Within the dust clouds rising from the rubble, there was a combination of pulverized cement with asbestos, benzene, dioxin and other known causes of cancer. Fireman Ray Pfeifer states that he arrived on the scene just after the Twin Towers fell, and he worked in the “toxic soup” for seven months. Nine years later, his doctor diagnosed the firefighter with stage 4 kidney cancer that spread to his bones. Doctors removed part of his leg, hip and a kidney to eradicate the cancer. Firefighter John McNamara died of aggressive colon cancer in 2009, and his oncologist told the family that it may be related to his 9/11 exposure.

Though there is known exposure to asbestos in the rubble of the Twin Towers, other cancer experts state that there is still not enough evidence to know if the 9/11 exposure is the cause of these cancers. These first responders remain ineligible for federal money to treat their cancer.

Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP–Mesothelioma lawyers

The drug Gendicine has had more than five years of clinical trials prior to approval and Chinese researchers followed patients in the trials for more than six years.  The therapy has been used on over 4500 patients.

The clinical trials of the gene therapy included 135 patients and results showed that 64 percent showed tumour regression after eight weekly injections in combination with radiation therapy. According to the clinical trial results, using Gendicine with chemotherapy and radiation therapy can improve the efficacy by a factor of three. The only side effect of Gendicine is a typical overnight fever.

In a healthy cell, there is a gene, the p53 gene, which can repair DNA, arrest cell growth, and initiate a cellular self destruction if the cell damage is too great as in the case of cancer. However, in another Chinese study,  they found that there was a high occurrence of p53 gene damage in asbestos related cancers such as mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that is brought on after exposure to asbestos.

Gendicine works by reactivating the p53 gene, which acts as tumour suppressant but is shut off in a cancer cell because it may become deactivated by mutagens such as asbestos, chemicals and radiation. Gendicine treatment uses a virus as a medium to carry the p53 gene into the cancerous cells and causes the p53 gene to reactive and initiate self destruction of the cancer cell.

BP faces a state investigation for releasing more than 500,000 pounds of material, including several tons of benzene, into the air. The 40-day incident started April 6 and ended May 16, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and BP.

Benzene is a known carcinogen.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday morning in the 212th State District Court, claims the 6-month-old child was diagnosed with pneumonia and that symptoms got worse in April and May while the infant was being cared for at an aunt’s house and a nearby day care center.

BP maintains the release posed no threat on the community and that air monitors at the refinery and from the community monitoring network detected no dangerous concentrations of harmful emissions.

The baby died June 23.

Source: The Galveston County Daily News

Emergency workers inhaled all sorts of toxins, notably asbestos. Asbestos exposure has been linked to rare but deadly cancers like mesothelioma. Many of the workers at Ground Zero have been diagnosed with these kinds of cancers.

A majority of the lawmakers in the chamber supported the bill, but the 255-to-159 vote fell short of the two-thirds margin needed under special rules that were used to bring the measure to the floor. In the end, 243 Democrats and 12 Republicans supported the measure; 155 Republicans and 4 Democrats opposed it.

Democrats used rules requiring a wider majority for approval to prevent Republicans from offering amendments on the floor that would embarrass Democrats in an election year.

Republican opponents of the legislation expressed concern over the $7.4 billion cost of the program and called the funding mechanism a tax increase on businesses. The bill was to be funded by closing a loophole  that allows American companies chartered off shore to operate in the U.S. without paying taxes on income earned in this country.

Democrats accused Republicans of being callous and vowed to bring the bill back for another vote in the fall.

Source: The New York Times

The class of chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH, are a significant component in coal tar. Coal tar is a waste product of steel manufacturing. One of the principal PAH chemicals, benzo[a]pyrene, has long been regarded as a deadly carcinogen.

A study commissioned by the United States Geological Survey compared house dust from 23 ground-floor apartments in Austin — 11 with coal tar-sealed parking lots and 12 coated with other substances, or not sealed at all. The study found that dust in the apartments next to the coal-tar-sealed lots had  pollution levels 25 times higher, on average, than the other lots.

More than half the apartments with the coal tar-sealed lots had dust with levels of PAHs that would increase the risk of cancer if ingested by preschoolers, the researchers said. The dust inside several suburban homes in the Austin area were also examined and found to contain benzo[a]pyrene thousands of times the level that would trigger a cleanup at a toxic-waste site.

Children are at greatest risk to these kinds of chemicals because they have a higher metabolic rate, they get a bigger dose per pound of body weight, their organs are still developing and they play on or near floors where carpets concentrate and retain toxins. Emerging evidence also suggests that babies exposed to PAHs while in the womb may be more prone to asthma and other ailments and may have lowered IQs.

Source: InvestigateWest