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Mesothelioma Lawsuits Against Garlock May Require Immediate Action

Thousands of individuals who claim their mesothelioma diagnosis was caused by asbestos products manufactured by Garlock Sealing Technologies may only have a few weeks to provide information about their illness so they can get their settlement.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, as part of Garlock’s current bankruptcy proceedings, the company is requesting that the nearly 4,000 people with a pending asbestos lawsuit against it provide information about their mesothelioma claims by February 28,2012. The company claims it needs this information so it can accurately set up a trust that will hold money for the mesothelioma settlements that it will be dealing with in the future.

Under the company’s current bankruptcy plan, which is still subject to court approval, Garlock will be able to settle all current allowed asbestos claims and put $140 million into the asbestos trust to handle future claims. Claimants who do not bring forward information by the deadline could have their cases dismissed.… Read More

Asbestos Campaign to Resume in UK Next Year

A successful series of UK advertisements that helped spread the word about the dangers of asbestos but saw its funding cut last year is set to return in 2012.

According to The Daily Mirror, the government-run advertising campaign – dubbed “Hidden Killer” – was started in 2008 and emphasized the increased risk of asbestos exposure that workers in the construction industry faced. However, last year the campaign was halted after its budget was slashed amid a number of budget cuts.

After pressure from a number of anti-asbestos groups and unions, the Health and Safety Executive revived the anti-asbestos ad campaign for 2012.

Educating the public about the dangers associated with asbestos is extremely important in the UK. The Mirror reported that 4,000 people die of asbestos-related diseases annually, and that 2,000 died ofmesothelioma in 2010.

If you or a loved one were exposed to asbestos and now suffer frommesothelioma, there is legal action worth pursuing.… Read More

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Leads to $2 Million Award

A 66-year-old man from Niagara Falls who used to work with asbestosmaterials and now suffers from mesothelioma was awarded a $2 millionmesothelioma settlement by a New York jury.

According to the Buffalo News, Gerald Failing was diagnosed withperitoneal mesothelioma last December. Failing worked in the compound department at Durez Plastics in North Tonawanda from 1966-1978 and he was able to recollect molding mixes he regularly used that contained asbestos fibers that were often released into the air.

Failing brought a mesothelioma lawsuit against Hedman Resources Inc., a Canadian asbestos mining company that supplied the asbestos-laden mixes but never warned workers of the dangers that could result from exposure to the fibers.

The jury sided with Failing, assigning all blame and responsibility for damages to Hedman. The trial was expedited due to the fact that peritoneal mesothelioma spreads very quickly and often kills it victims within one year of diagnosis.… Read More

Asbestos Lawsuit in Missouri Settles for $10 Million

An asbestos lawsuit in Missouri filed by a Jackson County Courthouse employee has settled for $10 million, the largest asbestos settlement in the history of the state.

According to The Associated Press, Nancy Lopez filed the asbestos lawsuit against the U.S. Engineering Co. for failing to take proper precautions to protect courthouse worker while handling asbestos. Lopez worked at the courthouse in Kansas City for 27 years. She developed mesothelioma cancer from her asbestos exposure and died from the disease in October 2010. The asbestos lawsuit settlement was awarded to her family late last month.

If you or a loved one experienced asbestos exposure and later developed mesothelioma, call an asbestos attorney at Sokolove Law today for a free consultation.

Some Asbestos Cases Just Got Easier in PA

Both plaintiffs and defendants in asbestos lawsuits agree that asbestoscauses 80 to 90 percent of all mesothelioma cases. You would think that it naturally follows that 80 to 90 percent of mesothelioma lawsuit plaintiffs do not have to prove to a jury that asbestos exposure caused their mesothelioma. Until recently, that was not the case. Instead, through a legal process called reverse bifurcation, most if not all mesothelioma lawsuit plaintiffs had to first prove in court that their mesothelioma diagnosis is tied to past asbestos exposure. Once this was proved – and it usually was — most cases settled out of court.

Now, as reported by the Legal Intelligencer, after nearly a quarter of a century of trying asbestos lawsuits with reverse bifurcation, the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court’s mass torts program for asbestos began “straight-through trials” of asbestos cases in which it is uncontested that plaintiffs have mesothelioma because of asbestos exposure.… Read More

Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in VA Power Plant

When repairs were needed on an old nuclear power plant in Surry, VA, contract workers were called in to do the work. Hundreds of workers were hired including electricians, pipe fitters, general laborers and other contractors from eight different companies. When a dozen workers were caught in a cloud of asbestos after cutting some old pipe, the workers reported the incident. The exposed workers report that they were told all asbestos-containing pipes would be clearly labeled, but they were not labeled at all.

A state investigation ensued and six of the eight companies involved in the plant restoration work were cleared of blame. The company that was in charge of labeling the asbestos-containing pipes and products and that was tasked with safely removing asbestos from the building was Hopewell-based Quality Specialties Inc. and they were fined $4,900 for not labeling the pipes. The state has targeted one other company – Dominion Power, the electricity supplier for VA and NC and the owner of the power plant — to take partial blame for the incident but have not released details of their investigation.… Read More

Landfill Contaminated With Asbestos

Elbert County in Denver, CO has a unique asbestos abatement project to tackle – that of a public landfill and trash compactor site. The site has historically been used to dispose of roofing and building materials, much of which was from before the mid 1970’s when buildings were routinely constructed with an abundance of asbestos. The landfill has been the primary dumping site for such rubbish but then it is compacted into bundles and shipped off to another landfill.

Concern about asbestos at the site arose when a backhoe company began excavating the grounds in preparation to remove an old missile silo. Local residents in the area called in complaints to authorities that contaminants were being spread by the excavation. Subsequent soil tests and tests to the debris at the landfill showed the presence of asbestos. No charges were filed because the asbestos had not yet gone airborne, but rather was contained to the landfill site.… Read More

More Congressional Interest in Asbestos Trust Funds

If you read the last article we posted about asbestos trust funds, you’ll remember the clever hammock analogy used to describe what they are. If you didn’t read it, you can do so here.

Now, the Government Accountability Office (GOA) – a sort of congressional watchdog group that keeps an eye on government spending of taxpayer dollars – has published a report that reveals the somewhat secretive system of asbestos trust fund payouts.

The report looked at 52 asbestos trust funds that have paid out over 3,000,000 claims for a total of about $17.5 billion. The investigation was prompted by the fact that these asbestos trust funds don’t publish details about their activities, yet do make general information available. Attorneys representing asbestos companies or defendants — in asbestos lawsuits filed by mesothelioma victims – raised a stink about the secrecy of the details and implored congress to get involved.… Read More

Mesothelioma Death Count Rising in Minnesota

In a health study of Taconite Workers in Iron Range, Minnesota, the number of citizens who died of mesothelioma is higher than they reported a year ago – up from 63 to 82. Researchers found the additional nine cases by checking death records of former residents who moved out of state.

The University of Minnesota is responsible for the study, which started in 2008 and will wrap up as early as mid-2012. So far, results indicate that the rate at which residents have contracted mesothelioma is much higher than it should be.

Mesothelioma is a rare and fatal cancer, caused primarily by exposure toasbestos fibers, which often takes 30 years or more after exposure to show up.

Exactly how Iron Range residents have been exposed to asbestos is a mystery. Speculation includes one theory that workers handled asbestos in certain products then carried it home. Another theory is that processing taconite rock (a low-concentrate iron ore that has been mined and processed in Minnesota since the 1950s) releases asbestos fibers from within the rock into the air.… Read More

International Mesothelioma Program New Research

The International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston continue to make progress in malignant mesothelioma research. The scientists and doctors involved with the project are looking for information that will lead to better adjuvant therapies for the rare and deadly disease. Adjuvant therapies are treatments given to help boost the effectiveness of other treatments. In the case of malignant mesothelioma, the term “adjuvant therapies” typically refers to treatments that are administered to patients after they have had tumors surgically removed.

In a recent study, scientists used mice to test potential adjuvant therapies. Human mesothelioma cells were introduced into the test mice, allowed to metastasize (to grow), then surgically removed. This procedure turned the mice into workable test subjects for testing ne mesothelioma adjuvant therapies.

One of the therapies researchers studied on the mice was “intracavitary chemotherapy,” which means applying the chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel, into the cavity of the body around the site where the tumor has been removed just prior to closing the incision.… Read More

New Science Part Three Mesothelioma Genetic Link

It’s long been suspected that a person’s genetics play a role in determining susceptibility to the development of mesotheliomafollowing exposure to asbestos fibers. The suspicion caused the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund research that would discover this genetic link. As of August, 2011, the specific gene mutation was not only found, but identified to also trigger other types of cancer.

The culprit is the gene, BAP1. Not a very creative name, is it? Why not name genes after Greek gods and goddesses rather than assigning them boring codes made up of capital letters and numbers? The former would better match the mystical powers genes have to determine so much about a person from appearance to temperament to health and beyond. Anyway, the research showed that people with a mutation on the BAP1 gene are more susceptible to developing both mesothelioma cancer as well as melanoma cancer of the eye.… Read More

New Science Part Two Mesothelioma Biomarkers

Because mesothelioma is typically diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment options are limited, scientists at Somalogic Inc. set out to find ways to detect it at an earlier stage. The goal of early diagnosis is that patients with mesothelioma might be able to enjoy a better quality of life as the fight the illness.

Dr. Rachel Ostroff, a clinical research director of Somalogic Inc. presented her initial results of this ongoing study at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development. Her results indicated that with the use of aptamer-based proteomics array technology, biomarkers and protein signatures were identified that are characteristic of cancer at an early stage for both mesothelioma and pancreatic cancers.

Aptamer-based proteomics array technology is fairly new in the world of science, developed and refined over the past ten years or so. Aptamers are nucleic acid molecules that bind to certain proteins and were first discovered about 20 years ago.… Read More

Mesothelioma New Science Series

In honor of National Mesothelioma Awareness Day, we’re launching a three-part blog series highlighting the newest scientific research regarding mesothelioma. New science has emerged in the last two years that may have significant implications for the future treatment ofmalignant mesothelioma. In this series, we will look at three important scientific breakthroughs that have the largest potential to affect the future of mesothelioma treatment.

In early 2010, results of a study were published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that proved the safety of a possible vaccine for mesothelioma.

In late 2010, Dr. Rachel Ostroff, the clinical research director of Somalogic Inc., presented results of an ongoing study at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development about new biomarkers she discovered for mesothelioma that would impact early diagnosis and provide insight into new therapies for the disease.… Read More

Asbestos Trust Funds Scrutinized by Republicans in Congress

Imagine a hammock that more and more people keep piling into without anybody getting out. The weight would quickly become too burdensome to bear and, sagging with a tangle of limbs and torsos, the rope would break. That’s what companies whose livelihoods were once asbestosdependent are like. With billions paid in asbestos settlements each year, the financial strain of numerous personal injury lawsuits from employees exposed to asbestos is too much for any corporation to hold.

What’s best for both the injured employees seeking compensation as well as the companies themselves is for the hammock to hold, or at least have a safety net in place. That’s why more and more of those companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcies to reorganize their assets and debts as well as put aside money for injured asbestos workers into what are known as asbestos bankruptcy trusts. More and more of these have been established as more and more companies have filed Chapter 11’s over the past two decades.… Read More

Asbestos Found in School Science Kits

We all know that schools use equipment that is old, dated or even expired on occasion. This can include old textbooks, course materials or even laboratory equipment. Before we knew of the dangers associated with asbestos, many schools used the material in laboratory exercises. Although the use of asbestos in schools has dropped off, school officials in Australia recently made a grim discovery with their science equipment. In the state of Queensland, which is supposed to have the strictest anti-asbestos regulations in Australia, asbestos-containing materials was found in school science kits.

Asbestos, the deadly substance known to cause cancers such as mesothelioma, harms its victims when the fibers are inhaled. Many of the science kits were more than 20 years old, meaning an entire generation of Townsville students were put at risk by using this equipment. It is indeed conceivable that similar situations exist in many American schools; this discovery is certainly cause for concern here, even though officials in Queensland contend that the materials posed little threat to students.… Read More