The Online Asbestos, Asbestos Cancer, & Mesothelioma Authority
Asbestos News: August, 2007
As many people are aware, asbestos was commonly found in shipyards of all kinds, including those of the U.S. Navy. Hunters Point was no exception.
It’s a tragedy, but over the past years, as middle-class working Americans have been forced to struggle in an upside-down, lopsided and dysfunctional economic system fueled by a culture of corporate greed enabled by an indifferent Congress and White House, there has been an exponential growth in the number of scams offering to ease their pain with sub-prime mortgages, “get rich on the Internet” schemes, “eliminate debt without bankruptcy,” low-cost medical insurance that winds up covering nothing, etc.
Despite a virtual media “blackout” on the issue, it is no secret that corporate interests have for the past thirty years been like a cancer on the body politic, undermining families, communities, and ultimately, American democracy, all in the name of huge profits. However, if you still don’t understand exactly why, consider the case of Florida-based Lennar, Inc., and the City of San Francisco.
When Larry Rochon of Everett Washington filed a wrongful death suit against his former employer, the county judge ruled that an employer’s duty of care in the matter of asbestos exposure did not extend to the employee’s family.
A Washington State appellate court disagrees.
An Australian study published in the journal Chest indicates that age and gender have bearing on how likely asbestos exposure is to result in mesothelioma.
Researcher Alison Reid studied residents of the town of Wittenoom, Western Australia. Like Libby, Montana, Wittenoom was the home of a major asbestos mining and milling operation.
If you were to have a problem with asbestos or any other toxic substance in your home or on your property, you’d be lucky to have Helen Rocos on the job. The 57-year old woman takes her work, and on-the-job safety, quite seriously.
Her employer did not.
For the last several days, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been checking the air for asbestos fibers around the Alviso Community in San Jose, California.
“Some of these companies are being held accountable, but it doesn’t make the whole circumstance easier to deal with… it wasn’t about money. I’d rather have my mom here.”
Those are the words of Michael Levesque. His mother died recently from malignant mesothelioma.
With news of school shootings every year sensationalized by the corporate media, it’s all too easy to overlook the far greater and much more common danger in our schools–toxic buildings.
Faculty at two high schools in Fullerton, California, reported at the end of the last academic year that school district administrators failed to issue warnings about asbestos in buildings.
In 1912, a veteran physician teaching at the University of Dresden called his students together for a special seminar. It was an opportunity for them to study the pathology of a disease so rare, the doctor had seen only one other case in forty years, and he doubted his students would ever see it again.
It’s hard to think of anyone who doesn’t enjoy the flavor of fresh summer berries off the vine, baked in a pie, made into jam, or over ice cream.
Roger Herring, a member of Asbestos Workers Local #7, worked at one of the largest private shipyards in the Pacific Northwest for twenty years during the 1960s and 70s, when asbestos insulation was used extensively throughout seagoing vessels.
Phoenix-based mining company Asarco LLC sought bankruptcy protection in 2005 as it was facing hundreds of lawsuits over asbestos poisoning.
Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Justice has ruled that the corporation must still assume responsibility for the cleanup and removal of asbestos and other pollutants leaking from the Yak Tunnel section of its Black Cloud mine in Leadville, Colorado.
While the number of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related lawsuits may have leveled off and even decline, the fact remains that mesothelioma is still affecting tens of thousands of Americans.
In East St. Louis, Illinois, the man who ran the local Democratic Party “Machine” was recently ordered to pay $2600 in fines and sentenced to 21 months in prison and two years of probation for conspiracy to buy votes.
That wasn’t the worst of his crimes.
Back in the 1970s, a Silver Bay, Minnesota, mining company was dumping large amounts of rock waste, which was discovered to contain substantial amounts of asbestos, into Lake Superior.
In 1948, President Harry Truman attempted to establish a national, single-payer health care system for the people of the U.S. A hostile Congress, frightened over the spread of Communism, ended that program before it could be instituted.
In the U.S., it happens more often than we want to think. A person has faithfully paid exorbitant premiums for private, for-profit health insurance, then one day, is diagnosed with malignant pleural cancer better known as mesothelioma.
The fact that people in the world’s richest nation must live on the street is a tragedy and should be an embarrassment.
Exploiting homeless people for economic gain is a crime.
Perhaps if Americans had longer memories, it would be easier to change the current political and social system with which some 70% of all Americans are unhappy, according to most polls.
What’s going on with taconite miners in northeastern Minnesota?
Over the past decade, nearly sixty workers in the Minnesota iron mining industry have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, according to a state health department report, and the true figure may be much higher, since prior to 1999, mesothelioma was reported on state death certificates as simply “cancer.” In any event, the rate of mesothelioma in this area is easily twice that of other parts of Minnesota.
Judy Clauson’s husband was a metalworker during the 1970s. Each night, she would wash his work clothing, having no idea that the dust from those garments contained microscopic fibers that would eventually burrow into her lung tissues and kill her.
The Vimasco Corporation has been providing “coatings and adhesives for the world’s industries” for 52 years. Among their product offerings are fire-retardant materials.
When you think about it, cancer is a paradox.
On one hand, it is usually fatal, being responsible for around 13% of all deaths. Cancer will touch three out of four people at some time in their lives.
On the other hand, cancer is actually a form of immortality. It is caused by cells that refuse to die.
While the mainstream corporate news media continues to keep Americans entertained with stories of celebrity antics, all-time record highs on the stock market and ferrets playing the harmonica, many stories about government policy, legislation and behavior, all of which have significant impact on the lives of the American people, often go unreported. A case in point was National Asbestos Awareness Week.
Working conditions in the crawlspaces and utility tunnels under Capitol Hill are a fair approximation of hell. Chunks of concrete fall from crumbling ceilings, the temperature can rise to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and arsenic fumes caused by welding, along with friable asbestos fibers, poison the air.
If you know anything about how cancer works, you understand that it is in essence uncontrolled cell growth. Unfortunately for pathology, these outlaw cells are basically the body’s own cells, not “foreign” or exogenous invaders such as bacteria or viruses. Therefore, the body’s own immune system will not attack cancer cells on its own initiative.
So far, nineteen candidates are competing for the White House in 2008. All but two, Virginia governor James Gilmore and Tennessee-born actor Fred Thompson, have addressed the issue of health care in the U.S. Here then are the positions the candidates have so far taken.
Continued from Friday (3 Aug):
So far, nineteen candidates are competing for the White House in 2008. All but two, Virginia governor James Gilmore and Tennessee-born actor Fred Thompson, have addressed the issue of health care in the U.S. Here then are the positions the candidates have so far taken.
Several years ago, a major foreign-owned auto company was looking for a location for a new plant. One of the proposed locations was a small town in Ohio. The plant would have created hundreds of badly needed jobs for the community.
Travelers Companies, the second-largest property-casualty underwriter in the U.S., recently paid out $449 million dollars to settle claims against one of its former policyholders.
Yesterday’s post pointed out how health care in the U.S. is the most expensive in the world, yet of low quality when compared with that in other nations.
Why is this?
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