Asbestos was used fervently through most of the twentieth century in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout the European Union. The mineral was fabricated in several products and used as an insulator, fire retardant, and strengthening substance in some building materials. Accumulating evidence of the substance’s toxic effects when inhaled or ingested began to mount, and by the 1930’s scarring of the lung tissues and other respiratory ailments were attributed to asbestos in some British medical journals.

In the late 1980’s many developed nations were facing the effects of asbestos exposure at full force in the form of asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the body’s organ linings. Asbestos bans became widespread, and where they were overturned by big asbestos companies – such as in the United States – strict regulations were enforced instead.

The resulting vacuum in the asbestos market forced suppliers to find new importers where bans and regulations wouldn’t be a problem. While new asbestos markets such as India, Mexico and China wouldn’t pay the same prices for asbestos products, the remaining asbestos companies would rather begin manufacturing more affordable products than go out of business altogether.

Today the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 90,000 people die every year from asbestos diseases. Most asbestos diseases take 20 to 50 years to fully develop from the time of exposure, meaning that the drastically increasing contamination in developing nations won’t be felt in the form of disease right away.

A British medical journal, The Lancet, recently published in an article pertaining to India’s increased asbestos imports: “India’s surging consumption of asbestos, the industry’s hefty political and economic clout, and the country’s poor record of worker protection… [suggest that] a sizeable burden of asbestos-related disease is inevitable… [the health consequences] will be felt into the next century.”

Libby is the home of the W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine, now closed, that pumped asbestos containing waste into the community for nearly one hundred years. The processed vermiculite ore, which contains dangerous amounts of cancer causing asbestos, was delivered into the community for use as potting soil, sports field coverings, paving additives and more.

Asbestos causes mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the tissue lining the body’s organs, as well as a myriad of other health problems. Some 1,200 people in Libby have been affected by the toxic substance, a fact which is putting plenty of pressure on area hospitals.

Tester’s motion would amend a federal program known as the National Health Service Corps, which has been in place since the 1970’s, to create new incentives for medical specialists to work in and around Libby. The program was originally aimed at general practitioners, and promised medical school scholarships and loan repayments to doctors who agreed to work in rural areas otherwise considered less than profitable.

The amendment would allow specialists to receive benefits as well, granted they’re willing to work in areas recognized as a “public health emergency” by the Environmental Protection Agency. Libby, Montana, as of June 2009, is the only location in the United States with that recognition.

“This is going to really open some doors,” said Senator John Tester Monday, while he was delivering his plan.

Tester believes that Libby’s rural location, unlikelihood of supporting multiple affluent practices, and asbestos contamination problems constitute a considerable deterrent to many would be area specialists.

“It is increasingly difficult,” reads Tester’s bill, “for the health care facilities in [areas like Libby] to recruit the specialists necessary.”

Asbestos fibers cause several dangerous diseases including mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the soft tissue surrounding the body’s vital organs known as the mesothelium. After being unintentionally inhaled or ingested, asbestos fibers easily penetrate many of the body’s tissues before coming to rest in the mesothelium. Years or even decades later, the scarring reaction caused in the soft tissue can cause the development of malignant tumors. Once present, these tumors rapidly deteriorate the body’s organ systems, often causing death in less than eighteen months.

Until the 1980’s when restrictions on asbestos’s use became commonplace, the substance was used in a wide variety of common construction materials.

As evidence condemning the asbestos trade began to accumulate throughout the twentieth century, bans, laws, restrictions and regulations concerning the substance were forged in many countries across the world. Developed nations such as Australia, New Zealand, the United States and much of the European Union began to recognize the dangers of asbestos and create new laws accordingly. While many asbestos mines began to close across the globe, a few nations refused to act on the accumulating medical and scientific findings, preferring instead to monopolize the shrinking supply and advocate the remaining demand.

Brazil, Russia, and perhaps most surprisingly Canada represent the remaining stronghold on the asbestos industry. More than seventy five percent of the worlds annually produced asbestos comes from these three nations alone. According to the ICIJ and BBC’s report, the industry continues to pour money into propaganda legitimizing the asbestos trade, spending more than $100 million on lobbyists and public relations efforts since the mid 1980’s.

While many developed nations no longer use asbestos products, many vast countries like China and India continue to import the deadly substance year after year. Asbestos fibers are certainly taking their toll in these nations. The ICIJ and BBC’s report claims that as many as one million deaths could result from the trade by 2030.

Vincent Cogliano, a member of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, told the BBC:

“Chrysotile and other forms of asbestos… cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that’s been known for 50 years. My own personal view is that these risks… are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen except perhaps tobacco smoke… so the continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come.”

Mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by the accidental inhalation or ingestion of asbestos fibers, causes death ten to eighteen months from diagnosis on average. The disease can take several decades to develop from the time of initial exposure to asbestos fibers, lending to its difficult diagnosis and contributing to the fact that most patients suffer from its advanced stages before beginning treatments. Due to the long latency period of the disease, annual diagnoses are expected to rise beyond 2015 despite the fact that asbestos bans and regulations continue to tighten.

Mesothelioma, or a malignant tumor of the soft tissue known as the mesothelium, is treated palliatively, meaning that treatment aims to increase a patient’s comfort and extend their survival with providing a curative solution. The vast majority of mesothelioma patients undergo a combination of chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy.

In recent years a technique known as heated chemotherapy has shown some promise in patients undergoing tumor removal surgery. The procedure consists of washing affected tissues in a warm chemotherapy solution, the warmth of which increases effective absorption, in order to destroy malignant cells missed by the surgery. Heated chemotherapy poses some threats as well, however, including damaging the diaphragm and the pericardium – the tissue lining around the heart.

The new treatment method, cold-plasma coagulation, was tested in stage III mesothelioma patients. Stage III describes the state of the disease when malignancy has spread beyond the original tumor into several lymph nodes. Cold-plasma coagulation was used to destroy malignant tissues and cells in the pleura, diaphragm, and pericardium before a regular regimen of heated chemotherapy was applied. The results, say the researchers, proved as safe as prior methods of treatment and may prove to be a beneficial addition to multi-modal treatments in the future.

The authors of the study were cautious with their claims, stating that further trials would be necessary to draw conclusions.

“We consider our trial as a pilot study,” they said, “to evaluate potential survival benefits using this [Cold Plasma] technique, larger trials are mandatory.”

In addition to being infested with termites and subject to many of the other issues facing aging buildings, many of the structures in and around Albany are also contaminated with asbestos containing building materials. Unfortunately, aging building materials aren’t the only way that asbestos poses a threat in the United States, as many other common products such as brake pads and cigarette filters once contained the dangerous substance. While the dangers of mesothelioma have been well known since the early 19th century, many companies continued to use asbestos containing products throughout the early 1980’s and beyond.

Sadly, mesothelioma affects over 3000 Americans each year. Individuals most at risk are often those exposed to high concentrations of asbestos for prolonged periods of time. More often than not, the people who become ill from breathing the fibers are exposed on a daily basis in an occupation where they handle asbestos directly. Other asbestos related diseases include asbestos warts which are caused by the sharp fibers being lodged in the skin, and the scarring of sensitive lung tissue associated with asbestosis.

Excitement continues to grow for the new multi million dollar senior citizen’s home as the directors attain safety approvals from the state, the historic society, the city and the federal government to demolish the aging church. According to Ken Hind, who is the Executive Director of the Southwest Georgia Council of Aging, this tedious, meticulous asbestos removal process will benefit them in the end.

“We’ll all be in one location, we plan to make it very attractive and very usable and offer lots of programs and services,” said Hind. And with the added benefit of knowing that the new home’s construction site is completely asbestos free, residents should be able to rest easy.

Asbestos exposure is responsible for the development of several diseases, including mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the soft tissue which lines our body’s organs. While public awareness of the dangers of asbestos is far from staggering due to the unflinching efforts of asbestos lobby groups, scientists and doctors have been agreeing on the substance’s toxicity for close to a century.

Today more than 90,000 people worldwide die from asbestos related diseases every year, a majority of those in developing nations which heavily import the substance. Many developing nations lack not only the effective asbestos regulations which could bar imports, but also the medical infrastructure that could help treat and prevent asbestos illnesses.

Prominent organizations across the world such as the World Health Organization agree that asbestos causes deadly diseases. More than fifty developed nations have completely banned the dangerous substance, while many others such as the United States have enforced strict regulations and restrictions regarding safe handling and permissible uses.

Many people in Quebec, Canada, however, continue to support the local asbestos industry and despite global disapproval. While a variety of Canadian health organizations and even Quebec’s own doctors repeatedly claim that asbestos exports are indefensible, it appears as if the government will continue to sponsor the industry with the $58 million that will guarantee another 25 years of reliable asbestos exports.

Organizations such as the Collegium Ramazzini which are ultimately aiming for a worldwide asbestos ban are intent on preventing the expansion of the Jeffrey Mine. The Jeffrey Mine, located in the aptly named town of Asbestos in Quebec, Canada, accounts for a majority of the asbestos used in developing nations today.

The Jeffrey Mine has been the economic heart of Asbestos, Quebec for more than one hundred and thirty years. When medical discoveries began to shed an ugly light on the mineral in the late twentieth century, Asbestos’s mine didn’t flinch. While Australia, the European Union, New Zealand, and the United States shut down mines and developed tighter and tighter regulations concerning the mineral’s use, Asbestos, Quebec kept right on with their mining operation.

The CCS’s urge not to loan the mine the funds necessary to expand its operations came in the form of a letter. The CCS’s letter was one among many composed by doctors, health organizations, cancer institutes, environmentalists, and activists across the world.

While the whole world seems to be pressuring the town to stop producing cancer-causing asbestos, the town’s residents themselves feel that the mine is not only part of their history, but also important to their livelihood.

“It’s our past, it’s our history, therefore the population is united in support of the mining industry,” says Hugues Grimard, the Mayor of Asbestos.

The town decided to prevent the CCS from conducting the leg of the “Relay for Life” scheduled to occur in Asbestos, choosing instead to support the local population.

“People have stopped me to say, ‘We don’t want to participate in that event anymore’,” says Grimard, “[and] we’re giving [those citizens] our support. We want to work with our partners and not with our detractors.”

Even with the setback of creating new enemies in Asbestos, Quebec, the CCS is respectfully sticking to their guns.

“Our mandate is really public health,” says a spokesmen for the CCS, André Beaulieu, “and right now, obviously, the community’s looking from an economic point of view and we understand.”

“[Serpentine] contains the deadly mineral chrysotile asbestos,” Romero says, “a known carcinogen, exposure to which increases the risk of the cancer mesothelioma.”

Many geologists disagree with the movement, claiming that the mineral is far from dangerous and that the symbolic gesture of bringing Serpentine down a notch would be based on a misunderstanding. Serpentine, they say, is actually a family of twenty or so similar minerals, very few of which contain any asbestos. The types that do contain asbestos aren’t dangerous, either, they say. They have only a tiny amount of chrysotile asbestos, a type of asbestos of which exposure to in small amounts hasn’t even been linked to disease.

Fibrous asbestos, on the other hand, certainly causes a wide variety of serious and even fatal diseases. The size and power of the asbestos industry, however, has slowed the advance of negative sentiments concerning the dangerous mineral. While many nations including the entire European Union have completely banned asbestos, the United States continues to allow the substance’s use while applying strict safe-handling regulations.

The EPA attempted to ban asbestos in the USA back in the 1980’s, but the decision was overturned by the powerful asbestos industry within just a few years. Campaigns such as publicly denouncing Serpentine, California’s state rock, may help to increase public awareness of asbestos’s dangers, and turn the tides on still raging political and legal asbestos battles.

To many geologists, however, the movement simply doesn’t make sense.

“Serpentine is a very beautiful rock,” says the emeritus professor of geology at UCLA, John Rosenfeld.

“Holding the rock is not a problem and it’s nothing you should be concerned about. It’s part of the history of California, noticed by the early settlers of this state. It’s a beautiful stone and shouldn’t be removed.”

Asbestos has been known to cause an array of serious health complications since the early 1920’s. While it has taken nearly a century to cut through the smoke-screen of misinformation deployed by a profitable and booming asbestos industry, it’s now well understood and accepted that asbestos fibers cause several different respiratory ailments, asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, an aggressive and terminal cancer.

Asbestos has been completely banned throughout the European Union, is closely regulated and controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, and is recognized by the World Health Organization as a toxic workplace hazard that causes terminal illnesses.

While litigation against companies which expose their employees to asbestos fibers is generally becoming more and more successful, the Ohio Supreme Court drew the line at “take home” asbestos contamination.

The prosecutors of the Boley versus Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company case were aware that Ohio law limits a company’s liability for a hazardous workplace to the injuries or damages which occur in the workplace itself, but believed that the law would not apply to the “take home” effects of asbestos.

The Ohio Supreme Court did not agree, stating:

“When the provisions of [Ohio Revised Code] 2307.941 are read in their entirety, it is evident that the General Assembly intended the phrase ‘exposure to asbestos on the premises owner’s property,’ as used in R.C. 2307.941(A), to refer to the location of the asbestos to which an individual is exposed, not the location of the exposure…

“Thus, R.C. 2307.941(A) applies to all tort actions for asbestos claims brought against premises owners relating to exposure originating from asbestos on the premises owner’s property, and R.C. 2307.941(A)(1) applies to preclude a premises owner’s liability for any asbestos exposure that does not occur at the owner’s property.”

Asbestos has been linked with a variety of illnesses and ailments from respiratory complications to aggressive, terminal cancers such as mesothelioma. The effects of asbestos were downplayed dramatically for nearly a century, a feat accomplished by a rich, successful chemical and sealant industry backed by manufacturing needs and defense contracts. Asbestos, well known for its abundance and its insulating and fireproofing properties, was used in a wide variety of industries throughout much of the twentieth century.

The EPA’s decision in the 1980’s to completely ban the substance in the United States was overturned by the asbestos industry’s most powerful companies in a matter of years. The following decades saw the development of state and federal restrictions intended to safeguard industrial employees and the general public from asbestos exposure, restrictions which continue to be developed and enforced to this day.

Contractors such as Quality Enterprises which work with asbestos contaminated materials are required to acquire special licenses and abide by safe handling regulations. The investigation which followed the anonymous EPA tip-off found that the Marco Island contractor failed to follow several regulations, potentially creating a hazardous workplace for its employees and placing Marco Island residents in danger.

The violations of the Clean Air Act included improper inspection of an asbestos containing area, failure to remove asbestos materials before aggravating waste debris, failure to provide a properly trained asbestos hazard staff member on-site, and failure to dispose of asbestos as quickly as practically possible. Additionally, Quality Enterprises failed to wet the asbestos materials before handling them, a violation of state safe handling regulations.

While the EPA has required neither the city of Marco Island or Quality Enterprises to admit guilt to the Clean Air Act infractions, Quality Enterprises has been fined $82,772.

The chairman of the Marco Island City Council, Frank Recker, was happy with the outcome, saying that he just wanted it to be clear that the city wasn’t responsible. “It was Dr. [interim City Manager Jim] Riviere’s and my mission,” he said, “to get the world to understand we didn’t think the city was financially responsible for anything.”

Firefighters face countless toxins due to the smoky, superheated conditions in which they work. It’s already been discovered that many firefighters are subjected to airborne asbestos, formaldehyde, and more on the job, but research regarding the long term affects of such poisons has never been conducted.

A new study which the NIOSH, or National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, is embarking on hopes to change all of that. Working with the United States Fire Administration, the ambitious new undertaking will collect data from nearly 18,000 current and retired firefighters to learn more about their long term health conditions.

One of the facets of the new research will aim to better understand the risks to firefighters posed by airborne asbestos fibers.

It’s long been established that asbestos fibers cause an array of devastating illnesses and conditions. Respiratory complications, asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma are a few of the dangerous and even terminal illnesses caused by the dangerous mineral.

Unfortunately, asbestos saw plenty of use as fire retardant insulation throughout the twentieth century, meaning that its presence is a fairly commonplace occurrence for most firefighters. The tiny asbestos fibers cannot be burned up, so instead become whisked away in the incredible heat of the fire, lacing the already dangerous smoke and broiling hot air with an unseen, and often unmitigated, danger.

Mesothelioma, one of the most dangerous diseases caused by accidental inhalation of asbestos fibers, can take decades to develop after contamination occurs. The disease develops as the tissues around the lungs and other organs begin to scar as a reaction to the presence of microscopic asbestos fibers. This scarring, in time, could develop into malignant tumors that spread to the body’s vital organs causing swelling, pain, and eventually death. The presence of asbestos fibers in burning buildings could mean that firefighters face serious, daunting risks to their health far beyond the dangers of putting out fires, dangers that could haunt them beyond their retirement.

The NIOSH working together with the USFA hope to learn more about the unseen dangers of firefighting to help protect local heroes after their day’s work is done.

Often, waste and recycling centers operate on the honor code, expecting construction, renovation or demolition companies to follow the guidelines concerning appropriate waste to be dumped for processing. The recycling center in New Westminster, Canada, was unaware of the nature of the waste, which not only meant putting the general public in harm’s way through inappropriate disposal methods, but also meant directly risking the health and welfare of their employees.

Illegal dumping of asbestos and other toxic materials is a serious problem due to the fact that it’s so lightly policed. Often, illegal dumping goes unnoticed and unpunished, especially when the toxic material in question is one that’s not easily detectable like asbestos. Asbestos fibers can not only contaminate the areas around landfills and waste processing depots if not properly handled, but could potentially affect water supplies or remain in open air, constantly aggravated trash piles where its fibers could become an airborne hazard.

Asbestos contamination has been linked to the development of several serious and even fatal diseases. Respiratory difficulties, scarring of the lungs, asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma – a terminal cancer of the tissues surrounding the body’s vital organs – are all caused by exposure to asbestos. Almost one hundred thousand people worldwide are believed to develop mesothelioma each year, and that number is likely to continue to rise until asbestos regulations are sufficiently tightened.

A B.C. conservation officer, Jack Trudgin, said that it was Speedy Excavation’s first offense. He believes that small companies may ignore regulations to gain a competitive edge when bidding for projects, a problem that could be aggravated by the recent economic downturn. The asbestos materials which Speedy Excavation disposed of at a New Westminster depot, for example, should have been shipped much farther to Alberta using more expensive hazardous material transportation services.

“It is a terrible situation,” says Gary Zappone, the owner of a hazardous materials transportation service, “and with the recession people are trying to cut corners and this is what has been happening. It is dangerous. Airborne fibers from asbestos are hazardous to people’s health.”

The library building, an exemplary specimen of Beaux Art and Classical Revival architecture, is a well known historical landmark of the Orange, New Jersey. With more than 150,000 books, the library used to see plenty of patrons each day, and its closing went far from unnoticed.

The asbestos issue is one that’s fairly common in buildings constructed throughout the twentieth century. At one time, asbestos was used very often as cheap, effective insulation as well as a strengthening material and a fire retardation additive. While the dangers of asbestos have been well understood since the 1920’s, it’s only in recent history that the general public has been made aware of its potential health hazards.

Organizations like the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization maintain that asbestos causes terminal cancers like mesothelioma as well as respiratory diseases, and in the United States federal and state laws mandate that asbestos materials must not be exposed in public buildings or other areas.

The asbestos in the Orange Public Library was discovered by an employee and later confirmed by an official investigation. The library was given until March to hire licensed asbestos abatement contractors to take care of the issue, but the deadline was then moved to June as nothing was done to correct the problem. Later, upon failing to begin making arrangements when the extension was granted, the Director of the Library was suspended.

The library remains closed and neither library nor state officials have released any information about its status or planned reopening date. In today’s atmosphere of increasingly frequent asbestos related lawsuits, it’s possible that the library has put itself in harms way by failing to handle the asbestos issue properly in the past. Employee’s and patrons of the library may have been subject to some negligent inaction, exposing them to dangerous asbestos fibers that can cause serious and incurable diseases.

Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The cancer attacks the mesothelial lining of the abdominal organs where it caused fluid buildup, tumors, bowel obstruction, and other serious problems. In time, the disease spreads to the organs themselves, causing organ failure and death. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a terminal cancer whose treatments aim at reducing pain and discomfort while increasing quality of life and survival time.

The patients were selected for the study due to the similarity of their disease’s stage, and because each of them received nearly identical treatments. Each patient underwent surgery to remove tumors and malignant tissues, after which they were administered a heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy regimen. The chemotherapy treatment was comprised of two drugs thought to be more effective acting in tandem, cisplatin and doxorubicin, and was applied directly to the site of the removed tumor after being warmed to improve absorption. All but one of the patients recovered from the treatment.

The study consisted of observing the recovery of each patient in light of their distinguishing characteristics in terms of age, gender, lifestyle and more. The average survival was thirty months after surgery, with individual survival rates ranging from as low as four months. The results were certainly interesting, although the researchers were quick to note that they are still preliminary.

Age and gender played important roles in survival, with women surviving an average of three times longer than men after treatment and, unexpectedly, patients under fifty five years old surviving just a third of the time that older patients did. Researchers believed that the women who participated in the study may have been afflicted with less aggressive tumors. They also noted that incidents of cancer in younger patients may indicate the disease was more aggressive in the first place, making it able to overcome a relatively healthy immune system.

Whether or not the patients were smokers had a serious impact on survival as well. Non-smokers, on average, remained relatively free of malignant cell growth for eleven months after surgery, while smokers redeveloped cancerous tissues just four months after their tumors were removed. Cigarette smoking introduces a variety of known carcinogens into the body, which probably accounts for the faster return of malignant cells in some patients.

Drinking alcohol and a history of regular drinking also affected survival rates, with non-drinkers surviving far longer than regular drinkers after initial treatment. The researchers were unsure why drinking alcohol would impact survival and hope to better understand the phenomena after fully analyzing the results of the study.

Libby was home to a large asbestos mining operation which employed more than two hundred miners at any given time and unearthed some 2 million tons of asbestos annually. Not only did processing and fabricating the asbestos create clouds of toxic dust that drifted over the town, but vast quantities of unusable ore was deposited unsafely and above ground throughout the town.

The study targets former students who completed the majority of their high school education at Libby High between 1950 and 1999, and then moved permanently away from the town. Targeting these specific subjects, the researchers hope to learn more about asbestos’s effects on the lungs of children and young adults and the subsequent toll on their health in adult life. More than 13,000 former students of Libby High may participate in the study, undergoing a series of tests including X-rays, pulmonary function tests, CT scans and more.

Asbestos fibers have been positively linked with the development of a cancer known as mesothelioma. The microscopic, needle like fibers of asbestos easily become airborne when agitated, resulting in accidental inhalation or ingestion of the dangerous substance. Once inside the body, asbestos fibers slip through the lung or intestinal wall where they become ensnared in a soft tissue called the mesothelium. In time, the mesothelium’s scarring reaction can cause the development of malignant tumors which eventually bring about organ system failure and death.

Historically, mesothelioma has been well known for its high latency period, that is, the remarkable amount of time that occurs between asbestos exposure and the development of diagnosable symptoms of the disease. The asbestos diseases that are appearing in Libby, Montana, however, seem to be particularly fast acting.

“This progresses much more rapidly than your grandfather’s asbestos-related disease,” says Dr Stephen Levin of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. The study which includes Libby’s former high school students, according to Dr. Levin, is part of a larger effort to effectively assess the health emergency in Libby and better understand the particularly fast moving nature of the asbestos diseases appearing there.

The bankruptcies followed the last of a seemingly non-stop trickle of multi-million dollar payouts to the victims of asbestos exposure and their families. The most recent payout came after Bondex International elected not to settle with a man who developed mesothelioma partially because of exposure to their products, but instead to gamble more serious penalties against a lower payout in a court of law. Bondex International ended up sharing responsibility for %60 of an $11 million verdict with Georgia Pacific and Kelly Moore, landing a critical blow to Bondex International’s financial security.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and fatal cancer that has been linked with exposure to dangerous asbestos fibers. Asbestos fibers, historically found in a variety of products and raw materials in some workplaces, enters the body through accidental inhalation or ingestion. The microscopic, thread-like fibers then pass through the lung or intestinal walls where a soft tissue that surrounds the body’s organs known as the mesothelium entangles them.

Deposits of asbestos fibers in the mesothelium trigger an internal scarring reaction. After years or even decades, that scarring can develop into malignant tumors which spread throughout the body and eventually cause organ failure and death.

Bondex International has been involved in a variety of asbestos related lawsuits over the past twenty years as diagnoses of asbestos related disease continue to rise. Several years ago the company set aside some $190 million to cover existing and future asbestos claims, but that amount didn’t stretch as far as the company had imagined. This year an additional $288 million was reserved to cover future asbestos related claims, causing the company to report a loss of more than $85 million for the quarter ending last month.

The bankruptcy declaration could help to Bondex International to avoid further liabilities.

“This action has been taken to once and for all resolve the asbestos-related Bondex legacy liability. These filings bring an immediate halt to all tort system costs associated with the Bondex asbestos liabilities, and enable the filing entities to utilize section 524(g) and other provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to achieve a permanent and comprehensive resolution of asbestos-related liability,” said RPM International Inc.’s CEO, Frank Sullivan.

These types of maneuvers, as well as the establishment of federal funds to cover the medical needs of asbestos affected families, could indicate the homestretch for the battle against asbestos and negligent asbestos companies throughout the USA. As more and more companies are held responsible for asbestos illnesses and evidence of their negligence continues to mount, affected individuals and families stand a far greater chance of being heard and compensated fairly.

“How would anyone know that they’re supposed to have an asbestos survey done?” Richard said, claiming he was unaware of any asbestos testing requirements.

Galusha’s unawareness of the state’s requirements and his shock in receiving several citations for handling the project incorrectly highlight the states’s shortcomings in the ongoing efforts to decrease dangerous asbestos contamination. While strict state and federal laws exist necessitating asbestos testing and the hiring of properly licensed workers if asbestos abatement is required, knowledge of those laws and subsequently adherence to them is frighteningly slim.

As asbestos contamination proves to be a more and more serious problem, keeping property managers and owners aware of asbestos concerns and holding contractors fully accountable for proper asbestos testing should be the state’s responsibility. The light handed punishment of errant contractors and an inability to effectively spot-check the adherence of more than a tiny fraction of new renovation and demolition projects certainly contribute to the problem at large.

With diagnoses of mesothelioma, a fatal cancer caused by asbestos, still on the rise in North America and throughout the world, the cost of relaxed regulations and minimal awareness is certainly high. The Environmental Protection Agency has stated that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure, but with mesothelioma taking anywhere from a few years to several decades to fully develop the danger of asbestos often loses its sense of urgency.

For every demolition project like Galusha’s that comes under the helter-skelter scrutiny of the State Labor Department, several others are passed by. Meanwhile, Galusha will be held fully accountable for failing to procure an asbestos test and hiring contractors that weren’t properly licensed for asbestos abatement.

“We were trying to fix the town,” Galusha complained to local news agencies, “they inspect the site and they give you a permit. Nobody said anything about asbestos.”

State and federal asbestos handling regulations were put in place to help control some of the dangerous elements of asbestos removal and disposal. Asbestos, known to cause a variety of serious illnesses including the terminal cancer mesothelioma, was used frequently throughout the twentieth century as an insulating and strengthening additive in cement, tiles, wall insulation and more. Today, a licensing process exists that requires contractors to be trained on safe handling procedures before tackling asbestos removal projects.

While Tucker’s company was licensed for asbestos abatement work in Michigan, he elected to ignore many of the regulations during the project indicated in the case in order to save time and money. The demolition project, whose task was to dismantle and level a closed lumber mill, included the disposal of several asbestos wall panels. Tucker instructed his crew to destroy and remove the panels with an excavator, ignoring the regulations which require such panels to be removed by hand and constantly wet to reduce dangerous airborne asbestos dust. Several tons of the asbestos containing debris was then brought to a nearby cement recycling facility, where it was crushed and treated without knowledge of its contamination.

The mismanaged asbestos removal not only put the employees of H & M Demolition at risk, but also threatened the well being of the cement recycling plant workers and increased the risk of asbestos exposure in residential neighborhoods nearby.

Asbestos regulations and restrictions set by the EPA and each individual state are often fairly rigorous, but the process in place for assuring the laws are followed isn’t always effective. While state and federal authorities require each new construction, renovation or demolition project that could potentially include asbestos handling to be brought to their attention, they often do not have the resources to conduct more than a thin, random spot check of the procedures.

Historically, firms and individuals who fail to adhere to asbestos safe handling guidelines are simply fined and required to re-apply for an asbestos abatement license. This time, however, the U.S. District Judge presiding over the case, Judge Robert Holmes Bell, was determined to send a message.

“I am convinced that the message has to be sent out to the larger community,” he said. “This is not to be tolerated. This is also way out of bounds.”

Asbestos has been linked to mesothelioma, the disease that killed Robert Hardick, as well as lung cancer, asbestosis, and other dangerous diseases. Mesothelioma, indicated by a cancer of the soft tissue encasing the lungs called the mesothelium, is an aggressive and invariably terminal disease. While it can take anywhere from years to decades to fully develop, once it’s diagnosable the prognosis is always grim. Most people diagnosed with mesothelioma aren’t expected to live longer than six month to a year.

These days there are strict rules and regulations regarding the safe handling and disposal of asbestos containing products, but that hasn’t always been the case. Throughout much of twentieth century asbestos contamination was a commonplace working condition, in spite of the fact that suppliers were aware of its dangerous properties. The substance’s importance to various industries, wide availability, ease of fabrication and profitability made many asbestos miners and asbestos product manufacturers slow or unwilling to take measures to protect workers and consumers.

Garlock Sealing Technologies agreed to settle out of court for an unknown amount, but John Crane, Inc. chose fight and is now responsible for one half of the total damages determined by the jury, about $2.99 million.

The court’s decision in favor of Diane Hardick, the late Robert Hardick’s widow, in spite of Robert’s exposure to the substance having occurred decades ago and even his death being more than a year in the past demonstrates a rising tendency of success in litigation against big asbestos companies.

The affects of urban disasters are often a lot more complicated and far reaching than is immediately discernible. In the years after the 9/11 attacks hundreds of people made claims against New York City after developing cancers like mesothelioma from inhaling toxic dust in and around ground zero. The city failed to warn workers and others of the asbestos contained in the rubble, putting thousands of people in harm’s way when simple preventative measures could have made a life-saving difference. The claims regarding New York City’s negligence aren’t only valid, they’re swaying the sympathy of those involved in deciding the case. In fact, just recently a judge involved in the litigation against the city reportedly rejected a settlement offer of nearly $600 million, claiming that the figure was too low for the pain and suffering caused.

The United States Army was fast to act on the suspicions and anxieties of their soldiers working in Haiti. They quickly organized a laboratory analysis of the air, soil and water of various work sites around the relief effort.

While there was some concern that raw materials like tiles, cement, piping, siding and more could contain dangerous amounts of asbestos, results showed otherwise. As it turns out, airborne asbestos fibers pose virtually no threat in the areas of the Haiti relief effort that were tested.

“We collected air samples from 31 locations to see if our guys were potentially breathing anything bad,” the public health officer in charge of the testing operation said, “…everything we have been able to analyze so far has not presented a risk that is expected to be long-term, short-term or one we can’t mitigate.”

The results from the tests, while reassuring, aren’t incredibly surprising. Developing nations like Haiti don’t use asbestos products as fervently as Western nations once did. Much of that could be due to the Ally’s asbestos surplus that rose out of World War II as a result of wartime industry. Asbestos that was originally mined for use in the construction of tanks and battleships later found commercial outlets as the war industry dried up.

“In the U.S. we use a lot of fiberglass and asbestos for insulation,” the public health officer commented, “it appears that Haiti does not use asbestos as liberally as we do in the U.S.”

Regardless of why there’s so little asbestos contamination in Haiti, its absence is certainly good news for everyone involved in relief efforts there.

The EPA’s involvement came as a result of an anonymous tip-off, that as of yet has not been confirmed. Among the violations cited are the failure to remove asbestos materials before a demolition effort, the failure to properly dispose of contaminated materials, and a failure to have the work site thoroughly inspected for toxic materials. Astoundingly, the contractor responsible for the vast majority of the project is also being accused of failing to have any toxic substance professionals involved in the project at all, a violation that seems outright sloppy in today’s industrial atmosphere.

While the EPA’s claims thus far appear somewhat vague and haven’t been followed up decisively, asbestos contamination is something worth worrying about. Microscopic asbestos fibers have been conclusively linked with several respiratory conditions and several different forms of cancer, including a particularly aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs known as mesothelioma.

The asbestos in question was present at the Marcos Island Collier Boulevard work site in the form of a strengthening additive to cement piping. Quality Enterprises, the primary contractor for the highway rebuilding contract, allegedly broke up asbestos containing cement pipe and left it exposed without any sort of testing beforehand or containment measure afterwards.

Large scale asbestos exposure issues are becoming more and more commonplace. The problem does’t lie with increasingly sloppy or sly contractors as much as with increased efforts from the EPA to collect information about asbestos related projects and crack down on violators. While state and federal regulations are fairly strict on paper, the EPA’s ability to follow up with real world audits is limited to its comparatively tiny staff allocated for such projects. At present, a virtually insignificant amount of potentially hazardous projects are actually audited for proper adherence to safety regulations.

While incidents such as the Marco Island Collier Boulevard project may seem sporadically uncovered and ill-handled, they may be the kind of stimulus the EPA needs to step up its game.

Some one hundred medical and political professionals recently held an anti-asbestos rally on parliament hill in Ottawa, an occurrence which in itself heralds a substantial change in position of influential persons involved in the debate.

The few medical professionals and politicians of Quebec who have chosen to speak out against asbestos products are far from alone. The international community stands in the background, egging on an industrial reformation with nonstop confirmations of the danger of asbestos from just about every point of view including medical, economical and political.

The asbestos industry’s spokespersons in Asbestos, Quebec, have been standing behind unfounded evidence and shoddy excuses for decades. They claim that the specific type of asbestos mined in Quebec, chrysotile, is less dangerous than other forms and with care can be used safely.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has been pleading for a world wide ban on every type of the substance, claiming just last week that “all types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs).”

The former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States agrees, saying in a report published last year that “the chrysotile lobby relies on misinterpretations, false claims, and undocumented statements to advance its global propaganda campaign for the continued use of chrysotile asbestos. . . . Blow away their smoke . . . and truth emerges for all to see: asbestos is deadly . . . and the continued use of chrysotile is unconscionable.”

The timing of all of these developments couldn’t be more dramatic. The asbestos industry officials in Quebec have just requested another loan from the government. If the loan is approved another underground asbestos mine will be dug potentially uncovering thirty years worth of exports, a quantity of asbestos that will seal Quebec’s position as the developed world’s number one exporter.

The loan is venomously opposed by many, and a letter has been sent to the government outlining as much with fifty signatures of well known doctors, scientists, and other notable personages living in and around Quebec.

While this particular decision may not be the one to decide the fate of the asbestos industry in North America, it’s fairly clear that officials in Asbestos, Quebec are fighting an uphill battle.

Investigators believe that Saverio was falsifying toxic substance documents for at least a decade and that hundreds of buildings were issued incorrect reports. While he’s currently free on bail, Todaro could face more than five years of prison for his crimes.

Toxic substance reports are a necessary procedure during the renovation and demolition of certain buildings built in the years before substances like lead and asbestos were more heavily controlled. If a building tests positive for one of many toxic substances, it’s the owners responsibility to have the substances professionally removed and disposed of before proceeding with the project for the benefit of public health and welfare.

Yesteryear’s toxic construction materials can be incredibly hazardous. Asbestos, for example, which was used frequently as insulation, roofing, flooring and more in years past, can cause a variety of respiratory complications as well as mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal cancer.

Asbestos exposure can occur very easily during renovation or demolition of buildings that made use of the dangerous substance. The crumbly, dusty mineral easily releases microscopic particles into the air when disturbed, which can then be breathed by passersby quite unknowingly. Diseases like mesothelioma can take decades to develop from initial exposure, making the danger that they pose subtle and difficult to trace.

Officials investigating Saverio’s case are concerned that he may have been motivated to falsify the reports by bribes or other less direct compensation. Hiring properly licensed professionals to remove asbestos, lead and other toxic substances can be very expensive, often representing the largest portion of a total renovation bill. Avoiding or drastically reducing these costs could certainly constitute a motivation to participate in falsifying documents on the part of a building’s owner.

The Manhattan U.S. attorney said of the case: “Todaro’s guilty plea is not the end of the story, this investigation is very much ongoing.”

Investigators hope to uncover whether Todaro acted completely alone in his crimes or worked with other individuals or agencies.

Todaro presented fraudulent documents to all of the agencies involved in ensuring safe practices are observed during renovation, demolition and construction projects. The ease with which he deceived New York’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Buildings, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has caused some concern regarding the relaxed state of toxic substance control.

New York’s Department of Environmental Protection has stated that it hopes to increase lead and asbestos testing audits as a result of Todaro’s case and others like it. With only a handful of staff inspectors, the department has traditionally only been able to follow up on a tiny fraction of the roughly twenty five or thirty thousand toxic substance reports filed each year.

Bobby Evans worked for the state for almost twenty five years. A portion of his duties included cutting cement water pipes to the appropriate sizes using a powerful abrasion saw. Bobby was unaware that the cement pipes he worked with contained asbestos fibers used as a strengthening agent, because CertainTeed, the supplier of the pipes, failed to warn their consumers of that fact. The prosecution demonstrated that while CertainTeed was well aware of the dangers of asbestos as early as the 1960’s, they failed to mark their products and warn their customers accordingly until some twenty five years later in 1985.

Mesothelioma, the disease that Rhoda later developed, is an aggressive and terminal cancer linked directly with exposure to asbestos dust. When microscopic asbestos fibers are released into the air they can become unintentionally inhaled or even ingested. The fibers’ unique, thread like shape make them incredibly difficult for the body to properly collect and dispose of using mucus membranes and other normal methods. Asbestos fibers are so tiny that they pass directly through lung or intestinal walls and become caught up in a protective lining in the chest and abdominal cavity known as the mesothelium. The mesothelium responds to the fibers by scarring, which, after years or even decades can eventually develop into malignant tumors.

Asbestos companies have been aware of the dangers of the substance since as early as the 1920’s. The importance of asbestos to a variety of industries as well as its profitability motivated many companies to downplay its inherent health hazards. It was more than half a century later in the 1980’s when many nations including the United States began recognizing asbestos as a toxic substance.

The Central District Los Angeles Superior Court jury revealed their record setting decision last week. In addition to awarding Rhoda $8.8 million in compensatory damages, they required CertainTeed to pay an additional $200 million in punitive damages.

CertainTeed claims that the punitive damages are unconstitutional, and that they will fight the verdict and the award.

“The NSW Government’s Cancer Institute has been awarded a major contract to manage and operate a national register of mesothelioma cases on behalf of the Commonwealth Government,” said Premier Kristina Keneally about the project.

“The Cancer Institute is recognized as a national leader in the management of cancer registries and will manage the new registry with a consortium including the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Sydney, the Asbestos Disease Research Institute and the Western Australian Cancer Registry.”

The new registry was launched by the New South Wales Minister Assisting the Minister of Health Frank Sartor, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Julia Gillard, and Kristina Kineally, the New South Wales Premier. Combining management by a consortium of organizations led by the Cancer Institute of New South Wales, and participation by a variety of Australia’s leading asbestos illness specialists, the registry hopes to improve the world’s understanding of the disease as well as its effectiveness at combating it.

Mesothelioma is a rare and terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. At one time, Australia had the highest asbestos consumption per capita in the world, a fact which is certainly connected to their current struggle with asbestos related diseases. While Australia and many other nations have effectively banned the use of the dangerous substance, a wide variety of developing nations still import asbestos products and use them with little or no safety precautions.

The establishment of the Australian Mesothelioma Registry will help to amass evidence of asbestos’s ill health effects, and could play an important role in the ongoing international debate concerning the appropriate restrictions for asbestos products.

Troy Loften suffers from asbestosis, a crippling disease caused by asbestos exposure which attacks the lungs and causes severe respiratory difficulty as well as general pains and weakness. In addition to being reliant on a 24 hour supply of oxygen, he also suffers from a severely diminished quality of life and a much greater risk of developing mesothelioma or another fatal cancer triggered by asbestos.

The lawsuit against CP Chem showed that Troy was required to handle large amounts of materials that contained dangerous amounts of asbestos. One product in particular, a material known as Flosal, was often shipped to Troy and his co-workers in 50 lb bags; they were then required to dump the dusty contents into other equipment by hand. Flosal, as was shown in the lawsuit, contains asbestos dust, and this dumping process thoroughly contaminated the air with microscopic asbestos fibers which are incredibly dangerous when inhaled.

While regulations for enforcing the safe handling of asbestos were not in place until the late 1980’s, the health concerns associated with the substance have been around for nearly one hundred years. Medical studies published as early as the 1920’s and 1930’s noted scarring of the lungs in asbestos factory workers, and by the middle of the century the substance could be directly linked to various serious and even fatal diseases.

Asbestos companies worked to suppress information about the substance’s health hazards, owing to its importance in various industries and its growing profitability. These efforts effectively postponed the formation of state and federal restrictions throughout much of the twentieth century, allowing hundreds of thousands of individuals to develop serious asbestos related illnesses as a direct consequence.

Today, state and federal regulations severely limit the use of asbestos in the United States, and oversee its safe handling and proper disposal. While the laws have only been around since the late 1980’s, companies that acted wrongfully while possessing knowledge that asbestos fibers can cause disease and death can be held liable in a court of law.

Troy Loften’s successful lawsuit of a division of Conoco Phillips could very well open the floodgates for similar cases. Already, more than 700 additional lawsuits involving former employees of the oil company are pending.

Jill Dyken, a federal environmental health scientist, stated “…We don’t think the exposure is high enough that we would be able to measure elevated rates of diseases in the community.”

Residents, however, aren’t entirely convinced. Many believe that increased residential and commercial development in El Dorado Hills and throughout California could lead to levels of airborne asbestos fibers sufficient to raise concerns about mesothelioma and other serious diseases. El Dorado Hills’ county government website briefly discusses naturally occurring asbestos (NOA), saying that “When rock containing NOA is broken or crushed, asbestos may be released from the rock and may become airborne, potentially causing a health hazard.”

Other factors support the argument that NOA could create a potential health hazard. The American Cancer Society states that in the United States about one in three cases of mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal cancer linked to asbestos, are due to non-occupational exposure. Additionally, mesothelioma can take decades to develop after initial exposure to asbestos, making it difficult to draw accurate conclusions about the substance’s effects from a short term investigation such as the one the EPA conducted.

The investigations that led to the EPA’s report started some five years ago in response to a general concern that development in El Dorado Hills’ Oak Ridge area may increase airborne NOA and contaminate the local high school and other residential areas. The report allows that asbestos exposure may rise with development, but denies the necessity for a full blown investigation and effectively gives the “go ahead” to waiting contractors.

While insufficient studies have been conducted to conclusively link NOA to diseases like mesothelioma, many believe that insufficient evidence does not constitute sufficient counter evidence. The leader of a group that opposes development in the Oak Ridges area, Nadine Lauren, argues that the lack of research is simply a convenient circumstance, “a curtain a lot of people are hiding behind.”

At present, it appears that further development is on the agenda for El Dorado Hills’ Oak Ridge area. The county’s environmental management director plans to work with state and federal officials to help educate the public on minimizing asbestos exposure.

Most people are aware that working conditions have improved dramatically in the past century, but far few are likely to think about the accomplishments that have been made in modern times. Constant pressure from workers’ unions, litigation, and state, federally and privately funded public education have helped to keep workers in the United States and across the world safe from the overbearing tendencies of profiteering. Whether it’s requiring employers to properly train and certify workers who operate potentially dangerous machinery, strictly regulating dangerous substances like asbestos, or eliminating lead from the consumer products, public persistence and fortitude has always played an important part.

The establishment of health and safety monitoring organizations like the EPA and OSHA in the United States have certainly helped to control workplace incidents. A spokesperson for the West Virginia branch of the AFCL-CIO, a federation of international labor unions, recently said that “…job fatalities, injuries and illnesses have been reduced significantly as have exposures to toxic substances such as asbestos, lead, benzene and cotton dust.”

The fight to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of workers around the world continues. It’s estimated that every year some 270 million accidents occur in the workplace, and that more than 150 million people acquire illnesses related to unsafe or toxic work environments. Nearly five hundred thousand people die every year as a result of negligent exposure to dangerous substances. Of those, around a fifth are caused specifically by mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases.

Safe handling practices and other regulations and restrictions regarding asbestos were put into place in the United States in the 1980’s. Contamination incidents, however, have not been completely eliminated and diagnoses continue to rise. The future of asbestos in the workplace is far from decided. While use of the dangerous substance is unarguably declining in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and much of the European Union, several developing nations are increasing imports, lured by rock bottom prices resulting from a plummet in demand.

“A workers’ right to have a safe work environment will require further workplace safety regulations and enforcement. It is our hope that Workers’ Memorial Day will help focus greater attention on workplace conditions and further our efforts to enact safety and health legislation,” said an AFCL-CIO spokesman in regards to this coming Wednesday’s observance.

This coming Wednesday the 28th of April, keep the Workers’ Memorial Day slogan in mind: “Remember the dead, fight for the living.”

Warren Zevon, possibly best known for his 1978 hit “Werewolves in London”, was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, in 2002. He died the following year.

Jordan Zevon spoke of his dad at the sixth annual Asbestos Awareness Day not only as a legendary musician but also as a good father and a close friend. Many other people including mesothelioma patients, affected family members, scientists, doctors and researches spoke at the conference. In addition to recognizing the deep injury that the negligent handling of asbestos has caused families across America, the speakers also emphasized the shortcomings inherent in failing to ban the carcinogenic substance.

Australia, New Zealand, and many nations across the European Union completely banned asbestos years ago. Some of those nations even took the additional step of requiring public buildings to have all asbestos materials used in their construction safely removed and replaced in order to protect public health.

While the United States Environmental Protection Agency did initially instate a ban on asbestos in 1989, it was overturned just two years later when the EPA was sued by Corrosion Proof Fittings, a company that produced asbestos products. Today, while regulations are enforced at state and federal levels requiring certain safe handling and disposal procedures when handling asbestos, its use in certain products is still legal.

The ill effects of asbestos in the workplace are well known, and many organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO) have worked to decrease contamination and increase awareness of the dangers of the substance.

“The tragedy of occupational cancers resulting from asbestos, benzene and other carcinogens is that it takes so long for science to be translated into protective action,” said the Director of Public Health and Environment for the WHO, Dr. Maria Neira.

“Known and preventable exposures are clearly responsible for hundreds of thousands of excess cancer cases each year. In the interests of protecting our health, we must adopt an approach rooted in primary prevention; that is to make workplaces free from carcinogenic risks.”

The rapidly changing nature of asbestos regulations directly affects many companies in the industry, dictating their costs and even providing their clients as legal requirements for asbestos abatement and regulations regarding how its done continue to change. The ADEQ hopes that reducing the fees associated with obtaining the appropriate license to perform the work will offset the costs of the higher standards and more time consuming tests.

Environmental organizations and health agencies around the United States and the world are concerned about reducing asbestos exposure because of the health hazards that it presents. Accidentally inhaling or ingesting microscopic asbestos fibers can cause a wide variety of diseases, including the aggressive and terminal cancer mesothelioma. The risk of exposure to asbestos increases vastly during asbestos removal or any time that the substance is handled, creating the need for strict state enforced handling regulations. Mesothelioma alone claims the lives of some three thousand Americans every year.

Kendall Shelby owns a small air quality company in Fort Smith Arkansas that monitors airborne asbestos levels during asbestos abatement projects. “If it’s a small, short project, you know a clearance check is all we do,” said Kendall, “anything of larger size we’ll try to throw in a few days of air monitoring just for the benefit of the client.”

Shelby’s company is one of many that will be affected by the new regulations, but the changes are something that businesses in this industry seem to expect. “Back a long time ago we had 10, 15 guys in the field and now most companies are fairly small,” said Shelby. “As of now I have just three people out there.”

“We did this already,” Shelby said, referring making changes due to new requirements, “so it’s not any big change to some companies.”

When asked about the newest regulations being introduced by the ADEQ, Shelby said “[it will] probably cost us an additional five percent across the board to do it the way the new regulations will require us to do it, which is something I think we can live with.”

The danger of asbestos lies in its shape. Individual microscopic asbestos fibers are long and thin, somewhat like a tiny thread or needle. While the body is equipped with a variety of mechanisms for expelling foreign debris, asbestos fibers are able to slip through these defenses due to their unique shape and size. Once asbestos fibers have breached the body through accidental inhalation or ingestion, they pass through the lung or intestinal walls and become ensnared in the mesothelium, a soft tissue that surrounds many of our body’s organs. The scarring that the fibers cause in the mesothelium can eventually develop into malignant tumors that spread rapidly and cause death in some six to eighteen months.

Carbon nanotubes resemble asbestos fibers in their long, thin shape. The nanotubes are constructed by causing carbon atoms to bond in a specific configuration called an allotrope, which can be thought of as a sort of flat surface rolled into a hollow cylinder or tube. The tubes can achieve length to diameter ratios of up to 132,000,000:1, which is one of many of their attributes making them critical to the nanotechnology industry. Carbon nanotubes could potentially be used for the construction of all sorts of microscopic machines and electronic components, as well as for the development of bulletproof clothing, microscopic high yield batteries, and more.

A series of preliminary experiments conducted in the United Kingdom suggest that carbon nanotubes could cause mesothelioma or other diseases similar to mesothelioma. One study showed that injecting the nanotubes into the abdomen of mice caused the same kind of scarring found in the mesothelium of asbestos exposure patients.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the similarities between carbon nanotubes and asbestos fibers, and has begun studies which aim to identify which types of carbon nanotubes, if any, present a serious threat to human health.

While existing studies show good reason to proceed with caution, there is no conclusive evidence as of yet that links carbon nanotubes to the development of mesothelioma or other respiratory illnesses.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that develops around the lungs or abdomen in some three thousand people annually in the United States. The cancer has been conclusively linked to asbestos exposure, and is among the several asbestos related diseases that prompted the ban of asbestos products throughout much of the developed world. While asbestos restrictions in place in the United States and the European Union among other places may be effectively reducing asbestos exposure to specific populations, asbestos exposure worldwide is certainly not under control with mesothelioma diagnoses reaching an estimated ninety thousand annually.

Asbestos is used for its insulating, fire retarding, and strengthening properties, and is favored for its cost efficiency and ease of fabrication. All sorts of industrial products from pipes to cement additives to fireproof cloths are created from the dangerous substance and available to commercial markets in developing nations.

McLaren’s mesothelioma was most likely the result of asbestos exposure that occurred in his shop. His shop was constructed before the establishment of strict asbestos regulations in the 1980’s, and, according to his former partner contained asbestos board in several places. McLaren frequently performed radical renovations on the premises including tearing a large hole in the ceiling that made the shop look as if it had been hit by a bomb. These types of renovations could have resulted in airborne asbestos fibers and subsequently asbestos contamination.

Malcolm McLaren died under care in a clinic in Switzerland, but his body was returned to London for burial.

Walker developed mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive form of terminal cancer that has been conclusively linked to asbestos exposure. When individuals are exposed to asbestos fibers, the microscopic, needle like particles of the substance can enter their body through accidental ingestion or inhalation. The fibers are far too small for the body to expel using normal methods, and in time they can pass through the lung or intestinal walls and settle into the mesothelium – a protective tissue that encases our body’s organs.

Once settled in the mesothelium, asbestos fibers cause a severe tissue scarring reaction which can eventually lead to the development of malignant tumors. Mesothelioma affects around three thousand individuals annually in the United States alone, and nearly thirty times that world wide. While advances in medical science have been promising in the last few decades, the disease remains incurable and carries a dismal prognosis. Mesothelioma patients are often told that they have less than eighteen months to finalize their affairs.

Baron and Budd, P.C., represented Walker and his wife Patsy. In the release covering the verdict, the couples’ attorney John Langdoc was reported as saying “The asbestos industry has spent decades developing false science used to argue that asbestos is safe…Asbestos industry witnesses in this case continued to push asbestos industry false science that the shape or the length or even the mining location of the asbestos fibers sold by these companies meant they could not cause cancer, which has been rejected by every mainstream scientific organization in the world, and fortunately rejected by this jury.”

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs is awarding more than a billion dollars in stimulus dollars, $110 million of which will go to New York VA hospitals such as Stratton. Stratton isn’t struggling for money, and with an annual budget of nearly $200 million it may seem like $16.4 million can’t be expected to make a substantial difference for area veterans. Pich, however, says that the federal money is a real boost. The funds will be used to address some of the less critical but consistently “nagging” projects that have been shelved in preference for higher profile, more standard upkeep and improvements.

One such project is the removal of asbestos construction materials from the building. Asbestos was used to insulate pipes in the hospital, as well as for various other insulating and strengthening purposes in alignment with the construction practices of the day. It’s now known that asbestos contamination can lead to serious health complications, including the development of mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive and terminal cancer.

Mesothelioma claims the lives of some three thousand Americans every year, most of whom were exposed to the dangerous fibers in their workplace. In the past few decades, asbestos sheeting and fabrics found in roofing tiles, wall insulation, pipe insulation and other products have become a public safety concern. Federal and state regulations require that specially trained contractors are hired to properly handle and dispose of the substance to minimize exposure risks, and urge public facilities to undergo asbestos abatement as soon as possible.

“This building is over 60 years old, and certainly renovations give us the opportunity to deliver health care in an appropriate environment,” said Pich.

Nearly three million dollars will be spent on the removal of asbestos products from the building, placing it as the second most expensive individual project. The remainder of the budget will be spent on modernizing equipment, facility expansion, window replacement, new air handling units, improved laboratories, and more.

Exposure to asbestos dust can cause a variety of health complications including mesothelioma, a rare and terminal cancer that can develop years or even decades after exposure to the dangerous substance. When the microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled or ingested due to improper handling methods they can easily enter the body and pass through the lung or intestinal walls because of their unique, needle like shape. The fibers eventually become lodged in the mesothelium, a protective lining that encases the body’s organs, where it causes the soft tissue to scar. That scarring can develop into malignant tumors over years or even decades, which then spread throughout the body inevitably causing death.

According to Topeka prison inmates and the workers who were present for the abatement project in 2005, the exposure levels were far above what’s necessary to pose significant health risks. The workers were allegedly directed to clean up asbestos contaminated debris using shovels, brooms and grinders without safety training or sufficient protective gear. The workers described the amount of asbestos contaminated dust present throughout the project as “horrendous” to the EPA, claiming that it coated their clothes and even clogged the furnace’s filter several times. In addition, the workers claim that the materials being removed from the prison were not disposed of properly, but instead were simply placed into dumpsters where they would be hauled away like normal garbage. If this were true, it could create a potential health risk for sanitation workers as well.

Removing asbestos safely and properly is costly and time consuming, but it is required by law to protect the health of workers and the inhabitants or employees of the building undergoing asbestos abatement. Properly licensed asbestos abatement crews wear protective clothing and ventilators as well as follow safe handling and proper disposal guidelines that reduce the risk of exposure.

EPA investigators visited the prison earlier this year to determine whether the allegations are true. Their findings have been passed on to federal attorneys, but as of yet no legal actions have been taken against the Kansas department of corrections.

Australia introduced a complete ban on asbestos in 1991, the same year that the asbestos ban in the United States was overturned in the case of Corrosion Proof Fittings versus the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Australia’s ban, much like tightening regulations and in other developed countries around that time, followed decades of growing concern and increased public outcry about the dangers of asbestos fibers in the workplace and at home.

Exposure to asbestos fibers has been conclusively linked to several serious diseases including mesothelioma, an aggressive and incurable cancer that kills some three thousand people in the United States alone every year. When individuals are exposed to an asbestos contaminated environment, the microscopic, needle shaped fibers enter the body through inhalation or ingestion. After passing through the lung or intestinal walls, the tiny fibers become entangled in the mesothelium, a protective lining which surrounds our vital organs, where they cause the development of scar tissue. After years or even decades of lying dormant, this scar tissue can develop into malignant tumors which then spread to other organ systems.

Because of the disease’s long latency, that is, the time it takes from initial exposure to asbestos until the development of malignant tumors, mesothelioma diagnoses continue to rise worldwide. The disease’s prognosis is incredibly dismal, often granting patients less than two years to live from the time of diagnosis.

Unfortunately, while developed nations continue to tighten restrictions concerning the use of the dangerous mineral, many developing countries are filling the vacuum created in the demand for asbestos products. Countries such as India, Mexico and China continue to use asbestos products with little or no safety precautions, ensuring a redoubled struggle with mesothelioma in future generations.

Jason Wilder, the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union organiser for the workers in Edinburgh, was concerned about the efficacy of the safe handling and disposal procedures used by the various contractors. “The workforce is not confident in those procedures,” he said,”there seems to be quite a significant amount of asbestos in that area built up over the years.”

The redevelopment of the base will include the construction of new laboratories, a new air traffic control tower, and a new hospital.

Mesothelioma is a tragic, preventable disease often connected with negligent exposure to asbestos products or fibers. Asbestos fibers enter the body most commonly through ingestion or inhalation and slip by the body’s defenses against foreign debris due to their microscopic size and unique, needle like shape. After passing through the lung or intestinal walls, the fibers eventually come to rest in the mesothelium, a protective soft tissue that encases our vital organs. Once lodged in the mesothelium, the fibers cause severe scarring which after years or even decades can develop into malignant tumors. Once diagnosed, mesothelioma sufferers are rarely expected to live more than two years.

Dick Enberg, a friend of Olsen’s and fellow sports broadcaster said of this of him:

“God doesn’t create perfect men, but he came mighty close when he brought us Merlin Olsen… How privileged I was to call his games as an All Pro, Hall of Famer-to-be Los Angeles Ram, and then to work at his side in the broadcast booth for 12 years.  He was meticulous and thorough in his preparation, lessons he had learned as an all A student in high school and college. He was perhaps the brightest to ever play his position in the NFL.  He was just as generous as a broadcaster as he was tough as a defensive tackle.  I was privileged to be his TV colleague and his friend.  I seriously doubt that I shall ever meet another that will measure up to his complete character.  He was every part of a gentle giant.”

Unfortunately, mesothelioma takes the lives of some three thousand Americans every year, and nearly thirty times that worldwide. While mesothelioma is incurable, it is preventable through the banishment of asbestos from the home and work place and the enforcement of strict safe handling regulations when handling the substance cannot be avoided. As mesothelioma diagnoses in the USA continue to rise, more and more industries and manufacturers are under suspicion of negligent practices involving asbestos production and distribution throughout the twentieth century.

Asbestos manufacture is illegal in most developed nations at present, and strict handling regulations are in place that help to protect innocent lives.

Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. The body’s normal defense mechanisms are unable to expel the microscopic, needle like fibers, and upon ingestion or inhalation they pass through the lungs or intestines and become lodged in a protective soft tissue known as the mesothelium. The asbestos fibers cause tissue scarring which can develop into malignant tumors over the course of years or even decades.

Dr Joachim Aerts and his colleagues have performed valuable research which shows that a cancer patient’s own immune system can potentially be employed to help destroy malignant tumors. Previous tests caused mice with cancerous tumors to develop the antigens necessary to combat their disease.

The new vaccine interacts with patient’s dendritic cells to help produce the antigens to the cancerous tumors in a patient’s mesothelium. Dr Joachim, a lung specialist at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Holland, and the author of the study, hopes that his approach will allow a patient’s own immune system to defeat the disease. If treatments such as this one prove to be successful, the need for conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy that weaken and sicken the patient could be reduced.

According to Dr Joachim, employing a patient’s own immune system in the battle against their mesothelioma is part of a fairly new branch of cancer treatment known as immunotherapy. The new vaccine shows that the concept is viable and takes steps towards providing a less strenuous treatment alternative to current conventions that cause far fewer side effects. Patients with mesothelioma are rarely expected to live more than two years; Aerts hopes that treatments such as this could improve those numbers and provide some new hope for mesothelioma patients and their families.

Aerts addressed some of the possible drawbacks of the new vaccine, mentioning the complication presented by immunosuppressive disorders and the body’s struggle in study participants to deliver the newly developed antigens effectively to the site of the tumor. The scarring of the patient’s mesothelium and the tumor itself often create an environment somewhat isolated from body systems which reduces the treatments efficacy. Despite these concerns immunotherapy for mesothelioma continues to show considerable promise.

Asbestos was used as both a fire retardant, general construction material, insulator, and strengthening and bonding additive for other raw materials throughout much of the twentieth century. The mineral’s availability and ease of fabrication into a variety of different forms made it ideal for an array of applications in several different industries. Although asbestos’s dangerous effects on the human body were discovered and documented as early as the 1930’s, it was nearly fifty years after that before regulations defining its safe use and handling began to become commonplace. Today, asbestos is either completely banned from being mined, imported and exported, or heavily restricted in almost all developed nations.

Asbestos fibers have been shown to cause a variety of health complications, including mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive and fatal cancer that develops most commonly in the chest or abdominal cavity of its victims. When asbestos fibers are either inhaled or ingested, the human body’s regular defenses are unable to contain and remove the microscopic, needle like particles. The fibers pass through the walls of the lungs, stomach or intestines, and become lodged in the mesothelium, a soft tissue that lines our body’s vital organs. The accumulation of these fibers in the mesothelium causes internal scarring which can develop into malignant tumors over time. The process of developing malignant tumors can take several decades from the time of initial asbestos exposure, making the disease difficult to diagnose and lending to its dismal prognosis. Most patients diagnosed with mesothelioma can expect to live no more than eighteen months.

The lawsuits filed by Mr. Wood, Mr. Kontra and their wives jointly implicate more than 150 different companies. Among the more well known of these are General Electric Company, Ford Motor Company, 3M Company, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. News sources in the area report that the lawsuits accuse the companies of “negligence, contaminated buildings, breach of expressed/implied warranty, strict liability, intentional tort, conspiracy, misrepresentations and post-sale duty to warn”.

Many asbestos related diseases are known for their remarkably long latency period, or the time it takes from exposure to asbestos until malignant tumors form and are detectable. This latency period, which can be several years and often even decades, normally obscures efforts to effectively understand asbestos’s role in acquiring diseases like mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal cancer caused by asbestos fibers. Documenting the health of former mine employees for more than thirty years allowed the researchers to capture useful information concerning the direct link between asbestos exposure and the development of rare cancers.

The study concluded that former employees of the Balangero mine were far more likely to contract mesothelioma of both the chest and abdominal cavity, and that their deaths were likely to occur at a far younger age than average. Each case of mesothelioma which occurred in the former miners was diagnosed more than thirty years after their first exposure to the substance.

Studies like these are helping to tighten restrictions regarding the use of asbestos products. While many developed nations have already either banned or heavily regulated the mineral, developing nations such as India, China, Mexico, Bangladesh and more still import asbestos heavily.

In fact, with the sudden disappearance of demand for asbestos from developed nations over the past two decades, the remaining developed nations that continue to manufacture the substance have increased their exports to countries like Mexico in order to retain profits. The researchers who conducted the study suggest that the manufacture, distribution, and importation of asbestos should be completely outlawed in Mexico to curb the rising trend of obtaining the fatal cancer through workplace and inner city exposure. Asbestos products, however, are an incredibly cheap and effective solution for many aspects of the construction and other industries, which is likely to be a huge obstacle in passing laws that outlaw its use.

The researchers involved in the study were seeking to discover just how many cases of mesothelioma in Mexico were due to exposure originating in the workplace. In a manner very much like that of the United States’ throughout the end of the 20th century, the general awareness of asbestos related health risks and the efforts to reduce workplace exposure are virtually nil. As a result, a vast amount of laborers in Mexico that work in industrial manufacturing, construction, metallurgy and other industries are exposed to the dangerous asbestos fibers almost daily.

In order to more clearly understand the rising mesothelioma problem in Mexico, the researchers spoke with nearly 500 workers who lived in Mexico city or in the surrounding metropolitan area. They discussed the workplace conditions with the interviewees in an effort to discover what average asbestos exposure in their industries were, and subsequently determine the amount of risk to the worker’s good health. As it turned out, about one fifth of those individuals interviewed were already diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Laws that either ban asbestos or place rigid regulations enforcing its safe handling and proper transport and disposal are unlikely to be passed in the near future in Mexico or other developing nations that import and implement the substance. Supplying nations such as Canada and Russia provide constant pressure to sway international laws regarding the substance’s exportation, and in an effort to quickly and efficiently construct homes, goods and infrastructure, many developing nations are glad to import it.

Mesothelioma is indicated by malignant tumors of the mesothelium, that is, the soft tissue that encases and protects many of our vital organs. The devastating cancer has been linked with exposure to asbestos fibers, and while the disease can take up to half a century to fully develop, all persons that have been exposed to the dangerous substance are at risk.

When asbestos fibers are either inhaled or ingested, the microscopic, needle like particles are not detained by our body’s normal defenses for inorganic foreign irritants. The fibers pass through the lungs or digestive tract and eventually become lodged in the mesothelium where the tissue begins to react by scarring. This scarring can eventually form dangerous, malignant tumors which can be difficult to detect with conventional methods, contributing to the disease’s difficult diagnosis.

Photodynamic therapy is an exciting development and a promising potential treatment option. The therapy uses a non-toxic, photosensitizing compound to target cancer cells and cause them to become vulnerable to visible light. Affected tissues are then exposed to light – usually during surgery – which destroys the targeted cancer cells. Unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, PDT targets cancer cells specifically rather than just areas of the body affected by the tumor. This means that far less damage is done to normal, healthy cells which greatly detracts from the debilitating weakness and general lethargy that normally follows conventional treatments.

More than 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. The disease is infamous for its grim prognoses; patients with a positive mesothelioma diagnosis are often expected to live for no more than about two years. Asbestos, the substance that causes the disease, while banned in most developed nations including the European Union is still used in the United States. Strict regulations, however, are applied to encourage its safe handling in the USA. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of asbestos products are still used freely in developing nations as industrial insulation, fire retardation additives, and strengthening additives in cement and other building materials.

Researchers and medical professionals are constantly working to improve existing mesothelioma treatments and discover new, potentially more effective treatments such as photodynamic therapy.

Asbestos removal has become a fairly standard part of modern renovations in both the commercial and residential sectors. Products made from asbestos fibers were used throughout most of the 20th century for insulation and fire retardation purposes, in spite of the fact that it was found to be hazardous to human health as early as the 1930’s. In 1989 the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule intended to completely bar asbestos products from being used in any form in the United States. The rule was overturned just two years later in 1991, possibly due to the prevalence of the substance’s use throughout the construction, manufacturing, and refining industries, resulting in strict regulations which aim to reduce human exposure to asbestos without completely banning products that contain the mineral.

Asbestos exposure occurs when microscopic asbestos fibers are either inhaled or ingested by occupants of buildings which contain the substance. The tiny fibers can become lodged in the mesothelium, a protective soft tissue which encases our vital organs, accumulating over time and causing sever internal scarring. Mesothelioma, an incurable and aggressive cancer that claims some 3,000 American lives annually, refers to the development of this scar tissue into malignant tumors. While palliative care options including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery are available to mesothelioma patients to improve their quality of life, the prognosis for the cancer is fairly dismal and often predicts that patients have no more than about eighteen months to live.

Mesothelioma is difficult to diagnose due to its general, flu like symptoms and its incredibly long latency period – or time that normally elapses between exposure to asbestos and development of the disease. Modern regulations concerning the abatement of asbestos materials during municipal, commercial and residential renovations is a good step towards avoiding an increase of mesothelioma diagnoses in the coming years.

The Cass Street Bridge, conducting an estimated 12,000 vehicles to their destinations daily, is now open to the public. The total renovations, including asbestos removal efforts, cost nearly two million dollars.

“There is asbestos,” said Gary Bird, the Eureka emergency response team spokesperson, “and because the plaster is loose, there could be airborne asbestos.”

Asbestos insulation was used fairly commonly just two decades ago, and in normal circumstances it doesn’t present a health hazard to a building’s occupants. More recent legislature has imposed strict regulations on its usage in all kinds of industries, due to the fact that it has been linked with several types of cancers. The substance can be incredibly dangerous when inhaled or ingested, and while that’s very unlikely in a building that’s in good condition, damage to a building’s walls, floors or ceilings could cause the asbestos to be exposed.

After entering the body, asbestos fibers can become lodged in a tissue which lines many of our vital organs called the mesothelium. The tiny, sharp, needle like fibers can cause extensive scarring in those tissues, which over time could contribute to the development of malignant tumors. Mesothelioma, the cancer indicated by malignant tumors of the mesothelium, is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure and claims some 20,000 people’s lives across the world every year. Mesothelioma is aggressive and incurable, generally claiming its victims within about 18 months of diagnosis.

While no steps have been taken as of yet, Gary Bird says that the City of Eureka plans to completely repair the auditorium. Libby Maynard, the executive director of The Ink People, says that her agency has helped the council in the past, and mentioned that “It all comes around.” At the present, however, all of The Ink People’s programs have been suspended due to their new offices being far smaller than the Eureka Municipal Auditorium.

Asbestos is an industrial insulator that was mined and fabricated throughout the 20th century for use in a variety of industries. In the 1980’s it became widely restricted and regulated by government mandates, due to the fact that it’s hazardous to human health, and potentially fatal. Before the restrictions on its use were put in place, asbestos insulating board, fabric and other asbestos materials were used frequently as an incredibly effective fire retardant and thermal insulator.

Inhaling or ingesting the microscopic asbestos fibers can lead to them becoming lodged in various soft tissues throughout the body. The sites where the fibers come rest inside the body can experience severe scarring, which, over a long period of time can develop into malignant tumors. Mesothelioma, a cancer described by malignant tumors forming on the mesothelium (a soft tissue which surrounds many of our organs), is an incredibly aggressive and incurable cancer linked almost exclusively to asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma kills thousands of Americans every year, often taking their lives less than two years following diagnosis.

Evergreen Construction of Springfield will be handling the portion of the renovation contract that includes asbestos abatement procedures. The contracting company will receive $14,000 to replace the administration building’s floor at the water pollution system control facility. The existing floor is constructed of vinyl tiles reinforced with asbestos fibers, and will be safely demolished and removed before being replaced with newer, asbestos free floor tiles. State and federal regulations require specially licensed contractors to be hired for portions of renovation work that include handling asbestos. These regulations help to protect the health of workers and nearby residents.

Michael D. Bissonnette, the Mayor of Chicopee, is also planning $50,000 in equipment repairs at the local sewer plant. Stanley W. Kulig, the public works superintendent said, “This work represents a proactive maintenance repairs that will prevent the conditions to deteriorate into a larger project.”

The former Harrison hospital contains many different kinds of asbestos insulation, now understood to be a serious threat to human health, and will need to have the dangerous substance removed before renovations can continue. Asbestos remediation is a necessary part of many renovation and reconstruction projects in order to keep the construction workers and nearby residents safe from exposure to asbestos fibers that can lead to death. Many industries throughout the United States including construction made use of various products fabricated from asbestos until the late 1980’s when its use was banned due to health concerns. Asbestos was used in many forms such as pressed boards, fabrics, and blown insulation and was often installed in crawl spaces, attics and walls for insulation and fire retardation.

Exposure to asbestos fibers has been shown to cause mesothelioma, an incurable and aggressive cancer that kills thousands of Americans each year. Mesothelioma occurs when scar tissue in and around the mesothelium, a soft tissue which encases many of our organs, begins to form malignant, spreading tumors. The cancer’s prognosis is incredibly poor, with patients often expected to live no more than two years beyond diagnosis. Diagnosing the cancer can be very difficult as well, not only because of its rarity but also because its pre-tumor symptoms resemble those of far more common ailments.

Asbestos must become lodged in the mesothelium in order to become a threat, which normally occurs through inhalation or ingestion of the tiny, needle-like fibers. Most asbestos insulation isn’t dangerous because it’s so unlikely that a building’s inhabitants will be exposed to the fibers; during renovations, however, the fibers are upset by demolition and can become airborne. Specialized contractors, often licensed specifically for handling asbestos, are required by law to perform asbestos abatement in renovation projects that deal with contaminated buildings.

The former Harrison County hospital will have its asbestos insulation removed by the Midwest Services Group, reportedly under contract for nearly half a million dollars. AML Inc will hire other subcontractors to handle plumbing, electrical wiring, and other components of the renovation. James Goldman, president of the Harrison County Commissioners, hopes that the entire project will be complete by January 2011.

Asbestos related diseases have been in the public eye for some time now, and yet many states in the United States continue to encounter asbestos contamination not only in antiquated buildings and homes, but also in new construction projects. Mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal cancer linked to asbestos exposure, is just one of many threats posed by exposure to asbestos fibers that contaminate air or drinking water.

The United States is one of the last developed nations in the world that has failed to completely ban asbestos. While the Asbestos Ban and Phase Out Rule which called for a complete ban was passed more than twenty years ago in 1989, it was almost immediately overturned leaving America with strict regulations on asbestos use rather than a full force ban. These regulations mean that while it’s legal to use some asbestos products in industrial applications such as road construction, safe practices and strict maximums of the substance’s occurrence in construction have been put into place.

The FDEP suspects that Posen Construction may be using more than the legal limit of asbestos and asbestos products in the Summerlin overfly construction project. The contracting firm has been reprimanded in the past for illegal asbestos use, and were even forced by law to bring one of their work sites and the associated project into compliance with state asbestos regulations just a few years ago.

“If you look in close, you can see the fibers up in here and that’s usually an indication of asbestos,” said the FDEP’s Sherrill Culliver earlier this week, “I won’t be sure until I get my results back. But professionally, we’ve come across this a lot.”

The Summerlin overpass will remain on hold until the FDEP is certain that the construction conditions are safe. If amounts of asbestos are found in excess of the legal limit for this type of project, the firm will face fines and the potential for further legal action.

“It hurt our economy when we lost the Fostoria,” said Hendershot, “it had 700 to 800 employees at any one time. So that was a major dent in our employment. The developers on site have taken down an additional five buildings and it’s very visible the change in the site now.”

While asbestos is no longer widely used in the USA and other developed nations, historically it was a popular insulating material used in industrial processes where extreme heat was involved, such as firing glassware. In the Fostoria Glass Company, asbestos fabrics, gloves and other protective wear were used to keep workers safe from burns while pressing or etching molten glass, while asbestos insulation was used to protect furnaces and other parts of the buildings. With the discovery and popularization of asbestos’s hazards to human health, many states require that specialized firms handle the removal and proper disposal of asbestos from old buildings and homes.

Mesothelioma is one of many asbestos related diseases that often haunts those exposed to asbestos fibers in their youth. The cancer attacks the mesothelium, a protective tissue which encases our bodies’ vital organs, and most often occurs in the chest and abdominal cavities. Mesothelioma is aggressive and incurable; its prognosis is fairly dismal, often giving patients no more than about two years to live. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been known to reduce the symptoms of the cancer in some cases, although they are rarely able to force it into remission.

“We’re hoping to have the preliminary remedial action plan ready by mid-January. We’ll have to submit that to the [Department of Environmental Protection] for approval,” said Hendershot, “but we’re hoping that we’ll be able to keep this process moving quickly now.”

A few short years later in 1930 doctors in the United States cited tumors from asbestos related diseases as the cause of death in several autopsies, marking the first times that asbestos related deaths were officially recorded. In the same year many persons working in the asbestos mining and milling industry began filing worker’s compensation claims. These events incited a reaction from the asbestos industry, which began actively denying the risks of the substance to protect their profits. The industry officials often went as far as paying off victims in return for not going public with their disease, editing investigative reports and launching huge and expensive counter-campaigns to maintain the public’s acceptance and approval of the industry. Many of these practices still go on today.

Today mesothelioma, a terminal cancer caused by asbestos exposure, is diagnosed roughly 3,000 times every year in the United States alone, and the diagnoses are growing. The obvious dangers of asbestos and the irresponsibility of the asbestos industry have led to the shutdown of an overwhelming majority of asbestos mining operations, and bans and strict regulations concerning safe handling of the substance being instated. Considering the fact that asbestos is so obviously a hazard to human health, it makes sense that many governments across the world have called for a total ban on the substance in every industry. Oddly, that’s not the case in Canada.

Since the early 1980’s, Ottowa, Canada has spent more than $20 million on PR campaigns bent on improving asbestos’s acceptance by the public. The campaigns are, overall, fairly effective, as Canada remains the world’s second largest asbestos producer. Thetford Mines, Quebec, is the home of the largest asbestos mining operation on all of North America, as well as a population of 26,000. Canada itself still maintains fairly strict regulations on the use of the substance withing the country; the vast majority of the asbestos and asbestos products are exported to poorer, developing nations that cannot afford safer building materials.

An important component of the new measures is a law that will prevent demolition and asbestos abatement projects from being carried out at the same time in the same building. The combination of an ever improving understanding of asbestos exposure risks and recent tragedies encountered by the New York Fire Department are, in large part, responsible for the new law. The bill will help to keep fire escape routes clear by avoiding the clutter inherent in demolishing and performing asbestos abatement at the same time. In addition to simply reducing the amount of debris and equipment in a building, the law will also reduce asbestos exposure by ensuring that only individuals wearing protective gear are present while asbestos is being handled. Before the institution of these new practices, it was commonplace for demolition crews without dust masks or respirators to be present while the asbestos crews worked.

Another piece of the new bundle of laws will simultaneously require contractors to pass stricter, more thorough exams before being granted asbestos abatement licenses, while reducing the incidents of asbestos abatement without the proper license and ensuring that contractors have the information they need available to them to prepare for and take the exam. The exam will cover the new practices which are now required in asbestos abatement work such as new, safer handling procedures, proper disposal, and more.

An additional regulation will prohibit the use of matches, cigarette lighters, open flames, cigarette smoking or other tobacco use on the same floor as an asbestos abatement project. The law will help to ensure that the asbestos removal crews keep their protective equipment on while in an area contaminated with asbestos, and take their breaks in which they remove their equipment on different floors where the asbestos levels are not a health hazard.

The new regulations will help to keep both demolition and asbestos abatement crews more safe on the job, and will help lead to the decline and eventual disappearance of dangerous asbestos related diseases like mesothelioma.