Asbestos Removers to be taken to Court

Suffolk Evening Star 24 February 2007 reported that health and safety officials were today preparing to take an asbestos removal company to court after claims they risked public safety while stripping the potentially hazardous substance at an Ipswich development.

LCH contracts, who worked to remove asbestos from St Francis Tower, are accused of breaching safety regulations by failing to protect those not in its employment, contrary to the Health and Safety at Work Act.The company is also alleged to have breached three Control of Asbestos at Work regulations by failing to follow a plan of work, failing to protect workers inside an enclosure while dry stripping asbestos and failing to prevent the spread of asbestos.LCH, which is based in Billericay, Essex is licensed to remove asbestos by the HSE.

The company is to appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court on March 5 in connection with the breaches.The asbestos removers are co-accused with Loughton-based R Maskell Limited, who were the principal contractors on the redevelopment of the Franciscan Way tower block in 2005 and 2006.They are accused of five breaches of health and safety regulations: failure to ensure health and safety of employees; working with asbestos containing materials without a license; having no asbestos survey; failure to prevent spread of asbestos and failure to have adequate measures for fire fighting.

Richard Maskell is also accused of failing to look at fire risks, not having an asbestos survey and failing to ensure the health and safety of employees.

R Maskell Limited, who were trading as Chrysalis Demolition, were served with a prohibition notice at the end of 2005 after health and safety inspectors found asbestos was not being correctly disposed of at the site.

To read the full story, follow the link below:

http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/content/eveningstar/news/story.aspx?brand=ESTOnline&category=News&tBrand=ESTOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED23%20Feb%202007%2011%3A54%3A53%3A077

Lung Disease Research

The Western Mail, Feb 26 2007 reported that Dr Zsuzsanna Tabi from the School of Medicine at Cardiff University has been awarded a grant of £139,000 to fund research into treatment for mesothelioma.

She will investigate the the possibility of developing immune therapy for mesothelioma using the patient's own immune cells to attack the tumour cells.

There are currently few treatment options available for this type of cancer, which is caused by exposure to asbestos.

Most people live for an average of just 12 months after diagnosis.

Dr Tabi said, "At the moment, there is no cure for mesothelioma and treatment is mainly palliative.

It can take up to 40 years for symptoms of mesothelioma to develop following exposure to asbestos.

The number of mesothelioma cases is expected to rise and remain high over the next 20 years because of the heavy use of asbestos in industry in the years following the Second World War.

To read the full story, click on the link below
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_headline=funding-lung-research&method=full&objectid=18677140&siteid=50082-name_page.html

Working in hospitals caused cancer

On 26th February the Norwich Evening News reported that a former nurse had appealed for help in her compensation battle. Mary Atherton who is 58 was recently diagnosed as suffering from mesothelioma, an asbestos related cancer.

She believes she was exposed to the deadly dust while working at the old Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, the West Norwich Hospital, the Jenny Lind - now Priscilla Bacon Lodge - and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Her solicitor, David Cass, said asbestos had been used as lagging on pipes in some of those places.As a student nurse she was required to clean the hospital at weekends, and she remembers dusting and wiping down surfaces. She also claimed that there was always building work going on at the hospital during the sixties, when asbestos was widely used.

If you can help Mrs Artherton, call David Cass at Irwin Mitchell solicitors in Sheffield on 0114 2744559.

To read the full story, click on the link below

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED26%20Feb%202007%2009%3A29%3A38%3A593

New push for global asbestos ban

Building unions’ global federation, BWI has renewed its call for a global asbestos ban. General Secretary Anita Normark, said that today’s exposures guarantee that deaths caused by exposure to asbestos fibres would continue. Currently there is at least one death every five minutes.

The problem is becoming more acute in the developing world, where some jobs are an effective death sentence.

The organisation is calling upon trade unions to lobby their national governments to discuss plans to prevent asbestos related diseases.

It also appealed for a renewed international effort to convince the Canadian government to recognise that asbestos is the world's biggest industrial killer and that it should be banned in all countries. 'Canada is one of the largest exporters of asbestos,' said Normark, 'and we aim to show its government that workers in a large number of countries are concerned about Canada's disdain for the occupational and public health of citizens and workers throughout the world.' She said while 40 industrialised countries have banned asbestos, and are using alternative materials, developing countries are targeted by the asbestos salesmen who will deny the health hazards in order to make profits.

Trade union confederations in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela - have taken up the campaign for an asbestos ban. The unions have helped compile a document, 'Ban asbestos in the Andean sub-region', published by the Andean Labour Institute (ILA). The document is based on a survey of trade union leaders, and looks at asbestos use in the different countries involved.

Colombia is an asbestos producer which both uses its own output and imports large amounts from Canada, estimated at 19,000 tonnes in 2005. Bolivia produces little asbestos, while Peru has shutdown its asbestos mines. Most asbestos used in the region is imported, mainly from Canada.

To read the full story, click on the link below:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12973-f0.cfm

Action Mesothelioma Day 27th February 2007

To mark ACTION MESOTHELIOMA DAY on 27th February 2007, the TUC called for a better awareness of the problem, and for better treatment of those affected by asbestos related diseases. It also called for more research to find a cure.

It wants employers to do more to protect staff from asbestos exposure, citing the fact that just one asbestos disease, mesothelioma kills more than 2000 people every year.

Although the use of asbestos has now been banned in the UK it is still found in an estimated one and a half million workplaces.

To read the full story click on the link below:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12973-f0.cfm

Asbestos deaths to reach 200,000

Mirror.co.uk, 21st February 2007 reported that nearly 200,000 people will die of asbestos related cancers up to 40 years after coming into contact with the deadly fibres.

Professor Julian Peto of Cancer Research UK, said around 90,000 would die from mesothelioma whilst a further 90,000 would suffer asbestos related lung cancer. He said that mesothelioma was different from any other industrial cancer disease in the world. It has already killed twice as many as cervical cancer. Those affected are elderly working class men, who will die within nine to twelve months of diagnosis. There is no cure

Those most at risk are construction workers, especially carpenters, born in the 1940s.
He expected the current epidemic of mesothelioma to peak in less than 10 years. Women and children who lived with men exposed to asbestos in the 1960s also had a one in 1,000 chance of contracting the disease.

To read the full story click on the link below
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_headline=200-000-will-die-in-asbestos-timebomb--&method=full&objectid=18651275&siteid=89520-name_page.html

High Court Battle for Husband

Norwich Evening News 17th February 2007 reported the plight of a widow who has launched landmark legal action against Norfolk County Council, after her husband died from exposure to asbestos while working as a school caretaker.

Legal experts warn that the case could open the floodgates for other school employees or pupils to come forward with claims.

Education bosses have previously admitted that every school in Norfolk, except those built since 2000, contains some form of asbestos and it could be decades before it is cleared.In recent years, scientists have established that breathing in tiny fibres of asbestos directly causes the untreatable cancer mesothelioma.

Last March it was claimed nationally up to 15 teachers are dying of the disease every year due to breathing in the toxic dust in the classroom and that thousands of children are also at risk. Scientists have warned that every drawing pin stuck in the wrong classroom ceiling released 6,000 asbestos fibres in the air and that the risks in these rooms were immense.

To read the full article, click on the link below:
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED17%20Feb%202007%2009%3A46%3A16%3A983

One-in-five women with lung cancer never smoked

TUC Risks magazine, 17th February 2007 reported that a recent study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Northern California Cancer Center, discovered that many people who have never smoked, suffer from lung cancer.

The study published in the 10th February issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, concluded that one-in-five lung cancers in females and almost 1-in-10 in men occur in people who have never smoked.

Their study used data collected in the United States and Sweden and it tracked the incidence of lung cancer in more than a million people aged between 40 and 79.

If the statistics are representative of the overall population of the United States, the authors infer that around 8 per cent of lung cancer cases in males and close to 20 per cent of cases in females are among wh have never smoked. The authors speculate that factors including environmental and occupational exposures to substances including environmental tobacco smoke, asbestos, chromium, arsenic and radon could explain some of the never-smoked lung cancers. Canadian doctors reported the emergence of more never-smoked lung cancers last year, and they concluded that the risk from smoking is dramatically increased if there are also exposures to some of these industrial substances, so many 'smoking' lung cancers also have an occupational component.

A TUC-backed report in Hazards magazine in 2005 estimated the workplace contribution to all cancers at between eight and sixteen per cent. It identified lung cancer as the most common occupational cancer, with known causes including: Arsenic; beryllium; cadmium; chromium; nickel; solvents, particularly aromatics (benzene and toluene); ionising radiation, including radon exposed uranium, haematite and other metal ore miners; reactive chemicals including BCME, CCME, mustard gas, plus suggestive evidence for sulphuric acids; environmental tobacco smoke; petrochemicals and combustion byproducts, including PAHs; asbestos; silica; wood dust; and some man-made fibres, including ceramic fibres.

To read the full article follow the link below
http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-12938-f0.cfm

Asbestos Control & Abatement Division

The Asbestos Control & Abatement Division (ACAD) was formed in 1994 and represents specialists in asbestos removal. It is dedicated to ensuring its members work to the exacting standards required by legislation in the Asbestos Industry by providing first class training and free advice and by also representing its members’ interests within organisations such as HSE’s Asbestos Liaison Group (ALG), British Standards Institute (BSI) and the Asbestos Building Inspectors Certification Scheme (ABICS). ACAD is the Trade Association that represents organisations that specialise in asbestos and its removal, thus providing a dual function in that it serves both the public and the trade. To look for information on their site, follow the link below.
http://www.tica-acad.co.uk/acad/index.asp

Government to end asbestos disability compensation for manual workers?

Guardian Unlimited reported on 29th January 2007, that the Government is considering ending the Industrial Injuries Disabled Benefit.

The scheme pays compensation to workers who suffer illness or injury where liability cannot be proved. The scheme was started in 1948 when the UK still had a large manufacturing industry. The decline of major heavy industries that used asbestos, such as shipbuilding, has led ministers to question whether the scheme is still relevant despite the £776 million paid from the scheme every year.

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,2000644,00.html

Pinewood Studios Taken to Court

Times Online reported that Rank Entertainment, former owners of Pinewood studios, is being taken to court by the widow of a former worker who contracted mesothelioma (a cancer caused by asbestos exposure) while building film sets.

The studio, famous for films like the Carry On series and James Bond, is accused of failing to protect workers health and being in breach of regulations on providing protective equipment and keeping an environment free of asbestos dust.

MSPs change asbestos compensation rules

The BBC reported that Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have backed changes in the law to help asbestos related cancer sufferers to claim compensation.

They introduced new measures in December to remove the dilemma facing mesothelioma sufferers, whether to claim damages for themselves, or wait so that relatives could claim more after their death.

Sufferers have been able to lodge compensation claims since 20 December even though the Mesothelioma Damages Bill is not yet law.

In an unprecedented move, Deputy Justice Minister Johann Lamont announced at the committee's meeting on 13 December that the bill would be amended to enable sufferers to benefit from its provisions a week later.

Sufferers have, from diagnosis, an average life expectancy of just 14 months.
The bill will allow both the sufferer and their families to seek benefits.
The convener of the Justice 1 Committee, Pauline McNeill, said: "The legislation will remove the dilemma faced by mesothelioma sufferers, enabling both the sufferer and their family to receive fair recompense.

"In considering the bill, the committee learned of the significant number of mesothelioma sufferers who had been postponing settling their claims so that they would be able to benefit from the terms of the legislation.

"Witnesses representing mesothelioma sufferers argued that the bill should apply retrospectively, so as to enable sufferers to pursue their claims now."

Mesothelioma Action Day, 27 February 2007

The second Mesothelioma Action Day will be held on 27 February 2007. There will be events in towns and cities across the country as well as a reception at the House of Commons.
A video presentation will be shown on giant BBC screens in many city centres, to raise awareness of the UK mesothelioma epidemic.
The day aims to highlight the rising death toll from asbestos cancers, the lack of government funding for treatment and the under-estimated risk from relatively small asbestos exposures.

To read more on the subject visit the Ban Asbestos Website at
ban@lkaz.demon.co.uk

USA: Deadly 9/11 legacy

Doctors have established a definite link between work at New York's September 2001 'ground zero' World Trade Center site and chronic respiratory illness.

A study which monitored the health of post 9/11 workers found that nearly 70 per cent would probably suffer from chronic breathing problems.
Unofficially, it is reckoned that the death toll of post-September 11 workers is rising rapidly, as more and more people fall victim to sarcoidosis (an inflammation of the lungs), mesothelioma and pulmonary disease. It is believed that these diseases were caused by breathing the toxic cloud of that enveloped Manhattan following the collapse of the twin towers.
New York senator Hillary Clinton has now taken up the cause of affected workers.
Source TUC Risks 27th January 2007

Cancer drug decision delayed

A final decision on whether a chemotherapy drug that could help sufferers of the asbestos cancer mesothelioma should be available on the NHS may not now be announced for months. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) says it does not envisage being in a position to give guidance on the drug Alimta until September. This would mean by the time NICE finally announces if it is going to make Alimta available on the NHS, campaign groups will have been fighting the cause for almost two years. There is no cure for mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos, but Alimta is said to help make sufferers more comfortable during their last months. The drug is currently only available in some parts of the country on the NHS, including the North East, Liverpool and London. NICE decided recently not to recommend Alimta for use across the NHS, but this decision is being reviewed. It is understood those health trusts in the UK already offering Alimta can continue to do so until a final decision is made. Ian McFall of Thompsons Solicitors said: 'The very nature of mesothelioma means many sufferers cannot afford to wait until September to find out if this drug will be made available to them.' He added: 'I would urge NICE to find some way to bring this meeting forward so a decision can be made without further delay.' Chris Knighton from the Mick Knighton Mesothelioma Research Fund said the group was 'disappointed that there will be no final decision until September. It is good news that those currently receiving Alimta on the NHS will continue to do so but this does not help those people who live in areas where the drug is not yet available from their local NHS hospital.'
Source TUC Risks 27th January 2007

Asbestos Kills Workers' Families in Canada

Many family members of Canadian workers who became ill from exposure to asbestos are now developing cancers themselves. Doctors say that these second generation victims, known as 'bystanders', were inadvertently exposed to asbestos fibres brought home on parents' clothing.
They cited the situation of a 49 year old man from Ontario who is suffering from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He saw his father die of the same disease ten years ago, then his sister and his brother. He said they were unaware of the dangers posed by the asbestos dust which coated his father's clothes and the interior of the family car.
Doctors are concerned by the rising number of deaths from mesothelioma across Canada which still produces asbestos, and whose government actively supports global asbestos trade. Canada has a 'no fault' workers' compensation system, but it only pays out to those who developed diseases as a result of exposure in their own workplaces, leaving some 'bystander' victims destitute.
Source TUC Risks 20th January 2007