Archive for July, 2007

The family of a late Port Neches (TX) refinery worker is suing Chevron USA and Texaco for negligently exposing their benefactor to asbestos during his employment at a plant there.

According to an article in the Southeast Texas Record, Lee Robinson Sr. worked as an operator for Neches Butane, where he allegedly contracted an asbestos disease, “specifically lung cancer, for which he died a painful and terrible death on Dec. 14, 2006.”

The suit was filed on behalf of Lois Robinson and her children Jeanie, Lee and Stephen, with the Jefferson County District Court. It states that “during Robinson’s employment as an operator, he used and was exposed to toxic materials including asbestos dust and/or fibers. As a result of such exposure, Robinson developed an asbestos-related disease, specifically lung cancer”.

Like most asbestos suits, this one also alleges that the oil giants knew of the dangers of working with asbestos but allowed their employees to continue without regard for their health or safety. The suit also states that Chevron USA and Texaco “failed to take the necessary engineering, safety, industrial hygiene and other precautions and provide adequate warning and training to ensure that the deceased was not exposed to the asbestos-containing products.”

A former pipefitter and welder who is dying from asbestos-caused mesothelioma has filed suit against 114 defendant corporations, alleging that his disease was wrongfully caused.

According to an article in the Madison County (IL) Record, James Weese worked as a pipefitter and welder from the early 1940s until the early 1990s at several locations throughout Illinois. Weese’s suit claims that during the course of his employment, he was “exposed to and inhaled, ingested or otherwise absorbed asbestos fibers emanating from certain products he was working with and around.”

Among the corporations named in the suit are many recognizable names, including Alcoa, CBS, Discount Auto Parts, Dow Chemical, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Goodyear, Honeywell International, Ingersoll-Rand, John Crane, Owens-Illinois, Pabst Brewing, Sears and U.S. Steel.

“The plaintiff’s exposure and inhalation, ingestion or absorption of the asbestos fibers was completely foreseeable and could or should have been anticipated by the defendants,” the complaint states.

Weese also alleges that the defendants included asbestos in their products even when adequate substitutes were available and failed to provide any or adequate instructions concerning the safe methods of working with and around asbestos. He seeks damages to help pay for the cost of his treatment as well as punitive damages for pain and suffering.

Residents who live near a Cheyenne (WY) building lot strewn with asbestos are livid about a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state Department of Environment Quality (DEQ) decision to monitor the lot’s air quality rather than clean it up.

According to an article in the Billings (MT) Gazette, state and federal regulators have released a plan for testing whether a lot containing asbestos is releasing the cancer-causing substance into the air. The two agencies have announced that they will set up air monitors downwind of exposed debris piles known to contain asbestos. The first air monitors should be set up by the end of July.

Local residents, however, are concerned that old construction materials could blow loose and release asbestos particles that will threaten their health.

M. Lee Hasenauer, who lives near the property on Lupe Road, said independent contractors who have looked at the site have recommended cleanup.

“We’re totally disappointed in the way DEQ is handling this, and we’re hoping the governor will step in,” Hasenauer told the Gazette. “What they’re trying to do is cover it up so they don’t have to spend the money to clean it up.”

The DEQ maintains, however, that the materials do not present a health hazard to residents who live in the vicinity of the lot. They claim that the asbestos is in a form that is unlikely to be released into the air or into groundwater. They add that the testing should be sufficient in determining any danger from airborne particles.

According to the article, the monitoring plan calls for placing more than a dozen air sampling devices around the perimeter of the lot and three air sampling devices upwind to see how much asbestos is in the air before it gets to the lot.

“We wanted to see if we could develop a worst-case scenario for asbestos particles in the air,” said Tim Post, project manager with the DEQ.

A legal scholar hired by attorneys suing asbestos manufacturer W.R. Grace says that the company might owe victims of its asbestos products as much as $6.2 billion.

According to a Bloomberg News article published in the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post, Columbia, Md.-based W.R. Grace and Company “may need to spend from $4.7 billion to $6.2 billion to resolve hundreds of thousands of asbestos cases over several decades,” says Mark A. Peterson, a research scientist with the Rand Corporation.

“Because Grace continued to make and sell asbestos products after other defendants quit, it now faces greater and longer-extending asbestos liability than other defendants,” Peterson said in papers filed June 20th in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

Grace also hired a consultant earlier this year to help determine their liability. That company, Analysis Research Planning Corp. of Washington, D.C., came up with a significantly lower number than the one Peterson determined. They placed the net present value of pending and future claims in the range of between $385 million and $1.3 billion through 2049.

In the face of 135,000 asbestos claims, Grace filed bankruptcy in 2001. Early next year, a trial will be held to set a value on the claims. The trial, the article points out, will be a major step towards completion of the company’s six-year-old reorganization attempts.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has determined that the combination of the chemotherapy medications Almita (pemetrexed) and the compound Platinol® (or Paraplatin®) is effective as a therapeutic treatment for patients that suffer from malignant mesothelioma. This treatment, however, is used and is most effective with people who have never previously been treated for the disease.

This type of treatment requires clinical trials in different stages of cancer. For example, a trial test in stage III was performed with over 448 patients. This test compared the combination drug with Platinol alone. The study proved that patients increased their survival rate, quality of life, and response rate. Revealing itself as the largest trial for patients who suffered from mesothelioma, it allowed Alimta to be distributed in access because of its positive results.  More than 745 patients (those who were not involved in the trial) received the treatment medication after its access had been made through the program.

Side effects included hrombocytopenia, anemia, neutropenia and leucopenia. These, however, occurred more frequently in patients who used the Almita and Paraplatin combination. Nevertheless, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. More than 64% of people increased their survival rate while being treated with Almita and Platinol. Response rates increased between 21 and 22%, depending on the medication combination used, as well as highly stabilizing more than 77% of patients involved in the treatment.

Malignant Mesothelioma is a serious, but rare, cancer that forms in the protective lining of the lungs. Those who were exposed to asbestos material in their home or workplace are most prone to developing this life threatening disease. Symptoms and complications are difficult to diagnose because of the cancer’s rarity and slow formation. Those who experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing, pain, and a decreased quality of everyday activity are at risk for a mesothelioma diagnosis. Like most cancers, mesothelioma is treated with common practices such as chemotherapy and radiation.