On February 28, 2008, at 1:30 p.m., the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, will hold hearings entitled, “Legislative Hearing on S. 742 and Draft Legislation to Ban Asbestos in Products.”  Please go to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization Website today, www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org , and sign the petition for a TOTAL ban on asbestos. And watch the testimony of the House Subcommittee on February 28th. Dr. Richard Lemen, loyal and longtime friend to asbestos victims, has been invited to testify.

The Senate version of this bill defines an asbestos-containing product as any product with more than 1% asbestos.  This capitulation was made years ago for W.R. Grace so they could keep selling Monokote.  As you may recall, W.R. Grace is the company that has destroyed the lives of hundreds of people in Libby, Montana, with their asbestos mine, and now several of their executives are under indictment for criminal charges related to that conduct.  Surely these companies no longer deserve this kind of special treatment.   

A defense expert by the name of Fred Boelter has testified that there are 1,000 billion asbestos fibers in an ounce of chrysotile asbestos.  Using that math, a 25 pound bag of joint compound (sheetrock mud) that contains 1% asbestos will have 4 ounces of chrysotile asbestos, which adds up to 4,000 billion asbestos fibers per bag! 

Asbestos is asbestos is asbestos.  There is no safe level of exposure.  If 1% asbestos in a product is acceptable, then I challenge our leaders in Washington to take these products home and use them with their children present in the amounts and over the period of time that the companies say are safe.  If they are not willing to take that risk, then they should not expect the rest of the American public to do so. 

Australian researchers recently discovered a new avenue for treating cancerous tumors. They found that by injecting tumors with substances that mimic viral infections they could alert a body’s immune system and use it to fight the cancer just as it would fight, for example, the flu. Though our immune systems are already wired for fighting cancerous tumors, the tumors have developed ways of sneaking around the body’s usual method of detection. By alerting the immune system to the presence of a tumor, doctors may eventually be able to eradicate a tumor without risky surgical procedures.  Although the treatment has so far only been attempted in mice, it shows promising results—when virus-mimicking substances were used on mesothelioma cells in mice, tumors disappeared completely in 40% of the mice.  This new research bodes especially well for those suffering from mesothelioma. Mesothelioma tumors are usually very difficult to treat, so a duplication of this study in humans may give doctors and patients a much needed leg up in fighting this deadly disease. Before this tumor treatment can be used widely in people, it will need to go through clinical trials. Some clinical trials may be good medical options for people suffering from mesothelioma, or any other kind of cancer. To find a list of possible clinical trials, contact the National Cancer Institute, or visit the clinical trial search page of their website at http://www.cancer.gov/search/clinical_trials/ .  If you or a loved one is diagnosed with mesothelioma, seek legal counsel immediately. Attorneys at the law office of Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP are standing by to help those in need.  Call them today at 1-800-460-0606.

Mesothelioma is a rare lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers.  Asbestos use in the United States peaked in the mid to late 1960s.  Given that mesothelioma usually occurs two or three decades after exposure to asbestos, it is no surprise that mesothelioma rates in the U.S. rose through the early 1990s.