Author: Alex Strauss

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    U.K. Government Releases ‘Shocking’ Mesothelioma Stats

    ByAlex Strauss

    The British government has released some surprising and disturbing figures highlighting the size of the mesothelioma problem in the country. In a new report that Britain’s Express’ calls “shocking”, the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says more than 1.8 million people are exposed to asbestos every year in the country and one dies of the disease every four hours. As the incidence of mesothelioma continues to rise, the HSE predicts that 5,000 people will die of it each year by 2015. That figure means mesothelioma numbers may be twice as high in the U.K. (and much higher per capita) as in the U.S., where the National Cancer Institute currently estimates 2,500 deaths a year. Mesothelioma is a malignancy that…

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    Physicians “Missing Opportunity” with Mesothelioma Patients

    ByAlex Strauss

    Even while they are working diligently to diagnose and treat mesothelioma, too many doctors may be missing a vital opportunity to help mesothelioma patients in another important way. A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and researchers at Stanford University found that only a tiny percentage of mesothelioma patients received counseling from their doctor’s office on the cause of their mesothelioma and the possibility of taking legal action. This, despite that fact that almost all cases of mesothelioma, a virulent cancer of the mesothelial tissue around organs, are known to be caused by occupational asbestos exposure. To conduct the retrospective study, researchers reviewed the charts of 16 patients who had been newly diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma during…

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    Mesothelioma Claims Life of British Teen

    ByAlex Strauss

    Britain’s youngest ever victim of malignant mesothelioma has died of the disease at the age of 18. Sophie Ellis was just 13 years old when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer that is almost always associated with exposure to asbestos and typically strikes much older people. At the time, Ellis was told she had just three months to live, but with radiation, chemotherapy and radical surgery, she survived another five years. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos was widely used until the 1980’s in a wide variety of industrial applications and construction products and is present in many older school buildings. Many mesothelioma victims contract the disease after working with asbestos containing products such as older car…

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    GM Mesothelioma Claims May Rise

    ByAlex Strauss

    Creditors of the bankrupt remains of General Motors have won the right to estimate just how much the company could have to pay out to mesothelioma victims in the coming years. Like many car manufacturers, GM used asbestos as part of the brake linings in its vehicles for years.  This encapsulated asbestos poses a serious health hazard, including the potential for malignant mesothelioma, to anyone who disturbs it by working on those brakes.  Because brake work can release deadly asbestos dust into the air where it can be easily inhaled, auto mechanics are at risk for asbestos-related diseases, including not only mesothelioma, but also asbestosis and lung cancer. Because of this danger, GM is no stranger to asbestos-related lawsuits and mesothelioma claims. …

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    Mesothelioma Risks in Unexpected Places

    ByAlex Strauss

    Although asbestos was most common in industrial settings like ship yards and manufacturing plants, recent headlines drive home the fact that the mineral which causes mesothelioma can still be found in some unexpected places – including restaurants, retail stores and even hospitals. A 60-year-old chef from Salisbury, England reportedly contracted malignant mesothelioma after years of working around a restaurant oven with asbestos seals on its doors.  A naturally occurring mineral, asbestos is resistant to heat and fire, which once made it a popular insulator. But in his case against the pizza restaurant where he worked for years, Luigi Pes alleged that he had inadvertently inhaled asbestos dust from years of opening and closing the oven. Pes was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2008….

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    Mesothelioma Verdicts Highlight the Asbestos Danger

    ByAlex Strauss

    Some large mesothelioma settlements this summer have resulted in more $25 million for victims of the disease from coast to coast. In New Orleans, former shipyard worker Leopold Granier, Jr. won his $1.5 million suit against Union Carbide, Avondale Shipyards and Cajun Insulation, alleging that the companies were negligent in allowing his exposure to cancer-causing asbestos.  Granier worked at the Avondale shipyard, which was once the largest employer in the state of Louisiana.  The jury found that the companies named in the suit produced products that were a “substantial and contributing cause” of Granier’s mesothelioma.  The shipyard is slated to close in 2013 because of reduced business from the Navy. In San Diego, a 70-year old Navy veteran won a $2.4 million…

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    Mesothelioma Insurance Claims on the Rise

    ByAlex Strauss

    Insurance companies are seeing a rise in asbestos and mesothelioma insurance claims – even though the incidence of the disease has been gradually slowing. The Reuters News Agency is reporting that two major insurers – Hartford Financial and American International Group, Inc. (AIG) – have recently had to dramatically increase the amount of money they are holding in reserve for mesothelioma and other asbestos cases because of a higher number of claims in recent years.  The shift in funds meant a $290 million shortfall in earnings for Hartford Financial, making investors nervous about the company’s stability.  AIG worried its shareholders by moving $4.1 billion into its reserve fund. For decades before the link to mesothelioma and other illnesses was made known, asbestos…

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    Mesothelioma Not Enough to Blacklist Asbestos

    ByAlex Strauss

    The 141 member nations of the international Rotterdam Convention have once again failed to add asbestos to their list of banned chemicals, much to the disappointment of mesothelioma patients, doctors and researchers worldwide. Asbestos has long been linked to the deadly cancer mesothelioma. It causes an estimated 2,500 new cases of mesothelioma in the U.S. each year and tens of thousands of cases elsewhere in the world.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace and more than 107,000 die each year from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.  Although the mineral is now regulated (though not banned) in the U.S., many third-world countries use it as a cheap building material with little…

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    Defense Department Combats Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    The U.S. Department of Defense is stepping up its efforts to combat the threat of mesothelioma cancer among veterans.  For the fourth consecutive year, the DOD has agreed to provide grant funding to researchers exploring the causes and possible treatments for malignant mesothelioma, a disease triggered almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. Because as many as a third of the approximately 2,500 cases of the disease reported annually in the U.S. occur among veterans, mesothelioma has been designated by the DOD since 2008 as an eligible disease under the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP).  This year, the program will provide $16 million in grants for the study of a range of cancers, including colorectal, bladder, kidney, pancreatic, mesothelioma and others.  The…

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    CT Accuracy May Vary for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A group of French doctors has a warning for people exposed to asbestos and concerned about the possibility of mesothelioma: watch out for false positive CT results. Their new meta-analysis of current radiological techniques found that there is a wide margin in the way CT results are interpreted in cases of cancer in the lungs and chest including mesothelioma. The study may have important implications for mesothelioma, where early, accurate diagnosis is critical. CT (computed tomography) and the newer high-resolution volume CT (HR-VCT) which takes multiple two-dimensional images, are among the most popular imaging modalities for diagnosing and staging malignant pleural mesothelioma. According to the researchers who conducted the study, part of the problem is the lack of specific training in…