professor of Pathology at Keio University School of Medicine (1999-2000).
Related articles
- Cancer Risk Passes to Next of Kin
- About Asbestos/Mesothelioma Litigation and Claims
- Haledon Man Sues Asbestos Plant for Wife's Death
- Families of Asbestos Workers Vulnerable
- The History of Asbestos and The Law
- Frequently Asked Questions About Asbestos Litigation
The author, Jon L. Gelman, practices law in Wayne, NJ. He is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (Thomson-Reuters). For over five decades, the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have represented injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
© 2011 Jon L Gelman. All rights reserved.
Recommended Citation: Gelman, Jon L., Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, A Pioneer of Mesothelioma Medical Research, www.gelmans.com (2011), https://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/2011/11/dr-yasunosuke-suzuki-pioneer-of.html
Friday, June 5, 2020
Fourteen Attorney Generals Criticizes EPA for Failing to Protect Americans from Asbestos, a Long-Known Dangerous Carcinogen
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Asbestos Exposure Occurs When Old Pipe Bursts
Asbestos continues to be a major health hazard since it remains in construction material exposuing workers to potential latent disease such as: asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. The US has yet to ban asbestos.
While hazmat workers rushed to the scene in an attempt to contain and repair the leak, the accident exemplies the need for workers to continue to be educated about safety proceedures in handling asbestos fiber.
The workers' compensation and civil justice system continues to be available for those who have been exposed and require medical surveillance. Exposed individuals need to take action within a prescribed time period after an exposure and should consult with an attorney at law for guidance inorder to protect their rights under the law.
Read More About Asbestos
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Friday, January 4, 2019
US EPA Continues to Shield the Asbestos Industry
Trump EPA Moves To Shield Info on Asbestos Imports and Use From Public
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Failure to Remove Asbestos Property Results in Guilty Plea
Joseph Cuellar, 73, of Fresno, Calif.; Patrick Bowman, 46, of Los Banos, Calif.; and Rudolph Buendia III, 50, of Planada, Calif., each pleaded guilty today to a violation of the asbestos work-practice standards of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
According to the indictment, Joseph Cuellar was the administrative manager of Firm Build Inc., Patrick Bowman was its president, and Rudolph Buendia was its construction project site supervisor. From September 2005 to March 2006, Firm Build operated a demolition and renovation project in the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater, California. They were to turn Building 325 into a mechanic training center for the Merced County Board of Education. The defendants hired local high school students from the Workplace Learning Academy in Merced to perform some of the renovation.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Asbestos and Cigarettes
Paul Brodeur, author of Outrageous Misconduct, The Asbestos Industry on Trial, points out that asbestos was introduced into American manufacturing by an asbestos industry that knew the dangers health consequences of its use. Todays' post is shared from the NYimes.org
Re “The Asbestos Scam,” by Joe Nocera (column, Dec. 3): Asbestos manufacturers filed for bankruptcy after juries across the nation assessed punitive damages for concealing the asbestos-disease hazards from their workers and the users of their products for 50 years.
Mr. Nocera makes light of a claimant’s assertion that she was subjected to asbestos exposure because she lived in a house with relatives who worked with asbestos, but numerous studies link household exposure (often called “bystander exposure”) with asbestos disease. He denies that there is conclusive proof that cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure combine to increase the risk of lung cancer, despite the findings of epidemiological studies from around the world.
Chief among them is the investigation by Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, former director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Environmental Sciences Laboratory, and Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond, former vice president for epidemiology and statistics of the American Cancer Society, who showed that nonsmoking asbestos workers died of lung cancer seven times more often than people in the general population, and whose calculations suggested that asbestos workers who smoked had more than 90 times the risk of dying of lung cancer as men who neither worked with asbestos nor smoked.
An estimated 10,000 Americans are dying of asbestos disease each year; before the asbestos tragedy has run its course, an estimated 500,000...
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Related articles
- "Scientists Who Help Asbestos Industry Sell Asbestos" by Kathleen Ruff (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Take Action: Tell Congress to Protect Veterans & Cancer Victims (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- That time Big Tobacco sold asbestos as the "Greatest Health Protection in Cigarette History" (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- H.R. 982 is anti-victim, anti-veteran and anti-privacy (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- ADAO Resource: How To Find a Doctor or Treatment Facility Specializing in Mesothelioma and Asbestos-Related Diseases (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Automobile Mechanics Should Be Cautious About Asbestos Exposure
OSHA’s asbestos standard requires the use of controls and safe work practices when employees work with brake shoes and clutches that contain asbestos. These requirements are detailed in 29 CFR 1910.1001 and specifically 1910.1001(f)(3) and Appendix F of the standard - Work Practices and Engineering Controls for Automotive Brake and Clutch Inspection, Disassembly, Repair and Assembly (http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/asbestos/index.html). The requirements also are discussed in the Federal Register at 59 FR 40964, 40985-87 (August 10, 1994) and 60 FR 33983 (June 29, 1995), as well as in OSHA Directive CPL 2-2.63 (revised).
Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral fiber that is highly heat resistant, can cause serious health problems when inhaled into the lungs. If products containing asbestos are disturbed, thin, lightweight asbestos fibers can be released into the air. Persons breathing the air may breathe in asbestos fibers. Continued exposure can increase the amount of fibers deposited in the lung. Fibers embedded in the lung tissue over time may result in lung diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma. It can take from 10 to 40 years or more for symptoms of an asbestos-related condition to appear. Smoking increases the risk of developing illness from asbestos exposure.
All automotive brake and clutch repair facilities in the United States must comply with the OSHA asbestos standard. The proper use of engineering controls and work practices by properly trained employees working on automotive brakes and clutches will reduce their asbestos exposure below the permissible exposure level of 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air, expressed as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Respiratory protection is not required during brake and clutch jobs where the control methods described below are used.
The two preferred OSHA methods to control asbestos dust during brake and clutch repair and service are: (1) a negative pressure enclosure/HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) vacuum system, and (2) the low pressure/wet cleaning method. The employer may use other methods (in conjunction with written procedures), to reduce exposure to levels equivalent to the negative pressure enclosure/HEPA vacuum system. For facilities that inspect, disassemble, reassemble and/or repair five or fewer brake or clutch jobs per week, the wet method (described in paragraph D of Appendix F) can be used. The spray can/solvent system method can be used as an alternative preferred method since it meets the equivalency criterion of the negative pressure enclosure/HEPA vacuum system method. Proper training is essential to ensure that employees use the methods in an effective manner.
Related articles
- Why is the US Still in the Asbestos Business? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- $2 Million Verdict to Plastic Compounder Suffering Mesothelioma - Call For Asbestos Ban (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- The Toxic Legacy of Raybestos-Manhattan Continues (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Home Renovation Cited As An Increased Risk for Mesothelioma (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Asbestos, Railroads and The US Supreme Court (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Asbestos Disease Claims Continue to Surge (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Reserves for Asbestos Losses Anticipated to be Deficient
The full report is available on the Fitch web site at 'www.fitchratings.com'.