Archive for May, 2008

Considering the Illinois shoreline has an extensive history of asbestos contamination, the recent start of the 2008 beach season along Lake Michigan has prompted a local conservation group to issue advice on how beachgoers can minimize inhalation and ingestion of toxic asbestos fibers.

Located in Waukegan, Illinois, the Johns-Manville Asbestos Superfund Site is home to one million tons of asbestos waste. The 150-acre site was used as an asbestos disposal area and harbors approximately three million cubic yards of off-specification materials and wastewater sludge. Bordered by Lake Michigan and Illinois Beach State Park, water contaminated with asbestos fibers is periodically released from this site into the lake. Currents transport the fibers southward, which wash up along beaches stretching as far south as Chicago’s Oak Street Beach.

According to tests performed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2002, water released from the site contaminates the lake with millions of asbestos fibers per liter of water. Dredging operations located immediately offshore has compounded the problem by disturbing settled asbestos in the lake’s sediment. The disturbed fibers break free of the sediment and are subsequently washed ashore. Some of this dredged sediment was even used by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to replenish sand lost due to beach erosion at Illinois Beach State Park.

A major concern is the fact that much of the asbestos contamination is tremolite asbestos, which is considered to be several hundred times more hazardous to human health than asbestos fibers commonly found in urban settings. Exposure to tremolite asbestos has been strongly linked to the development of mesothelioma cancer. Mesothelioma is an extremely aggressive cancer that attacks the body’s mesothelial cells, which compose the mesothelium lining that protects organs and body cavities. Very few cases of mesothelioma have ever been cured, putting the mortality rate at nearly 100 percent.

Public officials have claimed the present levels of asbestos are not a threat to public health, but Jeffery Camplin, an environmental/health safety engineer and nationally known asbestos expert, refutes these claims. Requested by the Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society to review studies performed by the EPA, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), as well as a contractor hired by the Chicago Park District, Camplin found the studies were “deeply flawed and severely lacking in standardized scientific protocols.”

In an effort to help prevent future cases of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, the Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society is offering tips to beachgoers to minimize the inhalation and ingestion of potentially deadly asbestos fibers. The society advises against eating and drinking at contaminated beaches, as well as disturbing the sand in any way. Visitors of the affected beaches are also recommended to rigorously shower and clean belongings before leaving, as asbestos fibers can be found anywhere beach sand reaches. The society also warns against certain cleaning methods, such as shaking off towels or dusting shoes off, which can release asbestos fibers into the air.

Concerned beachgoers are likely wondering what, if any, activities are free from the risk of exposure to asbestos at Lake Michigan’s beaches. According to Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society President Paul Kakuris, “Waves wash fibers onto the beaches where sand releases asbestos during beach activities, exposing millions of unwitting victims to deadly asbestos fibers while corrupt public officials and polluters’ consultants rigged studies, using government funds.” Naturally, the society strongly advises against anyone visiting Lake Michigan’s contaminated beaches.

By Michelle Whitmer

On November 15, 2007, Americans tuned in to watch the Democratic presidential hopefuls debate from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Many expected Senator Hillary Clinton to bear the brunt of the offensive set forth by her rival Democratic candidates Senator John Edwards and Senator Barack Obama. While the televised debate did find her to be the designated target, the forementioned gentlemen of the Democratic party found themselves short on new “ammo” and their target claiming to be wearing a “Pantsuit made of asbestos.”

Hillary’s pun, which implied her understanding that she was in the proverbial hot seat, earned laughs from the packed auditorium and established Clinton’s departure from the vulnerable woman the media had initially portrayed to the well-prepared pundit she was now channeling. And while many understood that the Senator’s reference to her “asbestos pantsuit” was a means of ascertaining her determination and durability, some stood scratching their heads not quite grasping the full meaning of the Senator’s reference to the hazardous material in regards to her wardrobe.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring material that features heat and fire-resistant characteristics as well as excellent insulating qualities. These characteristics made it an ideal material for use in ceiling tiles, roofing materials, insulation, and thousands of other products. Despite the established dangers of asbestos, use of this hazardous mineral has not been discontinued or banned in the United States.

Senator Clinton’s proclamation that she was dressed in asbestos made for a comedic moment at the Las Vegas debates. However, it was hardly the first reference to asbestos and its potential utility in clothing. Ancient Greeks mined asbestos materials from the earth and wove them into cloth. They then used clothing made of the cloth to wrap people prior to cremation. Additionally, the asbestos cloth was woven into table coverings and napkins, which could then be cleaned by simply being tossed into the fire after a meal was finished.

Along with the fireproof abilities of its fibers, ancient cultures also recognized that many of the slaves that worked to mine and produce asbestos-containing products developed illnesses and died at young ages. In fact, many wealthy slave owners used asbestos exposure as a qualifier and refused to purchase slaves that had come in contact with the material.

Should Senator Clinton persevere to earn the nomination from the Democratic National Convention to continue her run for the presidency, many organizations stand to benefit from her economic development plans that would allocate additional funding for various educational and human safety associations, coincidentally including The Asbestos and Mesothelioma Awareness Center. However, due to her flailing presence in the current national polls, she may want to consider investing in more metaphorical asbestos-infused accessories if she is to withstand the heat.

By Kaylen Myrick

Last week, W.R. Grace & Company won an appeal it had asked for last year, concerning a ruling made by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy. Another appeal the company has asked for concerns regulations governing the types of minerals with which the company’s Libby, Montana vermiculite mine was contaminated.

The appeal last week was concerned with U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s request for a pretrial list of witnesses and evidentiary documents from the government. The request was made in connection to the government’s asbestos case against W.R. Grace & Co.

W.R. Grace & Co. was indicted in 2005 on charges of conspiring to conceal the health risks of the Libby mine and its asbestos-contaminated vermiculite for residents of the town. In March 2005, Judge Molloy set a discovery schedule for the case, giving the government approximately six months to create a final list of the witnesses and exhibits it planned to use in the trial.

However, the government continued expanding on its witness and document list well after the six month limit. In response Judge Molloy ordered in December 2005 that the government cease adding new witnesses. The government appealed, saying that Molloy’s ordered were an abuse of his discretion.

In July 2007, a panel of three 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals judges agreed, and said that the district court had stepped outside the bounds of its authority. However, W.R. Grace & Co. asked for a review by a larger panel of judges. The new panel issued their opinion last week, and upheld the orders issued by Judge Molloy.

At the same time, W.R. Grace & Co. has been appealing for another reason.

The company’s attorneys are arguing that winchite and richterite, the minerals that made up the asbestos contaminating the Libby mine, weren’t regulated by the federal government. The attorneys say that this means the company can’t be prosecuted under the federal Clean Air Act.

Again, Judge Molloy agreed with the company, and again his ruling was overturned by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. And W.R Grace & Co. is now asking that the Supreme Court reserve the decision.

W.R Grace & Co.’s petition says that the government “is trying to convict defendants of violating the Clean Air Act by releasing substances that the government itself has excluded from the list of substances covered by the act.”

The government must file a response within thirty days, after which the Supreme Court will decide whether or not it will hear the case. If the court declines, the decision will stand.

That means the trial itself might finally get started. If the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, it won’t do so until October 2008 at the earliest.

A coalition of public health experts, doctors, and consumer organizations is petitioning the federal government, asking that warning labels be added to cosmetic talcum powder products.

The petition addresses Mike Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D., the Commissioner of Food and Drugs and a former director of the National Cancer Institute.

Frequent use of talcum powder products, which are used by many women, has been linked to ovarian cancer. Women who frequently use talc in the genital region have up to a threefold increased risk of developing the cancer.

In addition, many of the same products—particularly commercial talc products—
are thought to contain traces of asbestos, which can cause mesothelioma cancers.

The coalition is currently concerned mainly with the ovarian cancer risk, and is asking that labels such as “Frequent application of talcum powder in the female genital area substantially increases the risk of ovarian cancer” be added to all talc products.

Both ovarian cancer and mesothelioma are particularly deadly because they are cancers which show few recognizable symptoms until the disease has significantly advanced.

However, while discontinuing the use of talc will significantly reduce the risks of ovarian cancer, there are other ways in which people can be exposed to asbestos, so ceasing talc use may not entirely prevent the development of mesothelioma.

The word “talc” is used to describe a wide variety of different natural minerals and rocks. Most of these are magnesium silicates. In general commercial talc is more likely than cosmetic talc to contain asbestos, but some types of consumer talc (and other products such as modeling clay) may contain traces of asbestos. An example is the talc-like powder in toy CSI fingerprint kits that were found by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization to contain traces of asbestos.

According to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances, tremolite asbestos may be present in talc (as well as in other natural deposits such as vermiculite, as in the case of the mine which once operated in Libby, Montana).

Talc producer Specialty Minerals Inc. said that “Some commercial talc may be harder because of the presence of impurities and associated minerals such as dolomite, calcite, tremolite and quartz.” These commercial preparations are used in the automobile and appliance industries, and have many other uses. Lab counter tops and electrical switchboards of ten contain the substance, and it is used as filler for insecticides, rubber, and paints.

A cruise ship known as the “MV Freewinds” is the traveling get-a-away for many of the scientologist elite and it was recently revealed it has cancer-causing blue asbestos in the ventilation system.

This cruise ship was once top secret and was the main training center for those seeking to rise to the high position of OT VII. This floating luxery ship was equipped with a gym, hospital, cinema, and disco. This was a place where scientologists paid thousands of dollars to attend courses, only to be exposed to the most lethal form of asbestos.

As of April 28, 2008, the MV Freewinds was sealed and quarantined at the Mathey warf in Otrabanda, Curacao. This, following the discovery of significant amounts of blue asbestos, was released into the ship’s ventilation system. The Curacao Drydock Company (CDM) was contracted to conduct refurbishment and repairs on the MV Freewinds, but immediately stopped work due to extreme risks.

The disturbing aspect to this mess is it sounds like some within the scientology community have known about the asbestos risks for 21 years. Lawrence Woodcraft, a former Scientologist and architect, claims that he encountered blue asbestos while working on the ship in 1987—according to a affidavit filed in 2001.

Church leaders did not consider asbestos to be a huge problem because Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had declared fiberglass as dangerous, with no mention of asbestos in his writings. Scientologists teach an alternative process as the cause of cancer, emphasizing personal choice and problems with relationships.
Anyone who boarded the ship through the duration of those 21 years should know they’ve been exposed to the most lethal form of asbestos and should consult a doctor immediately to test for mesothelioma (the cancer resulting from asbestos exposure).

The following was released by the Church of Scientology. Unfortunately, they seem to be denying any wrong doing:

‘The Freewinds regularly inspects the air quality on board and always meets or exceeds US standards. Inspections done on April 15, 2008 and April 28, 2008 again confirmed that the air quality is safe, in accordance with the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Clean Air Act.’

‘The Freewinds is currently undergoing a complete refit, including renovations of all cabins and accommodations facilities as well as upgrading all navigational and nautical safety equipment to meet or exceed future maritime codes scheduled for implementation in the year 2010. The true and accurate story is that the Freewinds is being restored to better than new condition and no expense has ever been spared in meeting the highest safety standards of any seagoing vessel. The Captain of the Freewinds is a highly respected officer who is known for his competence and for his dedication to safety at sea. He and the Freewinds have received numerous commendations from port authorities and other ships for the help they extended to the islands in ports of call, as well as the training of maritime students in maritime safety for which the Freewinds is renowned. The Freewinds will be completing its refit on schedule.’

By: Jesse Herman

Located in San Benito and Fresno counties in California, the Clear Creek Management Area (CCMA) encompasses more than 70,000 acres of breathtaking, mountainous landscape. A recreational area enjoyed by more than 35,000 visitors a year, the CCMA boasts scenic views, endemic species, multipurpose terrain, and ecological resources.

In May 2008, must to the dismay of the CCMA’s loyal visitors, more than 30,000 acres of the recreation area were temporarily closed by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The closure was prompted by the recent release of an asbestos risk assessment performed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The BLM, which initially assessed the asbestos at Clear Creek in 1992, has warned visitors of the naturally occurring asbestos since the early 1990s, and has advised against breathing dust, drinking creek water, as well as other common activities. In 2004 and 2005, as a part of an analysis of the resident Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site, the EPA conducted a battery of tests to assess the extent of exposure risk within the 30,000-acre deposit of naturally-occurring asbestos (which is the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world).

Though previous studies found high levels of asbestos in CCMA, only warnings were provided to the public until the more conclusive and encompassing assessment was released by the EPA in May 2008. According to the report, just five visits a year over the course of three decades could lead to the development of lung cancer and other asbestos-related diseases.

Despite these alarming facts, some groups are outraged at the closure of CCMA. Groups such as the BlueRibbon Coalition are already raising funds to legally challenge the closure in court. The western representative of the BlueRibbon Coalition, Don Amador, claims chrysotile asbestos (the main type of asbestos found in the area) is “not a health risk.” With 800 miles of trails, the CCMA is known as one of the top 10 areas for off-roading in the country. “We are in for a long, hard battle,” says Amador, who believes the land should be made available to the public for recreational use at any cost.

Amador’s claim that chrysotile asbestos poses no health threat to humans is not supported by scientific evidence gathered by the EPA and other federal agencies. Decades of scientific and medical analysis have long-proven that chrysotile asbestos, the most commonly used form of asbestos, is a veritable human carcinogen. In addition to chrysotile, the EPA also found tremolite and actinolite forms of asbestos within CCMA. All of these forms of asbestos are known to cause a variety of diseases, such as asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma cancer.

Currently, the BLM is working on developing a new management plan for CCMA. Rick Cooper, the BLM’s Hollister field manager, has stated the agency’s first priority is preserving public health and safety. “Based on EPA’s results, we believe a temporary closure of most of the CCMA is in the public interest and we ask for the public’s cooperation.”

Though many faithful visitors of CCMA may not be pleased with the closure, Cooper says, “With the closure in place, we will immediately move on with developing a long-term resource management plan for the area with the public’s full involvement.”

By Michelle Whitmer

The Mesothelioma Research Foundation recently announced that its National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank is now open and operative, thanks to four years worth of scientific and advocacy effort.

The Mesothelioma Research Foundation (Meso Foundation) is a collaboration of patients, their families, physicians, advocates, and researchers, and is a non-profit organization. The Meso Foundation provides patients and their families with treatment information, help, and support, and also hosts an annual symposium for people who affected with or by mesothelioma. This year’s symposium is to be held on June 26-28 in Washington, D.C.

The Virtual Bank has been create to provide institutions and medical researchers involved in investigating mesothelioma with a resource of mesothelioma tissue samples that are clinically annotated and collected in an accessible database. The new tissue bank is the first of its kind.

Christopher Hahn, Executive Director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation said, “This is a great accomplishment for those of us in the meso community. We have long advocated for federal research funding and the creation of a mesothelioma tissue bank. It is an important resource, expected to greatly advance the genetic and protein profiling of the meso cancer cell. This will further the development of mesothelioma treatment and the search for a cure. This is truly significant progress, and we are proud of the Meso Foundation’s contribution and initiative.”

The National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank is a bioinformation bank with data from mesothelioma specimens. The specimens have been described and annotated and added to a database that mesothelioma researchers can access. In addition, researchers can apply to use specimens from the tissue bank in their own mesothelioma research.

The goal of the NMVB is to help in the investigation of treatments, therapies, and ultimately, a cure for mesothelioma. The collection will particularly aid researchers in evaluating diagnostic and prognostic markers.

Researchers will be able to search the tissue bank for samples according to the stage of the disease, the types of treatment the patient received, and other categories. The tissue bank currently has more than 600 annotated cases and around 900 specimens.

A large number of organizations collaborated in their efforts to set up the tissue bank, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in association with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health contributed an initial one million dollar donation to set up the bank.

Other doctors and institutions who contributed to setting up the bank include Dr. Harvey Pass at New York University Medical Center, and Dr. Steven M. Albelda at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Both doctors are members of the Meso Foundation.

Researchers who conducted a long-term study of chemotherapy treatment for mesothelioma have said that adding chemotherapy to an active symptom-control treatment regimen for malignant pleural mesothelioma appears to have little benefit.

The research appears in the May 17 issue of The Lancet. According to researcher Richard Stephens, of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit in the U.K., the two chemotherapy regimens the research group investigated did not extend patients’ lifespans significantly and did not significantly improve quality of life.

However, a preliminary analysis of one chemotherapy drug used in the study—Vinorelbine (also known as Navelbine)—suggested the drug may have some benefits and should be further investigated. The current standard of care for people with mesothelioma is chemotherapy with Cisplatin and Pemetrexed.

The study was originally designed in the 1990s, and was planned as a comparison of various chemotherapy agents in conjunction with active symptom control. Active symptom control is the use of medications and procedures to control symptoms of pain and discomfort for people with malignant mesothelioma.

The drugs used in the trial were Vinorelbine, Mitomycin, Vinblastine, and Cisplatin.

Another trial, using Cisplatin and Ralitrexed (a drug which is no longer available) found that the combination of these two drugs did in fact provide a slightly extended lifespan.

However, the researchers found that for people who were already receiving active symptom control treatment, adding chemotherapy to the treatment regimen did not provide any statistically significant benefits.

The researchers point out that this doesn’t mean chemotherapy is useless in itself. Several studies have shown that two-drug chemotherapy treatment can extend a patient’s lifespan. In general, however, only two-drug chemotherapy can provide a benefit, whereas adding only a single chemotherapy agent to a treatment regimen has little beneficial effects.

Dr. Vogelzang, who led a trial using the Cisplatin and Pemetrexed combination, said in an article that accompanied the research report, “I believe that single-agent chemotherapy offers little to patients in the way of palliation or survival, since [active symptom control] plus Vinorelbine was statistically indistinguishable from [symptom control] alone.”

The research was financed by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, the British Thoracic Society, and the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund.

Montana – A federal appeals court has ruled that U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy’s request for a pretrial list of witnesses and evidentiary documents from the government is not an abuse of the Judge’s discretion.

The request was made in connection to the government’s asbestos case against W.R. Grace & Co. and involves public asbestos exposure in Libby, Montana, where the company once operated a vermiculite mine.

The vermiculite mine turned out to be contaminated with asbestos, and as a result more than two hundred Libby residents—including people who never worked at the vermiculite mine—have died from asbestos-related diseases, and almost two thousand residents have been diagnosed.

W.R. Grace & Co. was indicted in 2005 on charges of conspiring to conceal the health risks of the Libby mine and its asbestos-contaminated vermiculite for residents of the town.

In March 2005, Judge Molloy set a discovery schedule for the case, giving the government approximately six months to create a final list of the witnesses and exhibits it planned to use in the trial.

The government was able to meet the six month deadline, but said it would continue its investigation and “reserved the right to update its witness list and exhibit list through the close of all evidence at trial.”

The defense subsequently became concerned about the government’s witness list, the size of which continued to increase long after the six month period. In response Judge Molloy entered an order in December 2005 to limit the government’s pretrial list to “those witnesses that have been disclosed as of the filing of this order.”

Upon appealing the ruling, the government argued that the judge did not have the authority to either require or enforce the pretrial list. In addition, the government said that even if he did have the authority, the orders were an abuse of the judge’s discretion.

In July 2007, a panel of three 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals judges agreed, and said that the district court had stepped outside the bounds of its authority.

However, W.R. Grace & Co. asked for a review by a larger panel of judges. The new panel issued their opinion this week, and upheld the orders issued by Judge Molloy.

In making the ruling, the panel said, “We hold that the District Court did have the authority to issue and enforce its pretrial orders compelling the government to disclose its witness list and did not abuse its discretion in doing so.”

Neither the government nor W.R. Grace & Co. has so far commented on the new ruling.

The Environmental Protection Agency has filed a complaint against a company that it believes intends to scrap a liner that contains large amounts of asbestos and PCBs.

The company is Global Shipping LLC, based in Cumberland, Maryland. The EPA believes that the company has plans to scrap the SS Oceanic, a 682-foot liner, at a port in Gujarat, India.

The complaint was filed by the EPA in San Francisco, and was subsequently denied by Global Shipping. The EPA complaint imposes a fine of $32,500 per day.

The SS Oceanic was built in 1951 and reportedly carries 250 tons of asbestos, and 210 tons of PCBs within its framework. Both of these materials were widely used in ship-building prior to the late 1970s. Both materials are known human carcinogens, and asbestos exposure can also cause chronic lung conditions, including asbestosis.

Many environmental organizations are concerned about the possibility environmental and health effects of the dismantling of ships such as the SS Oceanic, not only because workers may be exposed to large amounts of the contaminants, but also because these toxic chemicals can be released in large amounts into soil and groundwater.

Dismantling and scrapping of ships is often done in Bangladesh, India, and China.

Founder and President of Global Shipping, Dr. Anil Sharmer, told an Indian newspaper that the SS Oceanic will not be scrapped in India, but is actually intended to be sold to buyers in Dubai or Macau. However, Sharmer said he could not confirm the current location of the ship.

The EPA, and a non-profit environmental group known as Basel Action Network, believes that the SS Oceanic is bound for a port called Alang in Gujarat, where older ships are often scrapped for their valuable steel.

However, according to Rich Vaille, the EPA’s Pacific Southwestern Region Associate Director for Waste Program Enforcement, federal law prohibits companies from exporting PCBs in any form, including in ships that are being sent overseas for scrapping.

According to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, says Vaille, companies that illegally export PCB waste in this way are circumventing U.S. requirements for safe and proper disposal of the waste.

Another EPA spokesperson, Dean Higuchi, said that the agency wants the ship to be cleaned of asbestos and PCBs before being scrapped.

In response to the EPA’s complaint, Global Shipping says that it did not have to notify the EPA before moving the ship, and also that the EPA did not ask the company what it planned to do with the ship before filing its complaint.

Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, says that workers in the Alang port who are involved in scrapping the ships are exposed to extreme hazards, and don’t have the knowledge or equipment needed to safety work on the ships. Puckett also pointed to a 2006 government survey of Alang shipyard workers that indicated one in six of the workers had developed asbestosis symptoms.