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Texas Mesothelioma Blog
Heard Robins Cloud Black & Lubel, LLP
Monday, April 19, 2010
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posted by
benbcraig
at
12:25 PM
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
CDC reports American mesothelioma deaths increasing.
In April, the CDC reported that American deaths from asbestos-caused mesothelioma continue to rise. Between 1999 and 2005, mesothelioma killed 18,068 Americans. From the late 1970s through the mid-1990s, the number of Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma each year sharply increased. Mesothelioma's long latency period—or time between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma's onset—explains the continued increased mesothelioma rate. According to the CDC, mesothelioma can occur twenty to forty years after a person is exposed to asbestos. The CDC estimates that the U.S. mesothelioma rate will probably peak by 2010. By the CDC's estimates, 1.3 million construction and general industry workers are currently potentially exposed to asbestos.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
2:35 PM
Friday, May 8, 2009
Asbestos kills thousands of Americans each year.
Some people believe that asbestos is a problem of our past. It's not.
Each year thousands of Americans are killed by asbestos exposure. Levin and Rountree report that, "[a]n estimated 2000 - 3000 new [mesothelioma] cases are diagnosed each year in the United States."1 Lemen cites a study by Pinherio indicating that there may be over 6,000 cases of mesothelioma per year.2
While estimates vary for exactly how many Americans mesothelioma kills each year, the consensus is that the number is in the thousands.
And mesothelioma is not the only fatal disease asbestos causes. There are three main Asbestos Related Diseases (ARDs): asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. McCulloch & Tweedale cite a 2004 study reporting that "10,000 Americans die each year of ARDs."3 "ARDs over the next decade could claim the lives of over 100,000 Americans."4
To put this in perspective, 36,516 U.S. soldiers died in the Korean War. 58,159 U.S. soldiers died in the Vietnam War. By Pinherio's estimates, mesothelioma will kill nearly twice as many Americans in the next 10 years as died in the Korean War. By McCulloch & Tweedale's estimate, more Americans will die over the next 10 years from asbestos diseases than died in the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
Unfortunately, asbestos is not just a tragedy of our past. Asbestos remains a very present tragedy.
2 Richard A. Lemen, Epidemiology of Asbestos-Related Diseases and the Knowledge that Led to What is Known Today in Asbestos: Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, and Health Effects ch. 6, 217 (Ronald F. Dodson & Samuel P. Hammar eds., CRC Press 2006).
4 Id. at 11.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
7:35 AM
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Champion of French asbestos ban dies.
Henri Pezerat, famed French toxicologist, died unexpectedly on February 16, 2009. Pezerat was an early and vocal champion of the movement to ban asbestos. His efforts led France to ban asbestos. The French asbestos ban, in turn, laid the groundwork for the European Union's ban on asbestos.
Throughout his life, Pezerat strove to expose the asbestos industry's myth of "controlled" asbestos use. Pezerat's groundbreaking scientific articles uncovered the bias of asbestos-industry-linked "experts," and the asbestos industry's misuse of those studies in its fight against government attempts to ban asbestos.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
9:36 AM
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Pezerat uncovers bias in asbestos-industry studies.
Eminent French toxicologist Henri Pezerat, Ph.D., exposes bias in D. M. Bernstein's asbestos-industry-funded studies. Pezerat H. Chrysotile Biopersistence: The Misuse of Biased Studies. Int J Occup Environ Health 2009; 15:102-106. Bernstein claims his rat studies show chrysotile asbestos has a short half-life in humans and, therefore, is only a weak carcinogen.
But Pezerat reveals that Bernstein's "early studies were funded by Union Carbide Corporation, the former part owner of a chrysotile mill and mine which today holds millions of dollars of asbestos liability; while later studies were funded by asbestos producers through [the Chrysotile Institute, the asbestos industry's lobbying arm]." Id. at 102.
How fibers are treated before they are tested significantly affects their half-life (biopersistence) in the lungs. Bernstein appears to articifially reduce half-life by manipulating the asbestos fibers before testing them. Id. at 104. First, Bernstein selects long fibers through water sedimentation. Water sedimentation hydrates and oxidates the asbestos fibers, diminishing the fibers' surface activity and damaging their structure. Then Bernstein grinds the fibers by rotating them at high speeds, "throwing them against a 'durable grinding surface.'" Id. Because hydrating and grinding "can seriously damage fiber structure and shorten half-life in the lungs, this preliminary treatment raises serious questions." Id.
Pezerat points out that, "Bernstein's findings contradict results obtained by independent scientists." Id. at 102. In fact, Bernstein's "findings on the length of chrysotile half-life in the lungs diverge widely from those found by other research teams; Bernstein's time lengths are always shorter." Id. at 104.
Pezerat concludes that Bernstein's studies "lack scientific rigor and credibility." Id. at 105. "Bernstein's results do not constitute scientific progress. Quite to the contrary, they are being misused by the international asbestos producers' lobby to suggest that chrysotile is harmless. This dangerous assertion particularly compromises the health of workers in developing countries where living and working conditions. . . add to the morbidity and mortality resulting from exposure to chrysotile." Id. "[A]pproximately 100,000 people die of asbestos disease each year." Id. at 102.
"This paper serves as an example of how corporations have used science to achieve profit growth and escape liaiblity at the expense of dead and injured workers." Id. at 102.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
8:00 AM
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
IARC reaffirms that silica dust causes lung cancer.
Twenty-seven scientists hailing from eight countries around the world convened at the International Agency for Research on Cancer ( IARC) in March to reassess the carcinogenicity of silica. These world-renowned scientists: "[R]eaffirmed the carcinogenicity of silica dust as Group 1. An increased risk of lung cancer was observed across various industries and processes." Lancet 1009; 10:453.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
7:00 AM
Monday, May 4, 2009
Oxford exposes asbestos industry's manufactured "chrysotile defense."
Oxford University publishes " Defending the Indefensible: The Global Asbestos Industry and its Fight for Survival." Reviewing it in the Lancet, Barry Castleman writes that by 1960 scientists had proven that asbestos-caused asbestosis and lung cancer were fatal. And by 1960, mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the pleura and peritoneum, was recognized as a signal injury--a cancer caused only by asbestos. But almost eighty percent of all asbestos used between 1900 and 2000 was used after 1960. Castleman explains that "most of the world's people live in countries where asbestos products are still used." Castleman. The asbestos industry. Lancet 2009; 373: 290. This is possible only because the asbestos industry continues to attack the overwhelming weight of the scientific evidence that asbestos exposure can be fatal. In the early 1960s, Dr. Irving Selikoff, an epidemiologist, began documenting the shocking number of asbestos injuries and deaths among insulators. Dr. Selikoff has long been recognized as "a towering figure in occupational health[.]" But even after his death, the asbestos industry repeatedly attempted to "smear his scientific reputation." In response to the spreading knowledge about asbestos hazards, the asbestos industry "hired public relations specialists who had learned their skills working for the tobacco industry." With the help of these tobacco industry public relations specialists, the asbestos industry manufactured the "chrysotile defense." "Chrysotile asbestos has accounted for about 95% of all the asbestos ever used and is the only commercial variety still used." The asbestos industry now claims that mesothelioma is not caused by chrysotile asbestos--despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that all forms of asbestos (including chrysotile) cause mesothelioma.
posted by
Jory Lange
at
8:26 PM
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