Asbestos Exposure & Bans News

The annual cost of asbestos-related occupational disease in Canada is estimated at $2.35 billion, according to new findings by a panel of epidemiologists, public health experts and medical professionals. Their estimate is based on direct, indirect and quality-of-life costs related to the 2,331 patients in Canada diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos-related lung cancer in 2011….

Justice, a national retail chain marketed to young girls, has stopped selling a cosmetics product after discovering it contained talc contaminated with asbestos fibers. The government-licensed Scientific Analytical Institute (SAI) in Greensboro, North Carolina, confirmed the asbestos contamination after testing the product as part of a Durham-based WTVD-TV news investigation. The tainted product was Just…

The fight to impose tough trade restrictions on chrysotile asbestos — a toxic mineral that causes mesothelioma cancer and other serious health conditions — will have to wait at least another two years. For the sixth consecutive time, a handful of countries blocked the inclusion of the carcinogenic mineral from the Rotterdam Convention Hazardous Substances…

Fear and frustration best describes emotions felt by University of Toronto faculty and students after they say administration delayed notification that asbestos contaminated some of the university’s science labs. “The emotional experience is really devastating,” said physiology and medicine professor Adria Giacca in an interview with CBC News. Another professor, who didn’t want to be…

Deaths related to malignant mesothelioma are at a record high, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mesothelioma was the underlying or contributing cause of death on more than 45,200 U.S. death certificates between 1999 and 2015, the most recent years for which complete data is available. Annual…

While the physical symptoms of deadly asbestos contamination can take decades to develop, some Australian homeowners are feeling a more immediate and sometimes lethal form of repercussions. An Australian government survey reveals a quarter of homeowners affected by the ongoing Mr. Fluffy asbestos crisis in Canberra have mental health issues, some as serious as suicide,…

Ireland’s annual number of deaths from mesothelioma cancer is expected to double by 2020, despite prohibitions on the use of asbestos and increased efforts to combat its lingering dangers. The continued rise is a growing concern as a younger workforce emerges without the experience to properly identify the toxic mineral. “There is this misperception here…

A case in the British High Court alleges a man posed as a sympathetic documentary filmmaker to infiltrate workers’ rights groups campaigning against asbestos, the toxic mineral linked to mesothelioma and other diseases. Rob Moore is accused of acting as part of a worldwide espionage plan to gain secrets from organizations working in key countries…

An $80 million asbestos settlement involving two former Jackson County courthouse employees led to Missouri’s largest medical monitoring fund established in an asbestos case. The class-action asbestos lawsuit settled more than 30 years after a renovation exposed thousands of government workers to deadly asbestos fibers. Jackson County and Kansas City-based U.S. Engineering, the firm responsible…

A study analyzing mesothelioma incidence rates in Eastern China produced unusual findings, contrasting significantly from statistics of the asbestos-related cancer in the U.S. Reported incidence rates in China are significantly lower than the U.S. Only 15 percent of cases examined in the study were linked to asbestos exposure, the overwhelming cause of mesothelioma in most…