According to About Mesothelioma, eleven people and two companies have been indicted on criminal charges involving illegal asbestos removal at a Buffalo, NY housing complex. Federal and state laws strictly regulate the handling of asbestos-containing material as exposure to asbestos is known to cause life threatening diseases such as cancers, mesothelioma and asbestosis.

Johnson Contracting of WNY, Inc was contracted to remove and dispose of an estimated 63,000 square feet of asbestos from the Kensington Heights housing project’s six housing towers. JMD Environmental Inc. was contracted to monitor the asbestos removal work and air sampling. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, workers from the contracting company illegally stripped asbestos at the housing project in violation of the Clean Air Act. Supervisors allegedly instructed workers to dump asbestos-containing debris down holes cut in the floor and directed workers to leave asbestos in the towers knowing the buildings were to be demolished.

JMD Environmental was supposed to monitor the work and perform air sampling, but the charges allege that the company and its employees failed to conduct proper air sampling and created false visual inspection reports by certifying that all asbestos had been removed from the building. Two city inspectors were also charged with falsely identifying records that all asbestos had been removed from the buildings.

Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP. – Mesothelioma attorneys

According to the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, Frank Bender’s death has caused a stir in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bender was a prominent figure in Philadelphia, a forensic sculptor whose work helped identify the forgotten dead and apprehend fugitives. Bender died at the age of 70 of pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the outer lining of the lungs, said his family.

Bender was famous in his area of expertise for creating busts of murder victims by examining their skeletal remains, a process that helped investigators identify dozens of corpses. His death came from the most common type of the fatal cancer, pleural mesothelioma, which specifically affects the lining of the lungs. It is suspected that Bender was exposed to asbestos while sleeping in a Navy destroyer escort’s engine room in the 1950’s. Asbestos was used in shipbuilding and mesothelioma has affected many US Navy veterans, and has been linked to exposure to asbestosfrom living in military vessels.

When Bender’s mesothelioma was diagnosed, he originally received devastating news that he only had eight months to live, not an uncommon prognosis. Bender remained healthy and active from 2009 through the first half of 2011, but then his health began to deteriorate. Even though he was battling mesothelioma and had increased difficulty breathing, during his last months he was determined to continue his work.

Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP. – Mesothelioma attorneys

According to Reuters, medical evidence suggests fewer new cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma, however, insurance giants say they are getting sued more frequently by people with claims against peripheral insureds, such as contractors that worked on projects that contained asbestos.

Many of asbestos-related lawsuits have had success in court, resulting in multi-million dollar awards for mesothelioma victims, but new suits may compound the problem for insurers trying to understand where their exposure to asbestos may have come from. The insurance companies say they are making guesses on how long a particular risk will endure and what it will cost them to be done with it. No law says any particular company’s guess has to match anyone else’s, but Hartford Financial announced it has reserved $290 million for asbestos cases due to rising claims for mesothelioma. American International Group added $4.1 billion to its reserves, including more than $1 billion for asbestos exposure claims.

According to insurance ratings agency, the Hartford had the fourth-highest level of asbestos reserves of all large property insurers at the end of 2009. For decades asbestos was used as a material in building products, naval applications and other industrial settings. Exposure to asbestos fibers causes mesothelioma, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. However, it may take decades for mesothelioma symptoms to show, 30 years or more may pass between exposure to asbestos and the onset of the cancer. Insurance companies must continue to build reserves due to the fact that mesothelioma cases will continue to go to courts for decades to come.

Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP. – Mesothelioma attorneys

According to Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance, the Environmental Protection Agency has known for three years that Libby wood chips were contaminated with asbestos before alerting the public. Libby, Montana is now a home of a defunct timber mill that had previously been used to provide landscaping material. An investigation prompted by Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus revealed that federal regulators knew that potentially hazardous wood chips were being sold from Libby for three years before stopping the practice.

The town of Libby is known for being the site of the W.R. Grace mine, where asbestos contaminated vermiculite that was pulled out of the ground has killed about 400 residents and made hundreds ill with various diseases, including mesothelioma.

Asbestos is a toxic material known to cancer lung cancer and mesothelioma. The EPA found that airborne asbestos fibers were found in samples taken from the woodchip piles in 2007 but never quantified the amount. Exposure to asbestos, from Libby woodchips may be putting residents of other towns at serious risk of contracting asbestos-related disease and respiratory illnesses. The federal regulators expect to have a better report on the health risk and to see if additional steps need to be taken to protect the community from asbestos exposure.

Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP. – Mesothelioma attorneys