8/18/2004
More women die each year of lung cancer than breast
cancer. And if you smoke, the longer you smoke, the more
likely you are to develop lung cancer. Read "Lung Cancer,"
a fact sheet from the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health, to find out lung cancer symptoms to watch for, early diagnostic tests that are available, cancer treatments and more.

This publication is free. For your copy, call toll-free 1
(888) 8 PUEBLO, that's 1 (888) 878-3256 and ask for Item
619L. Or send your name and address to the Federal Citizen Information Center, Dept. 619L, Pueblo, CO 81009. And visit http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov to order online and to print out this and hundreds of other FCIC publications for free.

Scottish firms facing asbestos time bomb

More than half of all Scottish firms have failed to comply with new asbestos control legislation. Now they face fines and could lose their insurance cover, warns Steven Vass

SCOTTISH businesses are facing hefty fines and the possibility of losing their insurance cover for asbestos-related claims after failing to meet new legislation that requires building owners and tenants to manage the risk of the substance on their premises.
According to a recent study by the London-based law firm Davies Arnold Cooper, 53% of Scottish companies have not yet come in line with the Control Of Asbestos At Work 2002 regulations, despite the fact that they came into force recently and there was an 18 month “grace” period between them being finalised and taking effect.

The rules require UK companies to to find out if there is any asbestos on their site, keep a record of its location, assess the risks and then draw up and implement a plan to keep them in check.

But in spite of an awareness raising campaign by the Health and Safety Executive more than 25% of companies still remain ignorant that the regulations have changed.

Companies that fail to adhere to the new rules are risking prosecution – which entails the payment of fines of up to £20,000 and potential imprisonment.

Compliance involves getting a surveyor to undertake an asbestos audit, which ranges from £250 for small premises to £1000-£2000 for large warehouses and factories

According to the regulations, any asbestos can remain on site if the area is in good condition and it is unlikely to be disturbed.

Gavin Ramsay, of Glasgow surveyors Ramsay McMichael, says this is the normal course of action for most cases. However, companies must have the area audited every year, and if they decide to refurbish an asbestos area, they have to bring in specialists to assess the risks and usually remove it first. Companies which discover asbestos in bad condition must either repair the area or remove the asbestos, which greatly increases costs.

Asbestos removal specialists pay high insurance premiums which they pass on to customers. Carymar Construction Services, a specialist based in Kirkintilloch, says the starting price for a basic job is about £500. More realistically, the costs will run to tens or even hundreds of thousands depending on the size and type of asbestos area involved.

According to Terry Delaney, managing director of Carymar, companies can expect to pay between 10 and 20 times the usual cost of refurbishment work. Given that nearly half of the 45% of Scottish firms which assessed the risks have found asbestos, removal costs potentially apply to a significant portion of the country’s 90,000 businesses.

Those that don’t foot the bill for removal could face worse problems. More and more insurance companies are excluding asbestos cover from public liability insurance. According to Bruce Stevenson, the Edinburgh-based insurance broker, two-thirds of the top 20 UK insurance companies are no longer offer public liability cover for asbestos claims.

In other words, if asbestos which is considered sufficiently low risk not to be removed under the regulations does get disturbed, and a member of the public – including contractors or clients – successfully sues for an illness caused by exposure, the company might find it has no cover.

New companies with asbestos on their premises will find out about this when setting up policies, and will either be turned down or face high premiums. Under current Judicial Studies Board guidelines, claims for asbestos-related complaints range from £5000 for more minor problems like breathlessness to £60,000 for mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining which is usually fatal.

According to Heidi Archibald, a partner at law firm McGrigor Donald, if the sufferer dies, claims from relatives can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds. “We had one claimant in April where the sum sued for was about £500,000,” she said. A group of people with mesothelioma could cost a company millions.

As David McIntosh, senior partner at Davies Arnold Cooper and a leading asbestos lawyer, says: “Everybody is frightened of getting into the firing line for a writ.”

According to a spokesman for the Association of Insurers and Risk Managers (Airmic), insurers have taken a tougher approach to risk following September 11, when a large proportion of the world’s insurance capacity was wiped out. Asbestos has become a target because it has been historically costly to insurers. “People have reviewed upwards the costs of asbestos liability,” said the Airmic spokesman. “We have always known they were big, but they have become bigger, and insurance companies have had to set aside additional reserves to pay for asbestos liability.”

According to the Association of British Insurers, the UK insurance industry has been making an underwriting loss for the past ten years. In 2002, when overall losses were £566m, claims relating to lung diseases accounted for 14% of all employers’ liability insurance claims, and asbestos was responsible for the vast majority of them. In 2003, the overall underwriting loss was down to £444m, with the fact that more insurers are excluding asbestos from public liability insurance a major contributing factor.

On the other hand, the insurance industry is forbidden to exclude asbestos cover from employers’ liability (EL) insurance, which covers claims by employees . Insurance companies are, however, free to choose who they offer EL policies to, and they are making sure applicants are in line with the new asbestos regulations as part of their drive to reduce risk.

Helen Hatchek, underwriting manager at insurer Royal & SunAlliance said: “The new regulations are just like any others. We expect clients to comply. If an individual business does not wish to comply, we would not offer renewal terms.”

Because insurance policies usually have to be renewed every year, the fact that they need employers’ liability insurance will ensure that they fall in line with the regulations soon. As Hatchek explains, R&SA is making allowances for businesses at the moment:

“We find out why [they are not in line with the regulations] first; at this stage, we wouldn’t automatically say no to giving them insurance. We would be wanting to know how far along they are in implementing the regulations.”

She confirms, however, that in months to come, R&SA is unlikely to be so understanding.

The Airmic spokesman explains: “In the past, if you had asbestos and you didn’t know about it, the insurers didn’t know about it. Now the law is that you must check or break the law and not report it to insurers.”

“Over 50% of Scottish businesses are asking for trouble,” adds Hatchek. “Although it is early days, they need to start planning. The clock is ticking and awareness needs to be raised.”

01 August 2004

Will these corporate killers get away?

There was outrage when it was revealed during hearings of the ongoing NSW Special Commission of Inquiry that a special fund set up by the James Hardie company to pay its asbestos victims was $1.7 billion short of what was needed to look after many thousands of future sufferers of asbestosis and mesothelioma.

About 500 mesothelioma sufferers come forward each year and the situation is getting worse. It is estimated that another 40-60,000 cases of asbestos-related disease will appear in the next 30 years and James Hardie is estimated to be liable for compensation in 76% of these cases.

In 2001, James Hardie Industries’ shareholders voted to move the company to the Netherlands. Many of its assets have since been shifted there. The company is trying to dodge its legal obligations to these thousands of victims.

ACTU secretary Greg Combet has described this as “one of the largest exercises to avoid moral and legal obligations in Australia’s corporate history”. The ACTU has called for the federal government to change the corporations law to prevent parent companies from shifting assets offshore when they face legal action in Australia, and to pursue a special treaty with the Netherlands to ensure that asbestos victims can pursue their rights to full compensation.

But when ALP leader Mark Latham was asked on the ABC’s July 19 Lateline program if an ALP government would change the corporations law along the lines of what the ACTU is calling for, he was non-committal.

Latham also refused to commit an ALP government to urgently negotiating a treaty with the Netherlands to ensure that any court judgements made against James Hardie are enforceable in the Netherlands.

The ALP has accepted $93,000 in donations from James Hardie over the last five years. One of the public relations companies that is doing the dirty work for James Hardie in fending off the flak from this scandal also works for the ALP.

Whose side is the ALP on? Is it on the side of asbestos victims or is it on the side of corporate killers like James Hardie?

If Labor was fair dinkum about being on the side of workers, they wouldn’t have to think about whether or not to change the law to prevent corporations like James Hardie protecting their assets from claims by dying workers, they’d just agree to change the law.

We know that the Howard government is hand-in-glove with the big corporations so we don’t expect it to act in the interests of asbestos victims. But workers expect something better from the Labor Party. It needs to give an unequivocal commitment to change the corporations law to prevent James Hardie and other companies from avoiding their responsibilities; and to negotiate a treaty with the Netherlands.

Asbestos has been known to be a killer since the beginning of the 20th century. That means that companies should not only be paying compensation to the victims and their families, but they should also be charged with industrial manslaughter.

We’re still waiting for Labor state governments to follow the lead of the ACT government and introduce industrial manslaughter legislation so that killer companies like James Hardie can be charged.

Workers need to vote the anti-worker Howard government out of office. But an ALP that isn’t game to give such basic commitments to asbestos victims can’t be trusted to represent the interests of workers without strong union pressure. We need independent action from the trade union movement and the biggest possible left vote in the federal election.

But we need to do more than this. The Socialist Alliance was formed to build a working-class political alternative to the ALP. The miserable treatment of victims of James Hardie’s crimes by both the Coalition and the ALP is one more reason why you should help us with this ambitious but urgent political job.

[Tim Gooden is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Corio and assistant secretary of the Geelong Trades & Labour Council.]

Tim Gooden

From Green Left Weekly, August 4, 2004.

We've been mugged
Jeff Prestridge and Toby Walne, Mail on Sunday
1 August 2004

THEY have worked loyally for the company for years, unbending in their belief that their pension scheme would guarantee them a happy and secure retirement. Now that dream is crumbling before their eyes. The pension fund at engineer Turner & Newall is seriously underfunded and in danger of being wound up. Workers are in fear and turmoil at the prospect of losing much of their retirement savings.

The stricken firm's administrator, Kroll, says the £1 billion of assets in the T&N Retirement Benefits Scheme is about half the sum needed to pay promised pensions.

T&N's Detroit-based parent company, Federal-Mogul - a £4 billion giant with operations in 25 countries - is in administration after a flood of claims from former workers with asbestosis. It is still trading and is restructuring.

Federal-Mogul owns 12 companies in the UK. Financial Mail looks at the human cost of the pensions crisis affecting loyal workers at three of them:

Federal-Mogul Pistons, Bradford, West Yorkshire
NIGEL Foster's life is in ruins. He lives with his disabled elderly mother and planned to retire early in September so that he could care for her full time. But he has just been told he won't get his pension money until he is 65 - in 14 years.

Bleak future: Nigel Foster

Nigel is one of the 380 workers at Federal-Mogul's engine piston plant in Bradford who will never forget the summer of 2004. Not only will they lose their jobs when production is moved to Poland in December, they have been warned their company pensions are in jeopardy.

Nigel, 51, a production controller, has been contributing 4.5% of his wages for the past 26 years into the T&N pension scheme that covers Federal-Mogul's British workers. He has worked at the factory for 34 years.

Nigel says: 'I was planning to care for my mother in her old age. Now these plans are in ruins and we face a bleak future. It has destroyed our lives.'

Nigel, whose mother uses a wheelchair, believes he will have to find work elsewhere just to survive. With high unemployment in the area, he fears he might end up stacking shelves in a supermarket for the minimum wage.

Nightmare: Eric Peacock

Eric Peacock, 53, a customer co-ordinator with 38 years of service, was due to leave the company 24 hours after the shock announcement on July 22 that the pension fund was in crisis. He was hoping to take his pension at the same time as leaving, but is in the same predicament as Nigel. 'My leaving do turned into a wake,' says Eric. 'What should have been a day of celebration for a long and enjoyable career turned into a nightmare. We all sat around staring into our beer in disbelief. The shock is so great that it still hasn't sunk in.'

Eric had hoped to pick up a £40,000 lump sum and a pension of more than £7,000 a year. Now he faces a future with no job and a pension that he cannot touch for another 12 years. Even when he does, it could be worth less than half what he has been promised.

Huge stress: Stan Firth

Stan Firth, 51, a team manager with 21 years' service, shows typical Yorkshire grit in the face of the disaster, but admits that not all his colleagues are as stoical.

'Many are unable to talk openly about this because they fear they will break down,' he says. 'It is causing huge stress to families and there have been plenty of tears. A common feeling is a sense of being mugged.'

Stan had planned to draw his T&N pension in a couple of years and live in Spain with his 40-year-old wife and two daughters. 'Now I expect I'll have to work until I drop,' he says.

Federal-Mogul Friction Products, Derbyshire
MORE than 900 work at this vehicle brake parts plant. The sprawling factory is at the heart of the community and has been a major local employer in Chapel-en-le-Frith for several generations.

Hilary King, 52, a logistics manager, was planning to retire in three years to spend more time with her family. She has two sons, aged 28 and 30, and wants to travel the world.

She says: 'Now I am being told that I must stay on until 65 to get any pension at all. Even then, they cannot guarantee what it might be. The feeling even now is that I could well be retiring with absolutely nothing.

'The uncertainly is hard to live with - it leaves you cold and numb.'

Phil Croft, 55, a 20-year veteran who works on production support, had agreed to retire in June because of ill health. Now, like all his colleagues, he has been told he will not be able to touch his pension until he is 65.

Phil was close to tears as he explained that he and his wife wanted to travel to New Zealand and stay with his eldest son. 'This news has been devastating,' he says. 'How can the Government allow this dreadful injustice?

'This is legalised theft.'

Eric Beesley, 50, had agreed to leave at Christmas after 28 years' service. He has seen several colleagues leave this year with early retirement pensions, but Eric cannot now follow them.

'At first we all felt bemused, but this is turning to anger,' he says. 'Dreams have been shattered and hopes of a comfortable, independent old age left in ruins.' Eric, who had planned to go backpacking around Canada after he left, now has no option but to work on.

Sintered Products, Coventry
JIM Bimbi, 54, is one of 360 workers at car parts manufacturer Sintered Products. Jim, a dayshift team leader for the past 18 years, says: 'We do not blame our immediate bosses for what has happened to our pensions. We want to make sure that the company succeeds and we will work towards that end.

'A couple of weeks ago, we read Press reports that our pension funds were in jeopardy. However, we were told this was all scaremongering and everything was fine. When they finally admitted it was true, all our hopes for the future evaporated in a moment.'

Mack McGeown, 63, has been with the company man and boy. He refuses to be beaten by a decision that could wipe out his expected annual pension of £10,000 after 48 years' service.

He tries to remain optimistic, but his voice shakes as he contemplates an uncertain future. 'I was going to leave this Christmas,' he says. 'After so many years of work, I had finally come to terms with retirement.

'My wife and I had laughed about how I was nervous about not being at work, but I realised I could still keep myself busy. Now all I am left with is anger.'

Mack believes he has no choice but to carry on working. 'I will not be beaten by this setback,' he says.

Alan Ruse, 53, an inspection trainer who has contributed to the pension fund for the past 16 years, fears that the scheme is now in such a sorry state that those like him with some time to go until retirement will end up with little or no pension. Alan, who is married with two grown-up children, says: 'Retirement is the last thing on my mind. I was hoping to give many more years of service yet. My fear is that by the time I come to draw my pension, there will be nothing left in the pot.

'The frustrating thing is that I can do nothing about the situation. Everyone is feeling deeply stressed and helpless. We feel so isolated and alone.'

• Federal-Mogul said: 'There are meetings going on between the trade unions, the independent trustees who are looking after the pension scheme, and administrators to see if there is any room for manoeuvre and, if so, what form it might take.'

Lung cancer findings cap arduous hunt

UC medical detective's path to success took surprising turns

By Tim Bonfield
Enquirer staff writer

Dr. Marshall Anderson grew up in tobacco country. He even picked tobacco as a boy.

But even though he lived with the causes and casualties of lung cancer - America's leading cancer killer - all around him, his interest in the battle has never been personal.

He never smoked. No close relative of his died of the disease.

Instead, the man who led a national coalition of medical centers in a landmark hunt for a genetic link to lung cancer says his interest in the subject was much more akin to the challenge and satisfaction of solving a massively complex puzzle.

"A lot of people said it couldn't be done. But one thing we surely showed is that these families do exist," Anderson says.

Last week, the Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer Consortium, which was headed by Anderson, published a major lung cancer study.

By analyzing blood and tissue samples from families that had as many as eight cases of lung cancer, the group reported that such families share a probable genetic trait that makes them much more likely to develop the disease.

In fact, the group pinned down the location of the probable genetic trait to a narrow region of about 50 genes along chromosome 6, one of 22 chromosome pairs in the human body.

No one has come so close to proving a genetic link to lung cancer.

Not only did the study offer hope of better treatments in years to come for millions of people affected by lung cancer, it was a moment in the sun for the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which has steadily increased its medical research capabilities.

And it could be the pinnacle career achievement for Anderson, a 65-year-old professor of environmental health who actually started out as a math professor in the mid-1960s.

Marshall Anderson has a strong Southern drawl that traces to his birth in Lynchburg, Va., and spending most of his career in North Carolina. He has a kindly professor habit of ending every other sentence he speaks with "Right?" or "OK?"

His casual nature, colleagues say, belies an exceedingly sharp mind.

Anderson has contributed to more than 120 scientific publications and has traveled as far as China to give talks about genetic science.

"To be effective, a scientist must have good instincts,'' says Dr. Ranjan Deka, a fellow genetics expert at UC. "Marshall is one person with very, very strong instincts. He can catch things right away."

Anderson, however, didn't start out with any deep interest in lung cancer. He isn't a medical doctor.

He started out with degrees in math and chemistry in 1961 from Emory and Henry College in Emory, Va. He went on to earn a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Tennessee in 1966.

Even then, he wasn't planning a career in medicine. After a brief stint as an assistant math professor, he worked for two years in communications technology at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Then Anderson became interested in the emerging concept of biomathematics, or applying advanced statistical methods to understanding how the body works.

He took post-doctorate training in the field at North Carolina State. Ever since, his days of number crunching were tied to the fast-growing field of health science.

In 1971, Anderson was among the scientists who got in on the ground floor of a new federal agency called the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, located in North Carolina's now-famous Research Triangle Park.

He spent 22 years there, rising to chief of the agency's Laboratory of Molecular Sciences. He spent years there studying how mice, rats and rabbits were affected at the genetic level by exposure to cancer-causing agents, including tobacco smoke.

To Anderson, and many others, lung cancer offers a model for studying how an environmental factor (smoking) can affect the most basic genetic functions of the body.

Understanding this interplay between the environment and the body has the potential of opening doors far beyond lung cancer, Anderson says.

From mice to people

It was only after becoming the director of research in 1993 at the Cancer Research Institute at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., that Anderson shifted his focus more directly on people with lung cancer.

At about that time, he also started collaborating with Dr. Joan Bailey-Wilson, then a professor at Louisiana State University, who also was interested in the genetic roots of lung cancer.

For years, scientists have searched to explain why some smokers never get lung cancer while others who get lung cancer never smoked. So the two researchers launched an effort to find families with multiple cases of lung cancer.

The project seemed feasible because so many technical advances had led to the Human Genome Project, which mapped out the entire genetic blueprint of the human body.

In recent years, that project has inspired many medical centers to pump hundreds of millions into improving their ability to collect, process and analyze DNA in hopes of finding new ways to cure disease.

So even though the idea of a genetic link to lung cancer dates at least to 1955, only recently had it become possible to find such a link.

The project might have started earlier, Anderson says. But it was sidetracked briefly when Bailey-Wilson moved to the National Human Genome Research Institute and Anderson was named director of UC's Department of Environmental Health in 1996.

After resettling, they had to try twice to win funding from the National Cancer Institute for the project. They got the money - a five-year, $5.9 million grant - on the second try in 1999, after Anderson recruited a dozen medical centers to join the consortium.

Politically, the team approach was vital to winning the grant. But practically, it was necessary, Anderson says.

Finding 52 families to study turned out to be a needle-in-a-haystack hunt that started with more than 26,000 lung cancer patients referred to the project.

Much of that detective work was coordinated by Dr. Susan Penney, a UC epidemiologist who also is known for her work in studies of breast cancer and cancer risk for people who lived and worked near the former Fernald uranium processing plant in northwest Hamilton County.

Doing the complex analysis required the work of powerful computers and top experts at several well-known medical centers, including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.

"There was no way the University of Cincinnati or any other single medical center could have done it all. This took a whole bunch of people working together," Anderson says.

In fact, experts from the National Cancer Institute and other centers questioned whether it could ever be possible to sift out an inherited genetic link to lung cancer from the many direct ways that genetic damage was known to be caused by cigarette smoke.

Many more experts questioned whether such a quest would be worth the bother because the leading cause of lung cancer - smoking - was already well-established.

Advocates ranging from the American Cancer Society to community doctors have said repeatedly that money spent hunting for a genetic link to lung cancer would be better spent on anti-smoking programs.

Experts also questioned whether it would be technically feasible to obtain high-quality DNA from tissue samples of deceased lung cancer patients that had been encased in paraffin for years.

But work performed primarily at UC proved that adequate DNA information could be obtained. In fact, some techniques were invented for this study and will become subjects of other scientific papers, Anderson says.

Unfinished work

Anderson acknowledges that the genetic findings likely will have far-reaching influence on how people are tested and treated for lung cancer. But he remains uncomfortable talking about how the project was done - in large part because the job isn't done.

Researchers are confident - but not certain - that the actual lung cancer gene is hiding somewhere in those 50 genes discussed in last week's paper. But there's plenty of work to do because the target segment of chromosome 6 that includes those genes has about 20 million base pairs of DNA yet to be analyzed.

So even though others have given high praise to his work, Anderson isn't patting himself on the back just yet.

"I think we should wait until we find the gene for that," he says.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com

------------------------------------------------------
Marshall Anderson file

Title: Professor, department of genome science, University of Cincinnati Genome Research Institute.
Age: 65.
Born: Lynchburg, Va.
Residence: Campbell County, near Cold Spring.
Family: Married to Elena. Has two grown children: Dr. Andy Anderson and Melissa Cooper, a speech pathologist; and a 10-year-old step-daughter, Maria.
Education: Doctorate in mathematics at the University of Tennessee and a fellowship in biomathematics at North Carolina State University
Career highlights: Has written or co-authored more than 120 scientific papers. Worked 22 years at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.; moved to St. Mary's Hospital Cancer Research Institute in Grand Junction, Colo., in 1993; moved to Cincinnati in 1996 to become director of UC's Department of Environmental Health. Became a professor at the genome institute this year.

Asbestos exposure: The slow killer

PESHAWAR: Akbar Ali, a young government official, cries in sorrow as he narrates the suffering of his father, Malik Qadir Khan, who died in 2001 of mesothelioma. The disease is an incurable lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, a fibrous variety of a natural mineral.

“Residing in Mardan and working at the Pakistan Tobacco Company in Akora Khattak, my father suddenly started complaining of chest congestion at the age of 55,” says Akbar. “Very soon, the problem became worse and my father had an X-ray done.” The report revealed that Qadir Khan’s lungs were filled with water.

“The first thought that entered my mind was that my father was suffering from Tuberculosis,” said Akbar. “The medical reports proved otherwise: my father had been hit by mesothelioma, a disease much more serious and deadly than TB.” An outwardly healthy looking Qadir Khan was soon bed-ridden, dying at the age of 57, within two years of contracting the disease.

“Mesothelioma is a lung fibrosis which is contracted due to exposure to asbestos in 99 percent of cases,” The president of the Pakistan Chest Society, Dr Arshad Javed said. “We have diagnosed more than 500 cases of this fatal disease at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in the last few years, which is a matter of concern for the people as well as for the government.” He said that most of the patients belonged to the northern districts of the NWFP, including Charsadda, Mardan, Malakand and Mohmand Agency.

“Mesothelioma is an incurable disease worldwide and so the patients can only be treated for temporary relief,” said Dr Mubashir, registrar of the Chest Ward at the LRH. “Mesothelioma patients live for 18 months to two years after contracting the disease.” Presently, a number of suspected patients of the disease are admitted at LRH.

Noor Jehan, an environmental researcher at the Peshawar University doing her doctorate on asbestos hazards said that asbestos was found in many parts of northern and northwestern Pakistan and that most people exposed to the substance were mine workers. A physical and chemical analysis of asbestos found in NWFP and FATA proved that the mineral was highly carcinogenic and potentially hazardous, leading to mesothelioma and other lung diseases. The mining, milling and crushing procedures adopted for exploring and refining asbestos are highly hazardous and unsafe, she said. Apart from mine workers and labourers, the dust produced from crushing the plants also affects the local population.

“The government should declare asbestos as carcinogenic and allow its mining only under strict supervision,” she said. “The Pakistan Environmental Act should also be amended to emphasise on pollution control and hazard mitigation related to minerals and the mineral based industry.”

Dr Khangul Jadoon, the chairman of the department of mining engineering at the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology said that ship builders, construction workers, plumbers, gas fitters, carpenters, metal plate workers, vehicle body makers, vehicle break leather makers and others are also exposed to asbestos. Dr Jadoon said that the mining department had submitted a proposal to the Higher Education Commission for launching a project to investigate the causes of the spread of ‘pneumoconiosis’ among the workers at underground mines in the NWFP. The HEC should suggest preventive measures to reduce the incidence of occupational diseases among mine workers, he said. “Laws related to safe mining cannot be implemented because most of the asbestos deposits are in the remote and tribal areas,” said an official of the mining department. “We have banned the exploration of asbestos, but the activity is still being pursued because of non-compliance with the law.” app

James Hardie faces public works ban
By Gerard Noonan, Political Correspondent
August 3, 2004

Under pressure from unions and asbestosis victims, the NSW Government is considering a state-wide ban on the use of James Hardie Industries products on all government-tendered construction projects.

The move follows a call yesterday by NSW unions for the Government to require every house sold in the state to carry a certificate indicating whether it contained asbestos.

The metalworkers' and building unions estimate that up to 40,000 people - mainly home renovators - would contract an asbestos-related disease by 2040.

Up to 14,000 of these could be expected to contract the deadly cancer mesothelioma from airborne particles of asbestos, caused by something as simple as banging in a nail into old asbestos particle board or unwittingly sanding off asbestos board before painting.

The unions estimate that two out of every three houses in NSW still contain asbestos, which was widely used before 1987 as an insulation material and as waterproof sheeting in bathrooms and under eaves.

James Hardie, the building products group that manufactured asbestos materials between 1917 and 1987, was subject to an attack last week at a special commission of inquiry headed by David Jackson, QC, over its moves to avoid liability to victims of asbestos related diseases.

In his closing submission, counsel assisting the commission, John Sheahan, SC, said James Hardie had fostered a culture of secrecy and disdain towards the victims of asbestos-related disease and had lied to the Government, the courts, the stock exchange and victims.

James Hardie has defended its record, arguing that it did not deliberately under-fund a trust in 2001 that was supposed to pay victims of asbestos-related diseases. The trust had starting assets of $293 million but current estimates indicate a shortfall as high as $2 billion.

A spokeswoman for the Special Minister of State, John Della Bosca, said yesterday the minister would welcome a submission from the unions on the issue of asbestos certificates to be included in conveyancing and was also considering a ban on all James Hardie products on government construction sites.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said one Concord West builder, Holdmark Developers, had agreed not to use James Hardie products on its building sites. Others in the building industry would be approached.

Victorian unions launched a similar campaign last week. It covers all sites in the state.

A mesothelioma victim, Belinda Dunn, 36, endorsed the unions' call, saying her father, Robert, was haunted by the knowledge that he unwittingly exposed her to a deadly disease when she was four by stacking asbestos roof sheeting in a pile that she then played on. "My parents are forever paying for this ... they think it's their fault," Ms Dunn said.

The president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW, Rowan Kelly, said the union's push for a consumer awareness campaign was important but he believed that a compulsory certificate was attacking the problem with a sledgehammer.

"A prudent purchaser will obtain a building and pest report prior to purchase, and it seems quite logical that such a report should contain information about asbestos," Mr Kelly said.

Microwave technique safe for lung cancer
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Tuesday, August 03, 2004

BARI, ITALY – Aug. 2, 2004 – Lung cancer patients whose tumors cannot be removed by surgery may have new hope with a new technique using very high frequency radio waves that destroy tumors with heat.

The technique called radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses electrodes to heat and destroy abnormal tissue, and has been used in kidney and liver cancer patients with promising results.

In this study, researchers led by Dr. Cosmo Gadaleta of the IRCCS Hospital of Oncology in Bari, Italy treated 18 patients with 40 lung tumors ineligible for surgery, using RFA. Upon and average follow-up of eight months, no relapse was detected in 94% of the patients.

According Gadaleta most lung tumors are inoperable due to serious coexisting health conditions or poor respiratory function in the patient, and unlike radiation or chemotherapy, RFA has fewer side effects.

"Lung RFA can get around all those problems," Gadaleta said in a prepared statement. "It is minimally invasive, with only a small needle being inserted into the patient. It is also advantageous because of potentially low costs, short hospitalization times, and good patient tolerance without mortality."

The study involved 18 patients with inoperable lung tumors treated with RFA between Feb. 2002 and Mar. 2003. Four of the patients had primary tumors and 14 patients had tumors that had spread to other parts of the lung from the initial tumor.

All were treated using a monopolar cooled-tip electrode needle directed through the skin into the lung guided by CT scan with the patient under general anesthesia. Patients had no more than three nodules with a total diameter of 10 cm and no evidence tumors spreading beyond the lungs into the chest. A total of 40 suspicious tumors were treated in 24 sessions. After treatment, patients underwent follow-up every 3 months by CT scan and special MRI for a median time of 8 months (range, 2–14 months).

Complications from the lung RFA performed were minor and included pneumothorax, the abnormal presence of air in the chest cavity resulting in the collapse of the lung, which occurred in three of the patients.

"Pneumothorax occurred in a small percentage of cases, and each occurrence was treated successfully with pleural drainage," Gadaleta said. "The risk is small when compared to the benefits of lung RFA, and, since the radiology team anticipates the possibility of pneumothorax developing as a result of the procedure, they carefully monitor the patient so they can quickly treat any complications."

Gadaleta also expressed optimism for using lung RFA for treating patients with certain operable lung tumors, as well.

"We feel that lung RFA could become more prevalent, first for patients who are not candidates for surgery, but also as an alternative to surgery for operable primary lung tumors, as long as the tumor is not too large."

Museum's asbestos bill shocker Aug 3 2004

By Fiona Scott

Half-a-million individual items at the British Transport Museum in Coventry had to be cleaned after bungling during building work led to asbestos contamination spreading.

Specialist staff were called in earlier this year to hand-clean photographs, negatives and historical records page by page, then dismantle the internal rooms which stored them.

Details are revealed in an official report which also disclosed that museum staff were at one point working in offices which officials thought were contaminated with asbestos.

A report to Coventry City Council - from a review group of councillors set up to look into the problems of asbestos in council buildings - is due to be discussed by the council's cabinet tonight.

The group found that work the museum, which was undergoing a £7 million revamp, was not co-ordinated fully and that "not all internal health and safety procedures regarding asbestos were being followed".

Cllr Dave Arrowsmith (Con, Sherbourne), who chaired the review group, said yesterday: "With hindsight, it would have been better to have closed the museum, totally evacuated all the people and exhibits and done all the work from scratch."

He said staff in the office thought to be contaminated were swiftly moved.

The museum asbestos clean-up bill is now £476,000 - more than six times the original estimate - and is still rising. The work was originally expected to cost just £72,000 but the contract was extended four times as more and more asbestos was found.

Some work is yet to be done. First, asbestos was found in offices built next to the loading bay, adding £104,000.

Then it was discovered the museum's roof was in such bad condition that asbestos near it had spread, adding another £120,000.

While that asbestos was being dealt with, some of the muse-um's outer walls were removed in preparation for its new revamped frontage.

The report noted: "This allowed the elements to further spread known asbestos contamination through previously uncontaminated parts of the building."

At the same time, workers found asbestos leaking from another wall which was previously thought to be sealed and safe. Putting all that right cost £150,000.

The report went on: "The additional work in this contract increase was partly to cover the cleansing of approximately half-a-million pieces of archive material (photographs, negatives, individual sheets of paper cleansed by hand and sealed).

"The internal buildings which these archives had been stored in, and other storage and conference facilities, were also completely removed."

Finally, £30,000 was needed for temporary office space for staff found to be working in an area previously thought to be safe, but which council officials feared was contaminated.

The review group is recommending the council establish a property services section to coordinate work on its buildings, and that it employs independent analysts to work out how much asbestos is in any council building before major works. ..SUPL:

Boycott call on Hardie gathers pace
By Stephen Gibbs
August 4, 2004

The public backlash against James Hardie Industries will spread today with the announcement of a local government campaign to boycott the company's products.

City of Sydney, Parramatta and Leichhardt councils have already resolved to boycott the company's building materials until it reverses moves to distance itself from victims of asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Bankstown, Blue Mountains, Waverley and several other councils are set to vote on boycotts, and Canada Bay was considering the issue last night.

The Premier, Bob Carr, said yesterday that he was "inclined to support" a ban on the use of James Hardie products by State Government contractors.

The Government is considering such a proposal put forward by unions, following accusations before a commission of inquiry that the company has short-changed a compensation fund by up to $2 billion.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union has written to all mayors calling on councils to join a boycott endorsed by the Labor Council of NSW. The union's state secretary, Andrew Ferguson, said the issue was "gaining considerable traction in the broader community, outside the traditional ambit of union activity".

On Monday night, City of Sydney Council condemned the actions of James Hardie and resolved that contractors should not purchase or use James Hardie products.

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said staff had been directed not to purchase James Hardie products until the company "convinces council it has met its obligations to asbestos victims".

"I think there's a groundswell of opinion in that people are really quite shocked that James Hardie could have gone to such lengths to avoid clear responsibility for quite shocking impacts on people's lives," Cr Moore said.

The Labor candidate for the federal seat of Parramatta, Julie Owens, approached the construction union about the boycott three weeks ago.

"What people are realising now is this is not just a worker issue," she said. "I'm getting a sense of anger from the community. This is not just a workplace issue, this is a huge community health issue and the community is taking it on well and truly."

The Lord Mayor of Parramatta, Julia Finn, said the council voted unanimously on Monday night to use other products in all building maintenance and capital works.

Leichhardt's Mayor, Alice Murphy, put her motion to the council last Tuesday. It "boycotts all James Hardie products until full compensation is guaranteed to existing and future victims of asbestos related disease".

The council was "outraged at James Hardie's behaviour", Cr Murphy said.

The Mayor of Bankstown, Helen Westwood, who is also president of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, said a local government boycott "affects the bottom line, and that seems to be what they respond to". She said: "I'm hoping that all local government will boycott James Hardie products. Perhaps then they'll be willing to act in a way that they should have in the beginning."

The Blue Mountains Mayor, Jim Angel, said he expected the council to boycott James Hardie products after a meeting next Tuesday night.

A James Hardie spokesman said the company was "addressing all our issues through the commission process and that's really all we're saying".

Vaccine Shows Promise In Lung Cancer

NEW YORK AUG 03, 2004 (Reuters Health) - A phase I trial of a whole cell vaccine developed from an adenocarcinoma line transfected with CD80 and HLA A1 or A2 showed "minimal toxicity and good survival" in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers report in the July 15th issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Luis A. Raez of the University of Miami School of Medicine and colleagues note that similar vaccines have shown "good activity" in human studies but the approach has not been tested in NSCLC.

To do so, the researchers studied 19 patients with NSCLC. All had been heavily pretreated and carried large tumor burdens.

Overall, 18 patients received a total of 30 courses of the vaccine.

All but one patient had a measurable immune response after 6 weeks, and responses tended to increase after 12 weeks and stabilize by 18 weeks.

Six surviving, clinically responsive patients continued to have elevated CD8 titers, even after cessation of vaccination, for up to 150 weeks.

Median survival for all patients was 18 months. Survival was estimated to be 30% at 3 years.

Now that the vaccine appears safe, Dr. Raez told Reuters Health, further studies are planned in patients who have "just had surgery for lung cancer -- the chance of relapse is more than 50% despite adequate surgery -- to prevent or delay the relapse."

Another group they plan to treat is patients with stage IV disease who "finish palliative chemotherapy and respond so well" that they are placed under observation. "We will vaccinate them to delay the relapse" that may otherwise take place relatively shortly thereafter.

SOURCE:

Journal of Clinical Oncology 2004;22:2800-2807.

Concerns Over Biased Experts in Asbestos Lawsuits
Libraries

Description

Expert-witness physicians who interpret chest x-rays for plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming asbestos-related injury overstate their findings, compared with independent readers interpreting the same films without knowing their source.

Newswise — Expert-witness physicians who specialize in interpreting chest x-rays for plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming asbestos-related injury greatly overstate their findings, compared with independent readers interpreting the same films without knowing their source, reports the August issue of Academic Radiology, published by Elsevier on behalf of the Association of University Radiologists.

In a study of 492 chest x-rays obtained by plaintiffs' lawyers and entered as evidence in lawsuits against former employers, the original interpreters claimed to find evidence of possible asbestos-related lung damage in 95.9 percent of cases. In contrast, when the same x-rays were re-read by six unbiased physicians, the abnormality rate was only 4.5 percent.*

An accompanying editorial remarked on the study's possible impact on thousands of pending claims for billions of dollars against hundreds of companies.† More than 60 U.S. companies have taken voluntary bankruptcy to protect their assets against asbestos-related lawsuits.

The study was performed by Drs. Joseph N. Gitlin and Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, together with Leroy L. Cook and Otha W. Linton. The editorial was written by Dr. Murray Janower of Wellesley, Mass., past chairman of the American College of Radiology Committee on Ethics, and Dr. Leonard Berlin of Skokie, Ill., author of a leading book on radiology and the law. Dr. Gitlin and Mr. Linton will discuss their findings in a telephone press conference on Wednesday, August 4, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

"The magnitude of the differences between the interpretations by initial [plaintiffs'] readers and the six consultants is too great to be attributed to interobserver error," the study authors asserted. "There is no support in the world literature on x-ray studies of workers exposed to asbestos and other mineral dusts for the high level of positive findings recorded by the initial readers in this report."

Federal programs providing for workmen's compensation for coal miners and asbestos workers require medical evidence of changes in the lungs that can be attributed to occupational dust exposures. Chest x-rays, which can be interpreted by more than one reader, are considered the most objective type of evidence. Physicians interpreting occupational chest x-rays are required to follow the International Labor Office (ILO) classification system, which uses a 12-point scale to describe the presence and extent of dust in the lungs. Small bright spots (opacities) on x-rays may represent scars in the lung from asbestos, coal, silica, or other mineral dusts.

A separate federal program, administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, provides a test for physicians to qualify as expert readers, termed "B-readers." In the new study, both the plaintiffs' experts and the independent panel were qualified B-readers.

The ILO system allows readers to state that a film is completely free of any adverse changes. The plaintiffs' readers asserted that every one of the 492 films showed some harmful change. In contrast, the review panelists said that only 37.9 percent were completely free of adverse changes.

"There is less than one chance in 10,000 that the difference noted between the two groups of readers is due to chance alone," the study authors asserted. The authors of the editorial pointed out that many past studies have reported interobserver disagreements, some as high as 30 percent. "However, the fact is that none of these previously published studies have shown variations to the same extent " as the new study.

The study "raises considerable concern as to whether interpretations of chest radiographs rendered by B-reader radiologists acting as expert witnesses and offered as testimony in asbestos-related litigation is non-partisan and clinically accurate," wrote Drs. Janower and Berlin. "[T]he article contains data that is as disquieting as it is startling."

Academic Radiology (http://www.academicradiology.org) is the official journal of the Association of University Radiologists (www.aur.org), a national professional organization serving more than 3,000 radiologists, residents, and fellows. Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com) is a world-leading science and medical publisher. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products.

*Gitlin JN, Cook LL, Linton OW, Garrett-Mayer E. Comparison of “B” readers' interpretations of chest radiographs for asbestos related changes. Academic Radiology 2004;11:843-856.

†Janower ML, Berlin L. “B” Readers’ Radiographic Interpretation in Asbestos Litigation: Is Something Rotten in the Courtroom? Academic Radiology 2004;11:841-842.

Owens Corning Reports Second Quarter 2004 Results
Wednesday August 4, 6:00 pm ET

TOLEDO, Ohio, Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Owens Corning (OTC: OWENQ - News) today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2004.

For the second quarter, the company had net sales of $1.441 billion, compared to net sales of $1.239 billion for the same period in the prior year. For the quarter, the company had net income of $33 million. This compares to net income of $18 million for the second quarter of 2003.

Owens Corning reported income from operations of $94 million for the quarter, which included $28 million of Chapter 11-related charges. For the second quarter of 2003, the company reported income from operations of $43 million, including $38 million of Chapter 11-related charges, $13 million for restructuring and other charges and $4 million of income from asbestos- related insurance recoveries.

Owens Corning ended the quarter with a cash balance of $874 million.

"Sales for the quarter were the highest in our 65-year history, as we experienced strong demand in all our major markets," said Dave Brown, Owens Corning's chief executive officer.

"As we evaluate our results, excluding the charges related to our Chapter 11 process and other restructuring costs, we are pleased with the progress we are making in our operations, especially in the face of high energy and raw material costs."

Owens Corning is a world leader in building materials systems and composite systems. Founded in 1938, the company had sales of $5 billion in 2003. Additional information is available on Owens Corning's Web site at http://www.owenscorning.com or by calling the company's toll-free General Information line: 1-800-GETPINK.

On October 5, 2000, Owens Corning and 17 United States subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code in the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Debtors are currently operating their businesses as debtors-in-possession in accordance with provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. The Chapter 11 cases of the Debtors are being jointly administered under Case No. 00-3837 (JKF). The Chapter 11 cases do not include other U. S. subsidiaries of Owens Corning or any of its foreign subsidiaries. The Debtors filed for relief under Chapter 11 to address the growing demands on Owens Corning's cash flow resulting from the substantial costs of asbestos personal injury liability.

On October 24, 2003, the Debtors, together with the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants and the Legal Representative for future asbestos personal injury claimants, filed an amended Joint Plan of Reorganization in the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. On June 7, 2004, Owens Corning announced that an agreement in principle had been reached with the Official Committee of Asbestos Claimants, the Legal Representative for the class of future asbestos claimants, and the official representatives of Owens Corning's pre-petition bondholders and trade creditors. As a result of the agreement in principle, Owens Corning has now gained support for the Plan from all of its major creditor groups with the exception of the holders of debt under its $1.8 billion pre-petition bank credit facility, who continue to oppose the Plan. It is expected that the Plan will be amended to reflect the terms of the agreement in principle. The Plan is subject to confirmation by the Bankruptcy Court.

The current Plan, as amended to reflect the agreement in principle, provides for payment of 38.5 percent of the face amount of all unsecured creditors' claims, in the form of new common stock and notes of the restructured company, and cash. However, the percentage recovery and the value of the payments ultimately made under the Plan to each class of creditors will depend upon a number of factors. Additional distributions from potential insurance and other third-party claims may also be paid to certain classes of creditors, but it is expected that all classes of pre-petition unsecured creditors will be impaired. Therefore, the Plan also provides that the existing common stock of Owens Corning will be cancelled, and that current shareholders will receive no distribution or other consideration in exchange for their shares. It is impossible to predict at this time the terms and provisions of any plan of reorganization that may ultimately be confirmed or the treatment of creditors thereunder.

Asbestos X-rays rechecked
Study casts doubt on medical experts' courtroom testimony

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
August 5, 2004

A new look at X-rays used to help win billions of dollars for asbestos victims detected abnormalities in only 4.5 percent of the X-rays - not in 96 percent, as medical experts intitially testified.

The study by Johns Hopkins University radiologists found that medical experts who testified on behalf of plaintiffs in asbestos suits almost always found something suspicious on their X-rays, whether it was asbestos dust or a likely malignant tumor.

But six disinterested radiologists asked to review the same 492 chest X-rays found something wrong only 4.5 percent of the time.

The study was published in this week's Academic Radiology journal and was accompanied by an editorial calling on radiologists to "repair the breech" in integrity and restore the honor of radiology.

In Denver, radiologists called the findings jarring.

The ethics code of the American College of Radiology warns members to exercise "extreme caution to ensure that the testimony provided is nonpartisan, scientifically correct and clinically accurate."

Yet, those who testified at the asbestos trials found something suspicious 20 to 25 times more often than radiologists who didn't have a stake in the outcome.

Plaintiffs who win at trial typically are awarded about $1 million for asbestos-related diseases, while those who settle out of court get about $6,000, according to a recent study by the Rand Corp.

Physicians who testify at trials typically earn $600 to $800 per hour.

"If these people gave testimony that was incorrect, they should be prosecuted," said Dr. Michael Manco-Johnson, former head of radiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "There are unscrupulous people in every field, but if they hook up with unscrupulous lawyers, this could very well happen."

Manco-Johnson, who has testified occasionally in the courtroom, said "there are physicians who become professional testifiers, who get their entire salaries from it."

"They're usually very inadequate physicians, not very good at what they do, who can't make it practicing radiology," he added.

Manco-Johnson said he's never before seen a study with that kind of disparity between medical testifiers and their disinterested colleagues. Giving a dishonest evaluation is "unethical to immoral," he said.

Denver-based Johns-Manville Corp. was the first large asbestos company to face a flurry of lawsuits in the 1960s.

Johns-Manville officials said they hadn't read the study so could not comment.

Malpractice lawsuits have been cited as a major reason health care costs are going up for all Americans.

The recent Rand study found that 600,000 Americans have filed claims for compensation for asbestos-related injuries, causing some 80 companies to declare bankruptcy and eliminating some 60,000 jobs.

It found that 89 percent of those filing claims say they don't have cancer at the present time.

Claim settlements have reached $54 billion so far and estimates are that they could reach $250 billion. Congress has been considering a bill that would cap claims at about $130 billion as a way to get money in the hands of true sufferers sooner and to prevent more bankruptcies.

Conrad Metcalf, an attorney for several Coloradans suing over asbestos-related illnesses, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Penn Researchers Offer New Hope To Advanced Stage Lung Cancer Patients
Philadelphia, PA -- A new study that appears in the June 2004 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that the life-expectancy of patients with advanced stage lung cancer can be extended with the use of photodynamic therapy, or PDT, in addition to surgical intervention. Typically, advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer patients have a median survival of 6-9 months when treated with the current standard of care, chemotherapy alone. However, this same set of patients demonstrated a median survival of more than 22 months when chemotherapy was combined with surgery and intraoperative PDT, a new laser-based cancer treatment. Joseph S. Friedberg, MD, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Stephen Hahn, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Radiation Therapy and James P. Stevenson, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine are the co-investigators in this trial at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

What's Related
Revolutionary Treatment For Inoperable Lung Cancer

Targeted Therapy For Lung Cancer Patients Shows Promise In Extending Lives

Duke Study Shows Size Of Lung Tumor Does Not Always Reflect Cancer Severity

-------------------------------------------------------------
Related section: Health & Medicine

“We consider these results preliminary but extremely encouraging. We expected PDT to make a difference in the rate of local recurrence and it has,” says Dr. Friedberg, “However, we did not anticipate the dramatic increase in survival that we have observed. In addition to the local control, there must be some sort of systemic immune response that is contributing to the enhanced survival we are observing in these patients with a very advanced form of the disease. We are exploring this phenomenon at a number of levels and feel we may have stumbled upon the makings of a new immunologic approach to treating patients with all stages of lung cancer. It is an area of research about which we are very excited and actively pursuing.”

In PDT, a nontoxic photosensitizing agent, Photofrin, is injected into the blood stream and concentrates in cancer cells, allowing the cancer to become very sensitive to light. Using a laser to shine light on these cells results in a very effective mechanism for killing cancer cells. The damage occurs only where the light is shined, limiting the harm to healthy tissue. PDT has rarely been used in this way, combining it with other treatment modalities, although it has been used by clinicians for treating small, easily visualized tumors in the windpipe and esophagus. Patients eligible for the treatment are those whose cancer has spread within the chest cavity.

In the study, each patient is treated with chemotherapy until the cancer stops responding, the normal course for this disease and the limitation of chemotherapy alone. After it is confirmed that the cancer has not spread beyond the chest cavity, the patient then receives Photofrin 24 hours prior to surgery. During surgery, the cancer is removed, which may involve excising all or part of the affected lung. Then, surgeons shine a laser into the chest cavity, giving the appropriate dose of light in an effort to kill any remaining microscopic tumor cells that remain after surgery.

It is known that surgery, without PDT, will almost certainly be accompanied by a high rate of local recurrence, likely a result of the invisible remaining disease being targeted with PDT. The treatment has proven very safe, largely as a function of using a specially designed computer system to measure and monitor the amount of laser light delivered at the time of treatment.

---------------------------------------------------------
This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

Over 15,000 Filipinos to die of lung cancer in 2005: report

www.chinaview.cn 2004-08-05 16:01:39

MANILA, Aug. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- A study found that over 15,000 Filipinos may die of lung cancer in 2005, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reported Thursday.

Citing a joint study of the Philippine Cancer Society and the Department of Health (DOH), the PNA said that about 43 Filipinos are estimated to die everyday in 2005 due to lung cancer, which isconsidered the top cancer site in the Philippines followed by breast cancer.

The 2005 Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates also estimated that 17,238 new cases of lung cancer will occur next year and 15,695 deaths are expected from it.

While cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, non-smokers who arecontinuously exposed to tobacco smoke, especially in enclosed spaces, likewise have a higher risk of imbibing the disease, it added.

The report suggested that the best way to fight lung cancer should be stopping smoking since there is no effective early detection method for the disease.

The DOH said in an earlier report that cigarette smoking accounts for about 90 percent of lung cancer deaths among men and 70 percent of deaths among women.

Other risk factors include occupational exposures to radon and asbestos among others, and indoor and outdoor air pollution, it added.

Studies showed that male smokers are approximately 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer than males who do not smoke, while women who smoke are estimated to be 12 times more likely

DIY's deadly asbestos risk
By Kamahl Cogdon
property reporter
07aug04

VICTORIA'S renovation craze will leave a deadly legacy of thousands of asbestos victims, experts fear.

Up to 10,000 Victorians could be delivered death sentences over the next 40 years after exposure to asbestos during the home renovations they undertake today.
More than 100 Victorians contract mesothelioma from asbestos each year, about 25 per cent of them from exposure in the home.

But Maurice Blackburn Cashman asbestos legal expert Andrew Dimsey said domestic cases would increasingly replace workplace victims over coming decades.

"Increasing numbers of sufferers of mesothelioma can identify no exposure except for seemingly trivial exposure while performing renovation and building around the home," he said.

"With the focus over the last five years on home improvement we may in 10 to 35 years time see a new wave of home renovation cases."

Thousands of homes across Victoria are thought to contain asbestos, a popular and cheap building material used from the 1950s to 1980s.

Asbestos becomes deadly when disturbed and fibres are inhaled.

The Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union this week estimated 10,000 Victorians, would develop asbestos-related illness over the next 40 years, the majority of them home renovators.

Their warnings came as a NSW special commission of inquiry investigates concerns building materials firm James Hardie Industries does not have enough money to meet future asbestos compensation claims.

Mr Dimsey said cases being handled by his firm included a man who recently died from exposure to asbestos while erecting his back fence and another who contracted mesothelioma after building a dog kennel. The cases date to the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Mr Dimsey said strict workplace asbestos safety rules would see a fall in the number of workers contracting mesothelioma. But the laws did not apply to domestic asbestos.

"If someone gets mesothelioma in 2050 it's probably going to be from the home renovation carried out now," he said.

Master Builders Association of Victoria executive director Brian Welch said DIY renovators were encouraged by TV make-over shows to act without considering the risks.

"If you put a hammer through a wall not knowing what you're doing you are potentially killing yourself or putting your family at risk," he said.

"Many of the TV shows which go about this with gay abandon are trivialising the serious nature of renovation.

"No one seems to pay proper attention to the risks of asbestos."

Archicentre state manager David Hallett said ignorance could be deadly for renovators.

"The ignorant renovator could simply put a sledge hammer through it," he said.

"If you have that stuff shatter you end up with clouds of asbestos floating everywhere and that's a real danger."

Asbestos expert Adrian Alcock, of Asbestos Audits, said few areas of Melbourne were untouched by the material.

He said asbestos was also common in back yard sheds and bathing boxes.

Aug. 6, 2004. 01:00 AM

JIM ROSS/TORONTO STAR

Survival beats the odds
Lung cancer patient responds to new drug combination

Georgetown mother's battle with rare disease inspiring, family says

VALERIE HAUCH
STAFF REPORTER

Leah Smeaton says her mom, Marion, is "the luckiest unlucky person I know."

She laughs softly on the phone when she says it and when you hear the story of the Smeaton family, you understand why she and her two sisters and mother feel so strongly about having a sense of humour and being "a positive family."

It's what has pulled them through the hard times, like losing their dad, Marion's husband, Bill, 23 years ago to a drunk driver, while he was biking to work.

Right now, Leah Smeaton's 65-year-old Georgetown mom is living on borrowed time. Marion has a rare, terminal cancer called malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), which affects the lining of the lungs. It's also known as "asbestos" cancer, because it often affects people who have worked in the insulation trade.

But in the case of Marion, who worked as a supply teacher, there is no known asbestos link. "I don't know how I got it," she says.

The Canadian Cancer Society says that in 2000, the most recent year for which there are statistics, 335 new cases of MPM were reported and 292 people died due to the disease. In the U.S., about 2,000 new cases are reported each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Marion found out she had the cancer two years ago and has already lived longer than most people when they're diagnosed. Usually, death comes within six to eight months of a diagnosis.

It can take 20 to 40 years for symptoms of this cancer to become pronounced. Once this happens, breathing becomes painful and patients have described the effects of the cancer as feeling like they're drowning.

For about 1 1/2 years, Marion has been on an Eli Lilly drug called Alimta, which has just been approved by Health Canada and is the first medication shown to help patients with MPM live longer and feel better. (Marion's doctor was able to obtain the drug earlier through a special-access Health Canada program.)

"I feel I have more energy," says Marion, who's also a dedicated, 11-year practitioner of Tai Chi. Since taking the drug, she says, she doesn't cough as much. She says she hasn't had any serious pain so far.

The drug, which is used in combination with the chemotherapy agent cisplatin, works by attacking multiple enzyme targets that cancer cells need to grow and divide. In clinical trials involving 448 patients, reported in the July, 2003, issue of the American Journal Of Clinical Oncology, the median survival of patients getting a combination of Alimta and cisplatin increased 30 per cent, compared to 9.3 months for cisplatin alone. Plus 50.3 per cent of the patients treated with the drug-chemotherapy combo were alive a year later, compared to only 38 per cent of those treated just with chemotherapy.

There can be side effects to Alimta, such as skin rash, vomiting and diarrhea. Marion says she hasn't experienced any.

Dr. Frances Shepherd, of Princess Margaret Hospital's department of medical oncology and haematology, says the drug is "an important advance in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma." Patients can not only live longer, they can also live better, she says, since Alimta helps relieve symptoms of chest pains and shortness of breath.

Marion's Smeaton's length of survival to date is not typical but it may have something to do with the fact her cancer was caught early — accidentally, says her daughter. It was found about two years ago during abdominal surgery related to remove unrelated cysts.

Before that surgery, Marion had told her daughter "she hoped they didn't find anything else," recalls Leah. "I told my mom, I'd eat my shirt if they find cancer," she said, hoping to lighten her mom's mood and make her feel better.

About a year before the abdominal surgery, Marion had complicated heart surgery. "We were told that this is a dangerous procedure and about 50 per cent of people don't make it off the table," says Leah.

She says her mom has been an inspiration to the family and amazes them with her determination to live independently, with her two cats, in the home where they were raised.

"I spend a lot of time with my family," says Marion, who says she felt good enough after her last chemotherapy session to go see her new grandson — grandchild Number 4.

"I'm realistic. I know this isn't a cure," she says of her drug and chemo treatment. I'm enjoying my time...."

At one point, she chuckles. "I guess I've had an interesting life," she says, "if you like soap operas."

EPA halts asbestos removal method
By Andrew Schneider
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/07/2004

The Environmental Protection Agency reversed course Friday and permanently banned the use of a controversial demolition method near Lambert Field that critics say increased the risk of exposure to potentially deadly asbestos fibers.

More than 260 homes and eight buildings had been torn down using the untested demolition process, dubbed the "wet method" because water is sprayed on the structure as it is torn down rather than first removing asbestos by hand.

The EPA said in a 51-page report obtained by the Post-Dispatch that it had reviewed air samples taken at about a tenth of the destroyed property - all the samples the airport could provide - and could reach no conclusion on whether neighbors or demolition workers were exposed to asbestos fibers.

In many cases, a home was demolished while people still lived in adjacent houses.

"We were not provided adequate sampling data to determine whether there was a risk to the public or the workers from asbestos," said Roger Wilmouth, of the EPA's National Risk Management Laboratory.

In interviews in May, when the Post-Dispatch first reported that the airport was using the unorthodox method, Deputy Airport Director Gerard Slay and his environmental contractor said they had gone beyond what the EPA had requested and monitored for asbestos release at all the homes and eight commercial buildings where the wet methods had been used.

However, they were able to give Wilmouth and his EPA team partial test results for just 29 houses and seven commercial buildings.

When asked Friday about the apparent conflict, Slay said through a spokesman that he was talking in May about testing that was done prior to demolition of the houses.

About 90 percent of the testing the airport paid for used a technique called phase contrast microscopy, or PCM. "PCM cannot 'see' individual asbestos fibers ... and misses being able to count up to 99 percent of the asbestos fibers actually present because they are too short to be counted or too thin to be seen," said the EPA report.

The more accurate and meaningful test is transmission electron microscopy, or TEM. This method, which costs at least four times what is usually charged for PCM, was only used on three buildings, the report said.

Asbestos can sicken or kill when the microscopic, needlelike fibers are inhaled and become lodged in the soft tissue of the lung. If the fibers are not coughed out, over time they become infected and cause scarring. Twenty to 30 years after exposure to the fibers, people can develop asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.

Leonard Griggs, the airport director, said in a faxed statement that he could not comment on any of the EPA's actions until they had studied the agency's information.

"Our asbestos-related procedures have always been approved by the appropriate regulatory body prior to our using them," Griggs said in the statement.

On May 30, the Post-Dispatch reported that the airport was using the wet method to demolish homes in the way of a planned third parallel runway. At the time, Slay said, about 500 homes remained to be demolished. Slay said then that he didn't know how many contained asbestos.

The airport began using the technique in 2000 without EPA permission. The agency said that it didn't know the city was using an unapproved method to remove asbestos until hundreds of structures had been leveled. In the spring of 2003, after the EPA's office in Dallas reported that St. Louis was using the unauthorized method, the EPA's regional office overseeing St. Louis ordered a halt to its use.

Missouri U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond immediately petitioned then-EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman to lift the ban, stating that conventional asbestos removal would cost the airport too much time and money. Bond heads the Senate committee that sets the EPA's budget.

Within weeks, EPA's regional office in Kansas City granted St. Louis officials permission to use the wet method until March 2004. When that permission was extended for another year, it sparked an angry outcry within the agency. EPA lawyers and program managers in headquarters said the extension was illegal and violated the Clean Air Act.

The act requires that asbestos-containing material be removed by trained specialists wearing respirators and protective clothing. Air monitors around the sites measure for release of the cancer-causing fibers. The asbestos is carefully bagged and taken in covered trucks to sites certified to handle hazardous waste.

This degree of caution is needed, the EPA says, to ensure that deadly fibers are not released in the air, soil or water because asbestos has no known threshold - the lowest measurable amount of a substance - that can cause harm.

The person who approved the airport's extension, Bruce Buckheit, former director of the EPA's Air Enforcement Division in Washington, said he did so only because the airport and the health department in charge of the project "assured us that there were no people at risk, that all the land had been purchased and the people removed."

The county health department said it never made that statement to anyone.

"We were never asked and we never said that," Janet Williams, the health department's division director for environmental protection, said earlier this year. "It may have been a misunderstanding. We certainly did not want to lead EPA or Washington to believe that that area was totally unoccupied, because we know it's not."

Friday's order banned the use of the method permanently, with the exception of two buildings that have been declared unsafe for workers to enter.

"We have concerns about the authority to issue (the extension) order and for that reason and others, we have decided to rescind that order," said Becky Dolph, a senior attorney in the EPA's regional office of general counsel.

The $1 billion runway project has been a source of debate for years. Neighboring Bridgeton mounted an unsuccessful court challenge to block the project. St. Louis, which owns and operates Lambert Field, and the Federal Aviation Administration say the new runway is needed to reduce weather-related flight delays.

Andrew Schneider
E-mail: aschneider@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8101

Union welcomes asbestos decision
Thursday, 12 August 2004, 5:43 pm
Press Release: Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union

August, 12, 2004
Media Release
Union welcomes asbestos decision

The country's largest union is looking closely at a decision granting accident compensation to the family of an asbestosis victim to see how it may apply to other afflicted workers.

Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little today welcomed the decision by the District Court to award nearly $100,000 compensation to the family of a worker who died in 2002 after being exposed to asbestos at work 40 years earlier.

"It's good news. Anybody afflicted by this dreadful condition deserves compensation," he said.

"We call on the government and ACC to ensure that any worker affected by asbestosis or mesothelioma is fairly compensated and to not use legal loopholes to avoid paying compensation."

UWA medical studies get $12m federal help

Medical researchers at the University of WA are to get federal government grants totalling $12 million.

They include work on attempts to develop a simple blood test for mesothelioma, an aggressive and fatal form of asbestos-caused cancer.

It usually kills people within nine months of being identified.

Julie Bishop, federal Liberal Curtin MP, said: "It is difficult to diagnose mesothelioma and these tests could allow earlier treatment.

"Such a test would be of widespread value to the community as a useful screening tool for people exposed to asbestos.

"Given that early treatment of cancer is more effective than late treatment in most clinical situations, this is likely to improve the prognosis for this terrible disease."

The UWA projects to benefit from federal money are:

• Professor Bruce Armstrong: $1,705,000 for studying childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia;

• Associate professor Yogesan Kanagasingam: $343,000 to develop an internet-based health care system for rural and remote communities;

• Dr Bruce Robinson: $307,500 for researching a new blood test for asbestos-induced cancer;

• Associate professor Martha Hickey: $280,000 to study mechanisms of irregular bleeding in women using hormone replacement therapy;

• Dr Everett Magann: $285,000 to investigate the effects of improving physical fitness by swimming on pregnancies complicated by diabetes;

• Associate professor Nigel Laing: $225,000 for the investigation of childhood muscle disease;

• Dr Timothy Moss: $268,000 to study the effects on brain development of a lack of oxygen before birth in pregnancies complicated by infection;

• Dr Livia Hool: $450,017 to study channel function in cardiac muscle cells during lowered oxygen tension;

• Professor Alan Harvey: $405,000 to study regeneration and repair in the rodent visual system; and

• Dr Darryl Knight: $384,000 to study regulation of structural changes in the airways of chronic asthmatics.

Early clue to asbestos disease gives hope
By Deborah Kennedy

MESOTHELIOMA is back in the media spotlight, with the ALP handing back political donations from James Hardie Constructions to victims, and the company itself agreeing to top up a compensation fund.

However, for Bruce Robinson, the asbestos-fibre-related disease is always at the forefront of his mind.

The 54-year-old Perth specialist, who was recently awarded the international Wagner Medal for his contribution to worldwide research into the disease, has spent the past 20 years searching for ways to detect the condition earlier and prevent its rapid, and ultimately lethal, spread.

Late last year, the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital researcher and his team helped to develop a method that could revolutionise the diagnosis of mesothelioma years before symptoms appear.

With the disease forming in the pleura, a hidden part of the lung, diagnosis is normally only possible after symptoms, such as breathlessness, have developed.

From there, the sufferer is usually dead within a year.

"Having some form of early blood test is very important for us," Professor Robinson says.

In conjunction with researchers in Seattle, the professor and his team have isolated a soluble protein or marker that has the potential to indicate the presence of the disease years earlier.

"We have a number of patients in whom this marker went up between one and six years before they presented to the doctor," Professor Robinson says.

"That is a clue to the possibility that we could use this as a screening test. I guess it's the equivalent of women having mammograms for breast cancer."

Although Western Australia has the highest incidence of mesothelioma in the world, there are at least 20,000 cases around the globe.

"In Australia and Europe, mesothelioma is more common than a lot of diseases we know about, such as brain tumours, bone cancer and liver cancer," he says.

Inspired by stories from dying patients, Professor Robinson wrote a national bestseller called Fathering From The Fast Lane - a guide for busy dads.

The father of two boys and a girl is now penning a book about the special relationship between women and their fathers.

Professor Robinson, who travels the world lecturing in his field, began his mesothelioma research in 1984 after returning from working in England and the US, having graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1973.

"I only got into lung diseases because when I was in England it happened to be the first job that came up and I really enjoyed it," he says.

"Then, when I got back to Perth in late 1984, I noticed something that was a bit frightening. What had been a rare disease for me as a medical student was becoming a very common disease at that time."

A colleague asked Professor Robinson if he could apply the techniques he had learned overseas to researching the disease.

"I thought, on the one hand, here's an opportunity but, on the other, I thought here's a moral obligation."

He says he's also happy to have helped change the world medical profession's negative focus on mesothelioma in Western Australia.

"Because we have created a world leading centre, they now think of hope, success and leadership," he says.

EPA to test kids' asbestos exposure
Agency will simulate activities taht couls stir up contaminated dust.
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, August 15, 2004
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

Starting next month in El Dorado Hills, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to conduct the first tests designed to gauge residents' exposure to naturally occurring asbestos, particularly those of children at play, internal records obtained by The Bee show.
Government contractors in protective jumpsuits with respirators and air monitors would simulate youths playing around a jungle gym, skidding a dirt bike, sliding into home plate and other activities that could kick up dust containing the invisible, cancer-causing fibers from native asbestos-containing rock churned up by development.

The carefully choreographed air and soil sampling would occur on the dirt baseball diamonds and children's playground at the El Dorado Hills Community Center and on sports fields at Jackson and Silva Valley elementary schools and Rolling Hills Middle School, according to a draft of the testing plan.

Testing scenarios also are planned along the unpaved New York Creek running trail.
EPA officials said they do not know whether the proposed test sites contain asbestos. But they suspect the areas could be contaminated, judging by their proximity to the West Bear Mountains Fault, which transects the affluent community of 20,000. Asbestos forms in infinitesimally narrow cracks caused by movements along earthquake faults.

The elaborate sampling is the core of an EPA environment assessment announced in February after the agency found very high levels of asbestos fibers on paths and sports fields at Oak Ridge High School, opposite the community center. EPA contractors spent the spring and summer capping contaminated grounds with concrete or clean fill and landscaping. Students return to school Monday.

A number of agencies, schools, builders and residents have screened foothill properties for the potential hazard since 1998, after a Bee investigation found construction in the fast-developing region unearthing and stirring up asbestos. Those tests confirmed only the presence or absence of the fibrous minerals.

The EPA's proposed tests would attempt to answer the next critical questions: Are people inhaling these fibers? From what activities? Under what conditions?

Scientists say nothing short of a lung biopsy can reveal the exposures of health concern: Asbestos fibers of certain sizes, shapes and chemical composition that manage to bypass the natural defenses in the airways and lodge indefinitely deep in the lungs, setting the stage for cancer decades later.

The EPA aims to approximate human exposures, especially children's. Under the test plan, contract workers would try to copy children's dust-raising activities and wear filtered air pumps at the breathing heights of adolescents to mimic their lungs.

"It's pretty cutting-edge stuff," said Dan Meer, supervisor of the EPA investigation. "We are attempting to come as close as we can to what people are exposed to. This is not something that a lot of people have done."

Scientists do not know how much inhalation of asbestos is harmful. And EPA officials said the proposed investigation won't help solve that mystery.

But the relatively few studies on the hazard suggest that brief, intermittent exposures could be enough to instigate asbestos-related disease decades later, EPA scientists said. And the risk of disease increases with the level and duration of exposure.

The environmental agency has scheduled a public forum to unveil the test plan at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Folsom Community Center. It also has lined up several scientists to discuss the emerging science of naturally occurring asbestos at the center this Wednesday and Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

In addition, representatives from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said they would be available to talk to residents about asbestos-related health concerns Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. at the Cameron Park Library.

The Bee obtained a July 29 draft of the test plan prepared by Ecology and Environment Inc., which reports more than $1 billion in EPA contract work since 1979.

The test strategy builds on a recent EPA investigation of Libby, Mont., where a high percentage of the population has fallen ill or died from asbestos-related diseases. The catastrophe stems from the nearby historic strip-mining of vermiculite, a nontoxic mineral used in potting soil and insulation. The vermiculite was extracted from ore that also contained a highly toxic type of asbestos called amphibole.

That's the same kind of asbestos builders of homes, roads and schools have been churning up in parts of the fast-growing El Dorado County foothills.

EPA investigators in Libby learned the amphibole type of asbestos in many ways differs from the more prevalent, commercially used chrysotile type.

Most scientists consider the needlelike amphibole fibers to be many times more potent than the curled chrysotile fibers in causing mesothelioma, an almost always fatal cancer of the membranes lining the chest and other body cavities.

The Montana investigators were mystified as to why their air monitors weren't picking up amphibole fibers in homes and yards where they were found in settle dust and on the surface of the ground.

They learned the testing methods developed for the better-known chrysotile asbestos are ineffective for the amphibole fibers. The latter settles out of the air much faster. Some kind of disturbance, such as sweeping or walking, must occur to re-suspend the particles in the air where they can be inhaled by humans or air monitors. The EPA then had contractors wear air monitors as they mechanically tilled yards and vacuumed homes.

The method, known as aggressive sampling, differs markedly from the asbestos sampling methods the state Air Resources Board used in the foothills before the EPA began its investigation last fall.

In nearly all cases, air-board technicians took samples from tripod-mounted air pumps where there was no activity that would release asbestos fibers. And in nearly every case, the air-board tests showed no amphibole fibers, including areas where the minerals have been found in the topsoil.

Samplers set up in the absence of people and activity weren't capturing the potential exposure.

That's because people help define their own exposures by their proximity to the source and their movements, creating their own cloud of particles, according to exposure assessment experts. Scientists call this the "Pigpen effect," referring to the Peanuts comic-strip character perpetually cloaked in a dust cloud.

EPA officials saw this effect this year as contractors were scraping asbestos-laden dirt off the surface of softball diamonds at Oak Ridge High. Stationary monitors posted at the perimeter of the campus picked up little or no asbestos.

But, Mears said, "People wearing the monitors caught a pretty good load."

The state air board recently proposed that EPA strap mini-air pumps and filters on 100 student volunteers at Oak Ridge High to better reflect what teenagers are breathing as they go about their lives.

EPA officials said they had ethical qualms about using students. But their test plan involves monitors on adult contractors in the simulations.

The testing at the El Dorado Hills Community Center would occur mostly on non-landscaped portions of baseball diamonds and soccer fields. The jungle gym area also would be tested to see if children might be breathing asbestos fibers kicked up by wind or sports and field-maintenance work.

Wayne Lowery, general manger of the El Dorado Hills Community Services District, said the testing is not expected to interfere with soccer games and practices at the community center.

EPA officials said they have not decided whether it will conduct a cleanup of asbestos if contamination is found at the test sites, said Mark Merchant, an agency spokesman.

"That's a decision we'll make once the assessment is completed," he said.

FDA Approves Lilly's Alimta(R) (pemetrexed) for the Second-Line Treatment of Advanced Lung Cancer
Thursday August 19, 12:16 pm ET
Accelerated Approval Results in Second U.S. Indication in Six Months for Alimta

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, Eli Lilly and Company's (NYSE: LLY - News) anti-cancer drug Alimta® (pronounced: "uh-LIMB-ta") received its second U.S. approval in 2004. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval for Alimta for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer in previously treated patients. In February, Alimta was approved, in combination with cisplatin (a common chemotherapy agent), for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer often associated with asbestos exposure.

"Alimta's development is a demonstration of our commitment to patients with cancer and is testament to our emergence as a leader in oncology," said Sidney Taurel, Lilly's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "With the advances we are making -- and will continue to make -- via our existing and future oncology products, we are confident that Lilly will emerge as one of the premier oncology companies in the world."

Over the past decade, lung cancer rates have continued to rise and now the disease is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 174,000 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with lung cancer each year.

Fortunately, developments in chemotherapy, including Lilly's Gemzar® (gemcitabine, HCl), are helping an increasing number of patients to live longer after initial treatment, or first-line therapy. But, due to the aggressive nature of lung cancer, the disease recurs in the majority of patients and only 40,000 to 50,000 are well enough to tolerate treatment in the second-line setting. Patients treated with the current standard of care in the second-line setting, Taxotere® (docetaxel), usually experience severe toxic side effects such as neutropenia (a decrease in infection fighting white blood cells), neutropenia with fever and diarrhea, as well as hair loss.

Alimta is an antifolate that simultaneously blocks three separate enzyme targets vital to the survival of cancer cells. Alimta's administration includes vitamin supplementation with folic acid and vitamin B12. A team of researchers led by Lilly discovered that this vitamin regimen significantly reduces the drug's side effects without negatively impacting its ability to kill cancer cells. The administration cycle for Alimta is a 10-minute infusion, once every three weeks.

"Alimta represents a medical advance in the treatment of lung cancer," said Paul Bunn, M.D., director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. "The benefits Alimta offers patients are clear; it is much better tolerated than the current standard; and is conveniently administered."

Paolo Paoletti, vice president of oncology clinical research at Lilly said, "Alimta represents a true breakthrough in cancer care and is pushing the boundaries of conventional therapies by demonstrating a good response rate, while maintaining reduced toxicity via vitamin supplementation."

The FDA accelerated approval is based on Alimta's activity and favorable safety profile as evidenced in one of the largest Phase III studies to date in the second-line setting that compared Alimta directly to Taxotere. In July, the study was the basis for a unanimous recommendation for accelerated approval by the FDA's Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee.

Alimta's approval was based on the drug's ability to reduce tumor size (response rate) in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients.

The FDA also cited Alimta's significantly improved safety profile as compared to Taxotere as a supporting basis for approval. Patients on Alimta also experienced less Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (a decrease in infection- fighting white blood cell counts); less neutropenia with fever; less diarrhea; fewer hospitalizations due to adverse events and less hair loss. As with all chemotherapy agents, patients on Alimta and Taxotere experienced low-blood cell counts. Patients treated with Alimta experienced higher rates of Grade 3 or 4 Alanine Transaminase (ALT), a laboratory measurement of liver function. Some of the most common Grade 3 or 4 toxicities associated with Alimta (regardless of causality) include anemia (8 percent vs. 7 percent for Taxotere); fatigue (16 percent vs. 17 percent for Taxotere); anorexia (5 percent vs. 8 percent for Taxotere); and infection without neutropenia (6 percent vs. 4 percent for Taxotere).

In accordance with the FDA's accelerated approval, Lilly will continue to gather data for Alimta in non-small cell lung cancer.

Alimta's approval in second-line non-small cell lung cancer is the latest in a series of research advances by Lilly Oncology this year:

In February, Alimta, with cisplatin, was approved by the FDA for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure.
In June, the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued a positive opinion for a dual indication for Alimta. The opinion recommends approval of single-agent Alimta for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer after prior chemotherapy and in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma in patients who have not received prior chemotherapy.
In June, the FDA approved Gemzar, in combination with Taxol® (paclitaxel), for the front-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer, which strikes 55,000 women annually in the U.S. Gemzar's breast cancer indication marks its third U.S. approval. Gemzar is also approved for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer and, in combination with cisplatin, for the first- line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic lung cancer.
Several European countries approved Gemzar, in combination with carboplatin, for the treatment of recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer. Lilly's Gemzar is also approved in Europe under national licenses either as a single-agent or combination agent for the treatment of pancreatic, bladder and first-line non-small cell lung cancers. Gemzar, in combination with paclitaxel, is approved in most European countries in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
For full prescribing information on Alimta and Gemzar, please go to www.lillyoncology.com

About Eli Lilly and Company

Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lilly provides answers -- through medicines and information -- for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com .

About Lilly Oncology

Lilly Oncology, a division of Eli Lilly and Company, is a world leader in cancer research and treatment, with therapies that are considered a standard of care in a number of difficult-to-treat tumor types built upon a vibrant and cutting edge research platform driving therapeutic innovation. Lilly Oncology is committed to delivering realistic solutions to physicians, patients and payers that materially improve the course of cancer care. With a promising pipeline of innovative products built on strong scientific foundations, Lilly strives to continually find ways to offer hope in the way of answers for patients.

This press release contains forward-looking statements about the potential of Alimta for the treatment of second-line non-small cell lung cancer and reflects Lilly's current beliefs. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of development and commercialization. There is no guarantee that the product will prove to be commercially successful. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

Alimta(R) (pemetrexed, Lilly)
Gemzar(R) (gemcitabine HCl, Lilly)
Taxotere(R) (docetaxel, Aventis)
Taxol(R) (paclitaxel, Bristol-Myers Squibb)

Risk of Lung Cancer Reduced in Men Who Quit Smoking

The results of a study recently published in the British Journal of Cancer indicate that men who quit smoking can significantly reduce their risk of developing lung cancer. The benefit of quitting was found even if the men waited until middle age to do so.

Lung cancer is the most common of all cancers world wide. There are three types of lung cancer: non-small cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma, and mesothelioma. Non-small cell and small cell carcinoma are by far the most common types of lung cancer, whereas mesothelioma is a rare form of lung cancer that attacks the lining of the lung tissue. Smoking can be attributed to 85% of diagnosed cases of lung cancer due to the damage of lungs caused by cigarettes. Factors determining a smoker’s risk include the number of years the person has been smoking, as well as the number of cigarettes smoked each day.

In this study, researchers gathered data from 6,523 patients who had been diagnosed with lung cancer and 9,648 individuals who had not been diagnosed with lung cancer from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Sweden. The risk of developing lung cancer among smokers were between 6%-15% in the UK, Germany, Italy and Sweden. The risk of developing lung cancer was reduced by 80%-91% in men who quit smoking before the age of 40. In further analysis, the risk of developing lung cancer was reduced by 57%-69% in men who quit smoking before the age of 50.

The researchers concluded that even for long-term smokers, quitting up until middle age is beneficial in significantly reducing the risk of developing lung cancer. In the future, lung cancer rates and mortality may be determined by the success of current smokers’ ability to quit.

Reference: Crispo A, Brennan P, Jockel KH, et al. The cumulative risk of lung cancer among current, ex- and never smokers in European men. British Journal of Cancer. Advanced online publication August 3, 2004; doi: 10.1038/sjc.bjc6602078.

FDA Approves Lung Cancer Drug Alimta
FDA Approves Eli Lilly Cancer Drug to Treat Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in Patients

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Aug. 19, 2004 — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a cancer drug made by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. to treat advanced non-small cell lung cancer in patients who have undergone chemotherapy.
According to the American Cancer Society, non-small cell lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the nation. Eighty percent of 174,000 new lung cancer cases diagnosed each year are non-small cell lung cancer. By the time most patients arrive for treatment, the cancer is widespread.

The drug, Alimta, in clinical trials was found to shrink tumors as effectively as another cancer-fighting drug, Taxotere. But Alimta did so with fewer troubling side effects, which include hair loss, tingling fingers and toes, depressed blood count, and hospitalizations for subsequent infection.

"Lung cancer is a very devastating disease and the therapies can be hard on patients," said Roy Herbst, chief of thoracic oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The Houston, Texas, facility sees nearly 1,500 new lung cancer patients per year and treated at least 20 in the Alimta vs. Taxotere study.

One in 50 patients taking Alimta had side effects. That benefit came without any lessening of the drug's effectiveness. That's significant as cancer care moves toward more combination drug or sequential therapies, Herbst said.

"We can only do that if the drugs we give (patients) leave them in a state ... where they're still strong. You can kill the cancer, but leave the patient feeling well," he said.

The Alimta treatment, 500 mg every 21 days, costs patients $3,900 per month, according to the company. The anti-cancer drug works by interfering with three enzymes on which tumors depend.

"There's no question, the survival was comparable to the survival with the best drugs we have," said Dr. Paul Bunn, director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and principal investigator for the clinical trial. "This drug is as good as anything else we have. It does benefit patients."

Dr. Richard Gralla, president of the New York Lung Cancer Alliance, estimated tens of thousands of lung-cancer patients per year would be eligible to take Alimta.

The trial tested a simple way to reduce side effects: Taking Alimta in concert with folate pills and B-12 injections.

"When you take those special B vitamins, it further reduces the side effects of the chemotherapy," Gralla said.

New cancer drug offers hope for longer life

23.08.2004
By REBECCA WALSH
A new treatment for asbestos-related lung cancer has been registered for use in New Zealand.

Alimta (Pemetrexed) has been shown to extend the life expectancy of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma an average of 12 months, compared with six to eight months on existing treatments.

New Zealand is in the midst of an epidemic of asbestos cancer deaths and thousands of people, particularly men, are expected to die over the next decade.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lung lining which makes it difficult for people to breathe and eventually spreads to other vital organs. It kills about 60 New Zealanders a year.

Auckland Hospital medical oncologist Dr Richard Sullivan said that until now survival rates for the cancer had been very poor.

The disease could take up to 40 years to develop after people were first exposed to asbestos, and most were not diagnosed until the cancer was in its advanced stages.

The new drug, which was administered intravenously, extended a person's life expectancy and improved their quality of life, Dr Sullivan said.

Side-effects included fatigue, nausea and vomiting.

Alimta, produced by drug company Eli Lilly, costs about $4000 a cycle.

James Sleigh of Eli Lilly said the company was preparing a submission for public funding of the drug.

Dusty death: how asbestos hit Australia

Post-war housing boom planted seeds of deadly illnesses

David Fickling in Sydney
Sunday August 22, 2004
The Observer

Travellers know they are approaching Wittenoom from the health warnings posted every few miles along the roadside. By law, tourist maps must warn you away from the town before you reach it. When you arrive, the signs advise you to keep doors and windows closed,
Around 161,000 tonnes of blue asbestos was mined from Wittenoom by 7,000 mostly immigrant labourers before the mine closed in 1966.

The mineral, also known as crocidolite, is the most fatal variety of asbestos, and Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council estimates that the final death toll among mine workers operation will rise to 2,000, on a par with Bhopal and Chernobyl in the first rank of industrial disasters.

Even so, the 15 remaining residents are determined to stay despite attempts by the government to cut off their electricity, water and telephone lines. 'We've got no intention of moving,' says Lorraine Thomas, the town's councillor and proprietor of its only shop.

The West Australian government has plans to shut down the town entirely, closing its approach roads, demolishing the 25 remaining buildings, and even renaming roads carrying its name. In May buildings at the abandoned mine were finally demolished.

But Thomas is sceptical of claims about the health effects of crocidolite, despite the recent deaths of two neighbours from mesothelioma, a virulent cancer caused by asbestos exposure. She says that testing of airborne particles in the town have shown that levels of asbestos fibre are no worse than in most urban areas in Australia.

The problems that began at Wittenoom have spread around Australia, leaving the country with the world's worst asbestos disease problem. With a third of the UK's population, its annual asbestos disease fatalities of more than 3,000 people match Britain's death-for-death.

In the optimistic atmosphere of postwar Australia, asbestos seemed to make a lot of sense. The country is dotted with deposits of the mineral, from the crocidolite seams of Wittenoom to the white asbestos lode of Woodsreef in New South Wales, where 500,000 tonnes of chrysotile was mined before the plant closed in 1983.

A hot, dry country whose postwar motto was 'Populate or perish' saw the insulating fibre as the perfect material to build the millions of cheap, cool homes needed to house a population projected to quadruple by 1973. One in three houses built in Australia before 1982 contains asbestos, and local slang even has its own word for it, 'fibro'.

The workers allotted to mine the asbestos were mostly southern Europeans. Ivan Ivandich was a 19-year-old Yugoslav refugee in Italy when he signed a two-year work contract to emigrate to the young country. He had little idea that he would end up processing asbestos dust in the 40C heat of Western Australia's far north.

'In the first job, I had to go in the mills filling the bags. The dust meant you couldn't see five metres in front of you. They give us gas masks, but after a hour the filter was full. I said, Jesus, I don't think any prisoners in the world have been treated like this.'

He was not the only one alarmed at conditions. Since the late 1940s government health inspectors had warned about the dangers of asbestos diseases at the site, but little had been done by the owners, CSR, to improve conditions.

The mills were poorly ventilated and used second-hand equipment, while workers slept in barrack dormitories and ate in communal tents. For Christmas, their bosses gave them a bottle of beer.

Since the late 1980s CSR has paid out millions of dollars to the victims of the Wittenoom mine, following a court ruling that the company had acted with a reckless disregard for its employees' safety.

Since 1989 it has settled more than 1,400 claims in Australia and has a further 600 pending, and has established a A$324m (£125m) fund to pay for these cases and a further 130,000 in America, to where many of its fibre-board products were exported.

Ella Sweeney, treasurer of the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia, points out that the tragedy of Wittenoom dwindles into insignificance beside the effects of asbestos manufacturing. Across Australia, 45,000 people are expected to die from asbestos-related cancers before the epidemic peaks in 2020.

For four years in the mid-1970s she worked at a Sydney hospital where she says several co-workers have developed asbestos-related diseases: 'They did a lot of reno- vations. They took the roof off the maternity unit, put another floor on and put the roof back on.

Most staff tried to find the quickest way from A to B, so we'd go through that bit of the building. I would go back to the office with white dust in my hair and didn't think anything of it.'

Two decades after it became obsolete in the building trade, asbestos was only finally outlawed in Australia this year and the money now is not in producing it, but in getting rid of it. McMahon, the Adelaide company that led the clean-up of Wittenoom, has made A$100m in the past 15 years from decommissioning contaminated sites.

For Wittenoom's remaining residents, that nationwide public health problem means there is little incentive to leave. 'I made a decision based on the facts that as far as living here, there's a risk to everyone in Australia,' says Thomas. 'There's a greater risk in Perth than here.'

News-Medical.Net Exposure to simian virus 40 (SV40) is not associated with cancer in humans
Posted By: News-Medical in Medical Research News
Published: Monday, 23-Aug-2004

Two upcoming studies by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), provide further evidence that exposure to simian virus 40 (SV40) is not associated with cancer in humans.
Some U.S. polio vaccines administered from 1955-1962 were accidentally contaminated with SV40 because the vaccines were grown in monkey kidney tissue. Before the discovery of the virus led to changes in vaccine manufacture, millions of Americans received SV40-contaminated polio vaccines. This has been a significant public health concern, as SV40 has been shown to cause cancer in experimental animals. However, studies in humans have not proved conclusive.

Because some laboratory studies report that SV40 DNA can be detected in various childhood tumors, scientists led by Eric Engels, M.D., M.P.H., an investigator in NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, evaluated cancer risk of 54,796 U.S. children whose mothers received polio vaccine during pregnancy that may have been contaminated with SV40. Engels and colleagues hypothesized that mothers who were vaccinated against polio before 1963 might have become infected with SV40 by this route and transmitted the virus to their children. In animals, SV40 is most likely to cause cancer when infection occurs during infancy. The scientists wondered whether transmission of infection from a mother to her child during pregnancy or soon after birth might be related to the later development of childhood cancer.

The researchers compared cancer risk in children whose mothers received pre-1963 polio vaccine with cancer risk in children whose mothers did not receive pre-1963 polio vaccine. They also measured SV40 antibodies in the mothers of 50 of these children who developed cancer and the mothers of 200 children without cancer. One of this study's strengths is the researchers' use of two different means of detecting SV40 antibodies, which are produced by exposure to or infection with the virus. The first method, called a plaque neutralization assay, has long been considered the gold standard. They also used a virus-like particle assay, a newer test with high sensitivity and specificity, allowing researchers to distinguish between SV40 antibodies and those against other related viruses.

Interestingly, the investigators found that the incidence of neural tumors and hematologic malignancies was roughly 2.5 times higher in children whose mothers received pre-1963 vaccine than in children whose mothers did not. However, the pattern of cancers in children whose mothers received the vaccine was not what would be predicted if SV40 caused cancer: the types of cancers varied and did not correspond to the types in which SV40 DNA has reportedly been detected. "It was notable that only one brain tumor of the types in which SV40 DNA has reportedly been detected--an ependymoma--was observed, and that was in a child whose mother had not received pre-1963 polio vaccine," explained Engels. "More cases of the types of cancer hypothesized to be linked to SV40--for example ependyomas, choroid plexus tumors, and osteosarcomas--would be expected if SV40 were the cause of the tumors in these children." Additionally, few women had antibodies to SV40 by either of the antibody tests, and there was no consistent relationship between the development of SV40 antibodies during pregnancy and cancer in children.

The scientists acknowledge that the small number of children and the number of individual cancer types seen were limitations. Nonetheless, as Engels summarized, "Overall, these results argue against an important role for SV40 in childhood cancers."

In the second study, Engels and scientists at other institutions evaluated cancer risk in veterans who were exposed to SV40 in an early U.S. Army adenovirus vaccine given between 1959 and 1961. This is the first follow-up study of recipients of SV40-contaminated adenovirus vaccine. The adenovirus vaccine was administered to new military recruits, who experienced epidemics of respiratory disease caused by adenovirus arising from crowded living conditions during basic training. Like the polio vaccine, adenovirus vaccine was grown in monkey kidney tissue. However, because adenovirus cannot grow in such tissue without SV40 acting as a helper virus, almost all batches of this vaccine probably contained SV40. The adenovirus vaccine was given to Army recruits during two well-defined time periods, alternating with three periods of non-use, during the period 1959-1961. This pattern of exposure to SV40-contaminated adenovirus vaccine allowed for a rigorous comparison of cancer risk in vaccine-exposed and unexposed servicemen.

The researchers used Veterans Administration and military records to identify individuals with cancer and to classify them with respect to receipt of the Army's adenovirus vaccine. The study included cases of mesothelioma, brain tumors, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are tumor types previously hypothesized to be linked to SV40. Importantly, the investigators did not find evidence that SV40-contaminated adenovirus vaccine was associated with an increased risk for these cancers.

The authors noted some limitations of the study. There were only 10 mesothelioma cases and the numbers of cases for individual types of brain tumors were small. These small numbers limit the study's statistical power. Nonetheless, the numbers for all types of brain tumors combined, and for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, were substantial. Additionally, most subjects would also have received polio vaccine possibly contaminated with SV40. However, not every dose of polio vaccine contained SV40, and exposure to polio vaccine was not dependent on whether individuals received adenovirus vaccine. Thus, while the widespread use of polio vaccine could have diluted an association between adenovirus vaccine and cancer, this effect was likely minor.

Engels concluded, "Our results should be reassuring to military veterans of the 1950s and 1960s, some of whom received adenovirus vaccines. This study did not find that their exposure to this vaccine was related to an increased risk of cancer."

Although SV40 causes cancer in laboratory animals, substantial epidemiological evidence has accumulated to indicate that SV40 likely does not cause cancer in humans. However, additional laboratory research is needed to better define methods for SV40 detection, as laboratory studies looking for SV40 DNA in human tumors have offered conflicting results. There is also a need to conduct additional studies evaluating cancer patients and controls for antibodies to SV40, which would be present in cancer patients if SV40 causes cancer.

http://www.nci.nih.gov

How do you say goodbye?

By Minna Jacobs
Tuesday, August 24, 2004

This is an article about love and life -- and death. Lewis and I met one evening a long time ago and our young lives changed forever when we fell in love, married and raised a wonderful family. He worked hard to provide for the children and me, never dreaming that one day, many years later, the mere step of leaving the house day after day and entering that workplace would contribute to the last great step into Glory.

When that illness became apparent and we were told there was no hope, my heart began to develop a tiny crack that will never close until I, too, take that last step into, as people say, a Better Place.

All of his life he had enjoyed the experience to the fullest extent. After his family, came hunting and fishing and he taught his children the joys of the outdoors. They were wonderful years -- all 57 of them as we shared the happiness and the sorrows of this thing called life. We watched, with mixed emotions as the little ones grew into adults, found their place in the scheme of things, married and gave us the pleasure of having grandchildren to love. And how many folks are privileged to be around for the births of four great-grandchildren? We were, thank God and true to form, Lewis was the first person to make Tyler Jacob Eicher laugh out loud by playing Peek-a-Boo with him. Children and animals just seemed to gravitate to him. It was probably because they recognized the love he had for them.

And as that saying goes: He never met a stranger.

As Brandon and Kristopher (his first grandsons) grew, he showed them how to place corn and beans in neat rows in his garden. Then they could hardly wait to see the first tiny sprout. And as they watched the hills of potatoes grow and blossom they waited anxiously for the time to dig them up.

As our children grew we went together to church on Sunday because "church" had been a part of his life since his own childhood.

After he retired, he and I spent almost every moment together. We would get up in the morning and make up our minds where and how we would spend that day -- often getting in the car and just going in whichever direction struck our fancy. And those kind of days lasted pretty much up to the time when the first hint of illness began to appear. Then we often sat on our familiar old back porch -- talking and laughing and sharing our memories, until memories became a thing of the past for him. But then I would remind him of some of them and he would smile and "remember."

Then came the most unexpected news of all -- the presence of Mesothelioma, the terrible disease that would finally take his life. God was gracious in giving him some good days even then, but eventually that precious gift of days became a time of pain and discomfort held in check by the skills of hospice workers. And although he, at times, became a bit "testy" with them as his combined illnesses progressed, I know in the "real" Lewis's heart he loved them and appreciated the care they provided.

Time for Lewis, finally came to a close and he quietly escaped all pain by slipping away to the arms of his Savior.

How do you say goodbye to someone you have loved for the greater part of your life? I can tell you it is not easy. That is when you thank God for wonderful memories and lean heavily on His strength and boundless love.

After 57 years of sharing everything with this kind and loving man I want to thank God for Lewis's life and for the heavenly love and peace that now surrounds him.

ccup Environ Med. 2004 Sep;61(9):757-63.
Occupational and environmental exposures and lung cancer in an industrialised area in Italy.
Fano V, Michelozzi P, Ancona C, Capon A, Forastiere F, Perucci CA.

Epidemiology of pleural mesothelioma in Italy.
Filiberti R, Montanaro F.

National Cancer Research Institute, Environmental Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mesothelioma Registry of Liguria, Genoa, Italy.

The incidence of malignant mesothelioma (MM) in Italy is
increasing and is assumed to be a consequence of high levels of
asbestos exposure. Establishment of the National Mesothelioma Registry (ReNaM) and the co-operation of five regional centers has allowed the estimation of the incidence of malignant mesothelioma in major parts of Italy and the definition of exposure to asbestos.

Meeting is set on "wet method" of demolition
By Sara Shipley
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/25/2004

The Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting tonight to answer questions about a controversial demolition method that may have released deadly asbestos fibers.

But the agency won't be able to say whether the so-called "wet method" is safe or whether residents or workers were exposed. More than 260 homes and eight buildings have been torn down using the process to make room for a new runway at Lambert Field.

"We don't know, based on the data we have, whether or not there was any asbestos released," said Roger Wilmoth, an EPA scientist who reviewed air samples provided by the airport.

The meeting will provide the first public forum for questions since the Post-Dispatch revealed in May that the airport was using the untested method. Federal law requires that asbestos be removed by hand and carefully contained, but airport contractors instead were wetting down the buildings with a hose to prevent the fibers from becoming airborne. There is no known safe level of asbestos, which can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma years after exposure.

Deputy Airport Director Gerard Slay said the cheaper wet method is just as safe as traditional asbestos removal, although the airport has stopped using the wet method on residential structures under order of the EPA.

"The airport is very confident that everything we've done in all our demolitions used all approved procedures that are safe and protective of the public health," Slay said.

The meeting tonight is an informal event billed as a "public availability" session. Rather than using a more formal setting where people ask questions of a panel of experts in a large forum, the meeting will feature separate tables staffed by officials of the EPA, the federal Centers for Disease Control, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Control, the St. Louis County Health Department, and the airport authority.

Bridgeton Mayor Conrad Bowers objected to the format in a letter to the EPA. "In my opinion, isolated informational stations, each staffed separately by officials of a particular agency, will be of little value," the letter said.

The EPA responded in a letter that the meeting format will let residents "speak freely with local, state and federal personnel on a one-by-one basis."

One subject of discussion will be an Aug. 6 report written by Wilmoth and others. The report, which reviewed air samples previously collected by an airport contractor, concludes that the wet method "appeared effective on average in the control of large (asbestos) fiber release." The report goes on to say that because of the limited number and quality of samples taken, "no conclusions can confidently be drawn on the effectiveness of the wetting process for individual buildings."

Asbestos meeting

What: The Environmental Protection Agency will hold an informal public meeting to discuss the "wet method" of demolishing buildings for runway expansion at Lambert Field.
When: 6-8 tonight
Where: Holman Middle School cafeteria, 11055 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Ann.

Friday, August 27th, 2004

New cancer drug gives patient hope
Georgetown woman believes recently Health Canada-approved drug may be keeping her alive
LISA TALLYN, Staff Writer
Marion Smeaton feels lucky to be alive.
The Georgetown woman has malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) a rare terminal cancer, also known as asbestos cancer.

Most MPM patients die within six to eight months of diagnosis, but Smeaton, 65, has lived with the disease now for two years, and believes a new drug combination may be helping to extend her life.

"I'm thankful for the time," said Smeaton, a former schoolteacher, from the Georgetown home she shares with her two cats.

For about the past 1 1/2 years Smeaton has been on Eli Lilly's drug Alimta, which was approved last month by Health Canada and is the first medication shown to help patients with MPM live longer and feel better.

The drug, that Smeaton's doctor was able to get for her on a compassionate relief program before it was approved, is used in combination with the chemotherapy agent cisplatin and works by attacking multiple enzyme targets that cancer cells need to grow and divide.

In clinical trials involving 448 patients, reported in the July 2003 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Oncology, the median survival of patients getting a combination of Alimta and cisplatin increased 30 per cent, compared to 9.3 months for cisplatin alone. Plus, 50.3 per cent of the patients treated with the drug chemotherapy combo were alive a year later, compared to only 38 per cent of those treated just with chemotherapy.

Dr. Barbara Melosky, an oncologist with the B.C. Cancer Agency said "its exciting" doctors finally have a treatment regimen to offer MPM patients.

"We really didn't know chemo did anything," she said.

Dr. Frances Shepherd of Princess Margaret Hospitals' department of medical oncology and haemotology, says the drug helps MPM patients not only live longer and better, but can help relieve chest pains and shortness of breath.

MPM patients have described the effects of the cancer that makes breathing painful, as feeling like they're drowning.

"I'm feeling good," said Smeaton, who is looking forward to a vacation in northern Ontario with her family. "I think I have more energy. I'm not coughing nearly as much."

Smeaton's length of survival to date is not typical, but it may have something to do with the fact her cancer was caught early, accidentally during abdominal surgery to remove unrelated cysts.

Smeaton, a long-time practioner of Tai Chi, has no idea how she got the cancer that often affects people who have worked in the insulation trade, but believes the positive outlook and sense of humour she shares with her three grown daughters may also have played a role in how well she's been doing.

They have had to draw on that approach to life many times over the years, especially when Smeaton's husband Bill was killed by a drunk driver while riding his bicycle to work 23 years ago. And also a year before Smeaton's abdominal surgery that led to the discovery of the cancer, when she underwent complicated heart surgery.

Smeaton knows the recently approved drug "is not a cure" for MPM, but she is grateful for the time she has.

"When you're alive, you don't know what (advancements) they're going to find," she said.

Asbestos exposure found in El Dorado pets
The discovery of high levels in the lungs may heighten health concerns in the area.
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, August 29, 2004
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

Scientists have reported "greatly elevated" levels of a highly toxic kind of asbestos in the lungs of a small sampling of pets from western El Dorado County, where fast-paced development has unearthed the naturally occurring minerals and liberated its hazardous fibers.
Though the sample size is small - lung tissues from four deceased dogs and cats - federal environmental officials said the results are provocative and bolster their plan to investigate whether area residents, particularly children, are exposed.

"It does suggest that the potential exists out there for human exposure from dust-generating activities," said Gerald Hiatt, one of several U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists assessing the potential danger in the Sierra foothill communities east of Sacramento.

"That is exactly what we are trying to address," added Daniel Meer, supervisor of the agency's assessment effort.

The scientists had planned to disclose their findings later this year in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. They posted a preliminary summary of their work on Aug. 18, however, to coincide with the EPA's first public forums on the science underpinning its foothills asbestos investigations.

"We decided it was more important to present this at this meeting because people are deciding what to do about (the asbestos hazard)," said Dr. Jerrold Abraham of the State University of New York in Syracuse.

"We felt this was real solid data that could be important for public health," he said.

The findings likely will heighten public attention to the potential hazard, stir more controversy and provoke further questions from residents wanting to know simply whether they are seriously at risk.

At the recent EPA forums, several residents pointedly asked whether they endanger their health by continuing to live in El Dorado County.

The researchers' response: The science isn't there yet to provide black and white answers. They hope to move forward in their understanding of the potential risks, first by getting a better handle on how much asbestos residents are breathing in during their everyday lives.

While pet studies don't directly correlate with those of humans, the new findings help in that there is no better way to determine what's been inhaled than through an examination of actual lung tissue.

Abraham and Dr. Bruce Case of McGill University in Montreal said they examined the animal lungs at the request of two pet owners who are advocates of stronger asbestos protections in the foothills.

The lungs loaded with the most asbestos fibers - up to 9.2 million per gram - came from a male Queensland blue heeler named Leaker.

Dr. Victor Roggli, a Duke University asbestos disease expert, said the lungs of several dogs he has examined for non-fibrous particles generally are much "dirtier" than human lungs, the result of dogs habitually sniffing the ground.

"One should therefore be careful extrapolating these findings to humans," said Roggli, who reviewed the El Dorado findings at The Bee's request.

Case agreed but said if dogs inhale more asbestos fibers that makes them all the better asbestos sentinels for humans.

"These animals are canaries in the coal mine," Case said. The canary's small body and rapid breathing made it more vulnerable to poisonous gases, providing an early warning to old-time miners.

Both international authorities on lung-fiber analysis and asbestos diseases, Case and Abraham said the electron microscopic analyses occurred under their direction at separate laboratories by technicians who did not know where the animals originated.

Funding for the lung analyses came from their personal research accounts, a lab technician and from Terry Trent, who owned Leaker.

The spearlike fibers lodged in Leaker's lungs are a particularly hazardous kind of asbestos called amphibole, specifically tremolite and actinolite.

"Results from both labs show greatly elevated lung burdens of the tremolite/actinolite type of asbestos fibers ... in the dogs," the scientists concluded in the report, which is available online at www.upstate.edu/pathenvi/studies/case6.htm .

Case acknowledged in an interview, though, that the number of asbestos studies on dog lungs are too few for direct comparison.

Leaker lived the first eight of his 13 years in Shingle Springs, mostly outdoors.

Owners Trent and Carol Adams had him euthanized in March 2003 because of convulsions caused by diabetes.

Tests commissioned by The Bee in September 1997 found high levels of tremolite and actinolite in the settled dust inside the couple's home on Wild Turkey Drive and in dust raised by traffic nearby on an unpaved section of Cothrin Ranch Road.

Case and Abraham said they were struck by an unusually high proportion of fibers longer than 10 micrometers.

Many experts believe asbestos fibers longer than 5 micrometers are particularly hazardous to inhale because they are more likely to stay trapped in the lungs. The average thickness of a human hair is 100 micrometers.

Results from the lung exams didn't surprise Trent. For years, he fought to contain the asbestos dust on his 10-acre spread of rocky chaparral.

Deeply concerned for their health, Trent said he saw no way out but to stop paying their mortgage and let the bank repossess the seven-bedroom home he built.

"I knew darn well as any biologist would that every living thing carries a bit of their environment with them, and our environment was tremolite," said Trent, 52, a construction-cost consultant schooled in biology.

The indoor environment apparently also matters because the couple's couch cat, a male tabby named Pippen who died of old age, also inhaled and retained amphibole fibers - an estimated 86,000 to 157,000 per gram, the report said.

Yet a stray cat they adopted after moving north to Placer County, to Antelope and then Auburn, had lungs completely free of asbestos.

The cat died from diabetes-related complications, and Trent said he wanted its lungs analyzed to make sure the couple had not transported the El Dorado fibers on clothing and furniture to their new homes.

The other donor of dog lungs said he was shocked to learn that his yellow labrador-golden retriever mix, Katie, had up to 1.25 million tremolite-actinolite fibers lodged in its breathing tissues. The dog, which died of unknown causes, lived all its 14 years in the western El Dorado County communities of Cameron Park, Latrobe and El Dorado Hills, according to its owner, Chris Anaya, a firefighter.

"I know I never lived next to (asbestos veins), but how close is a safe distance? How far away do I have to be to protect my family?" Anaya said.

For all 50 or more years of study that's been done on asbestos, scientists have yet to define a "bright line" between safe and dangerous levels of exposure.

The government has long-established standards to protect children in schools built with asbestos-containing materials and workers involved with its commercial use.

But those thresholds have been based on the technical limits of fiber detection, the costs of asbestos abatement and health studies that hint at but don't reveal the lethal exposures.

The recipe for disease is complicated.

Fiber dimensions and concentrations, exposure frequencies and durations, smoking history and other conditions all factor into the equation.

And no standard or reliable risk-assessment methods have been established for the much less studied "environmental" exposures of concern in the foothills and other areas where naturally occurring asbestos has been disturbed by road building, home construction and mining.

Scientists do know for certain, however, that inhaling asbestos fibers can cause cancer and other debilitating disease resulting from hardening and thickening of lung tissues.

People in industrialized countries can't help but inhale the commercially used chrysotile fibers floating in the air from vehicles and other asbestos sources, scientists say.

Most experts agree, however, that the amphibole fibers found in the lungs of the four El Dorado pets are many times more potent than the chrysotile kind in causing mesothelioma, an almost always fatal cancer in the lining of the chest and other body cavities.

No studies of California residents have shown a direct link between disease and exposure to naturally occurring asbestos, which occurs mostly undisturbed in the Sierra and Coast ranges and the southern spur of the Cascades. But studies in some Mediterranean countries and elsewhere have shown strong correlations.

EPA officials said it's too early to find such connections in the foothills.

The latency between the first known exposure to asbestos and development of mesothelioma is about 25 to 45 years. The bulk of construction in the asbestos areas occurred only in the past 25 years, making any link between disease and housing development virtually impossible to identify.

For now, the EPA is trying to get a better read on people's exposures to asbestos fibers.

Last week, they outlined a series of air-testing scenarios planned this fall in El Dorado Hills at Jackson and Silva Valley elementary schools and Rolling Hills Middle School, the Community Center and the New York Creek nature trail.

Government contractors wearing protective white jumpsuits, respirators and air monitors will slide, skid, run and jump as they play on school and community sports fields in El Dorado Hills.

School and county health officials oppose the tests. They say the asbestos readings will be meaningless because scientists do not know for sure what kinds and levels of exposure lead to disease.

EPA officials say the tests should give residents a better idea - but not certainty - about their exposure or risk of disease

"It's not going to be definitive. It's going to be indicative," Meer said. "And we will have to take the heat for that."

August 31, 2004 05:51 PM US Eastern Timezone

Jordan Zevon Becomes National Spokesperson for Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2004--
Musician and Son of Music Legend - Warren Zevon - Honors Father's Life by Speaking Out for the Rights of Asbestos Victims

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an organization dedicated to serving as the voice of asbestos victims, today announced that Jordan Zevon has agreed to be the organization's national spokesperson. ADAO, founded by asbestos victims and their families, works to unite asbestos victims, and ensure their rights are fairly represented. Jordan Zevon, who lost his father, music legend Warren Zevon to mesothelioma in September, 2003, will help ADAO take its message to a new level.

"As national spokesperson for ADAO, I am thrilled to support their commitment to asbestos awareness," said Jordan Zevon. "My father died from mesothelioma, a cancer only caused from asbestos, not as so often reported to be from a rock-n-roll lifestyle he abandoned more than a decade prior to his diagnosis. I want to dispel the myths and reveal the truth about the asbestos epidemic. The deadly mineral has a name, asbestos, but it also has a face in the patients, family and friends that it claims as victims."

"We are honored to have Jordan Zevon as our national spokesperson," said Linda Reinstein, Executive Director, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. "ADAO will continue to unite victims, doctors and organizations around the world and educate the nation about the lethal diseases caused from asbestos exposure. We must act now to save lives - awareness will lead to prevention, early diagnosis, new treatments and a cure. Jordan will turn the victims' whisper into a roar."

The occurrence of asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis, is growing out of control. Studies estimate that during the next decade, 100,000 victims in the United States will die of an asbestos related disease - equaling 30 deaths per day.

About Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) was founded by asbestos victims and their families. We seek to give asbestos victims a united voice to help ensure that our rights are fairly represented and protected. This includes our right to medical research and treatments aimed at early detection, prevention and a cure for asbestos related diseases; our right to file suit based on the merits of our individual asbestos related injustice; and the right to fair compensation. As an independent organization, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization will not be influenced by outside sources such as drug companies, law firms or companies that manufacture or use asbestos. ADAO is fully funded through voluntary contributions and staffed by volunteers. For more information, visit www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org.

FDA Approves Geodon, Alimta, Vioxx, and Others

Yael Waknine

Aug. 31, 2004 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ziprasidone HCl for the treatment of acute bipolar mania; pemetrexed for non-small cell lung cancer; rofecoxib for pediatric patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; a portable, gas-powered ventilator for civilian use; and a blood glucose module designed for attachment to an insulin pump.

Ziprasidone (Geodon) for Acute Bipolar Mania

On Aug. 23, the FDA approved the atypical antipsychotic ziprasidone HCl (Geodon, made by Pfizer, Inc.) for the treatment of acute bipolar mania including manic and mixed episodes.

The approval was based on the results of two 3-week randomized, double-blind trials involving 416 patients hospitalized with acute bipolar mania. According to a company news release, patients treated with ziprasidone showed greater improvement on standard psychiatric assessment scales compared with placebo, from day 2 until day 21. Dosing was initiated at 80 mg per day and increased as needed to 160 mg per day on the second or third day.

Adverse events included somnolence, dizziness, and extrapyramidal symptoms. Unlike other bipolar medications, ziprasidone was not associated with significant weight gain.

Pemetrexed for Injection (Alimta) for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

On Aug. 19, the FDA approved a new indication for pemetrexed for injection (Alimta, made by Eli Lilly & Co.), allowing its use in the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer after prior chemotherapy.

The accelerated approval was based on the results of a large phase III clinical trial comparing pemetrexed with docetaxel, the current standard of care. Pemetrexed demonstrated a good response rate and a significantly improved safety profile compared with docetaxel in terms of decreased incidence of grade 3 or 4 neutropenia, neutropenia with fever, diarrhea, hospitalizations due to adverse events, and hair loss.

Common grade 3 or 4 toxicities associated with use of pemetrexed and occurring at rates similar to those of docetaxel included anemia (8%), fatigue (16%), anorexia (5%), and infection without neutropenia (6%).

The pemetrexed cycle involves a 10-minute infusion administered every three weeks. Concurrent administration of vitamin supplements with folic acid and vitamin B12 reduces adverse effects without affecting the drug's efficacy.

Pemetrexed for injection was approved in February for use in combination with cisplatin in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

Rofecoxib (Vioxx) for Pediatric Use

On Aug. 19, the FDA approved an expanded indication for rofecoxib tablets and suspension (Vioxx, made by Merck & Co.), allowing its use in the relief of signs and symptoms of pauciarticular or polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in patients aged two years and older and weighing 10 kg (22 lb) or more.

Rofecoxib was previously approved for the treatment of signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in adults, for management of acute pain in adults, for treatment of primary dysmenorrhea, and for acute treatment of migraine attacks in adults.

Transport Ventilator (Pneupac compPAC 200 HD) for Civilian Use

On July 13, the FDA approved a portable, gas-powered transport ventilator (Pneupac compPAC 200 HD Transport Ventilator, made by Smiths Medical PM, Inc.), indicated for use in providing life support to patients in a variety of situations where conventional resuscitation equipment is inadequate, including remote locations, war zones, toxic environments, and mass disasters.

Unlike other portable ventilators, which are dependent to some extent on power or compressed gas supplies such as oxygen cylinders with a life of only about 30 minutes, this device has the ability to be driven from an external gas supply or from its internal compressor.

In situations where oxygen is limited, the internal compressor drives the ventilator, using filtered ambient air from the environment. Low-flow compressed oxygen can be added to enrich the content of the filtered air. When oxygen-driven, the compressor can deliver 100% or 45% oxygen for extended cylinder life.

Originally designed for the military after the Gulf War, the ventilator can be run on pneumatic power, battery power, 24/28V vehicle/aircraft power, and AC current.

"All in One" Insulin Pump/Blood Glucose Monitoring System (CoZmonitor) for Diabetes

On June 28, the FDA approved a blood glucose module (CoZmonitor, made by Smiths Medical MD, Inc., formerly Deltec, Inc.), intended for attachment to the back of the Deltec Cozmo insulin pump to create an "all in one" insulin pump and blood glucose monitoring system. The pump keypad and screen are used for all blood glucose testing functions and results.

The approval was based on results of a module usability study involving 57 children and adults with diabetes, all of whom were able to use the module successfully without additional training.

The module was created in conjunction with Abbot Diabetes Care and uses FreeStyle Flash technology and FreeStyle test strips.

Former employees accuse Halliburton of misleading investors

DALLAS Four former Halliburon employees claim the company engaged in systematic accounting fraud from 1998 to 2001.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who left Halliburton in 2000, is not a defendant.The former finance employees also say executives hid Halliburton's vulnerability to asbestos claims.

Lawyers attached the proposed lawsuit to a motion filed Tuesday in federal court in Dallas as part of a class-action case against Halliburton.

The lawyers asked a judge for permission to sue -- despite a June order that apparently settled the larger case.

Halliburton has blasted one of the law firms, Scott and Scott of Colchester, Connecticut, which filed two previous asbestos-related suits against the company.

Halliburton says the judge gave preliminary approval to a settlement of about 20 such class-action cases and ordered that no further complaints be filed.

A call to Scott and Scott wasn't immediately returned today.

Posted on Fri, Aug. 06, 2004

EPA orders end to 'wet method' asbestos removal at airport project

JIM SALTER

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued an order barring use of the so-called "wet method" to remove asbestos from buildings being demolished to make way for a new runway at Lambert Airport.

The EPA concluded that while the wet method was "generally effective in controlling the release of large fibers and dust," the agency lacked data to say with certainty that it was completely safe in keeping individual asbestos fibers from becoming airborne.

As a result, EPA rescinded an administrative order granted in May 2003 and extended in March, allowing the wet method. Use of the method at the project was halted in June, pending the EPA study.

EPA spokeswoman Becky Dolph said the study was performed by a contractor for the airport. She said that while the study wasn't detailed enough to allow continued use of the wet method, there was no indication that anyone's health was compromised.

"There was no evidence to think that what has been done has not been protective of public health," Dolph said.

A spokesman for the airport said he had not seen the news release and declined comment.

In May, the EPA halted a proposal to use the same technique in Fort Worth, Texas.

The wet method involves spraying a building with water as it is leveled. In theory, the water will prevent the microscopic asbestos fibers from being released into air or soil. But critics argue that technique is unproven and dangerous.

The EPA usually allows wet demolition only when a building is in danger of collapsing and entry would be too dangerous for workers.

Dolph said the EPA didn't know the city was using the method to remove asbestos until hundreds of structures had been leveled. The EPA said it wasn't until the spring of 2003 - after Republican Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri urged then-EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman to allow it - that the administration gave St. Louis permission to do so.

The federal Clean Air Act requires carefully removing asbestos by hand and disposing of it in hazardous waste sites.

The EPA's asbestos experts recently denounced the wet method, saying once the asbestos dries, the wind can carry fibers long distances, exposing people near and far from the removal site.

Asbestos was used for years in building construction, especially in the post-World War II building boom and peaking in the 1970s and early 1980s. Exposure can cause asbestosis, in which asbestos fibers get into the lungs and scar them. The lungs get stiff and it becomes difficult for them to take in air or to transfer oxygen to the blood. This can lead to frequent lung infections and heart or respiratory failure. There is no effective treatment.

Whether someone will develop asbestosis depends on such factors as the intensity and duration of exposure and the person's age when exposed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 1,493 people died from asbestos exposure in 2000.

Expansion of Lambert, including construction of the new runway, will cost $1.1 billion. The airport is buying nearly 2,000 residential and 70 business parcels to make way for the expansion. It wasn't clear how many buildings have been demolished and how many remain.

ON THE NET

EPA asbestos information: http://www.epa.gov/asbestos

CDC info: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

2004 Mesothelioma Lung Cancer News
January	February	March	April
May	June	July	August
September	October	November	December

FREE
Mesothelioma Packet Mesothelioma Patient Handout
Click Here to get this free packet delivered quickly!

Talk to a Live
Online Chat Operator:

Your Name

Your Question

To Obtain the Best Treatment Info & Financial Assistance contact us for a FREE INFORMATION PACKET which includes;

Doctors & Cancer Hospitals
Clinical Trials
Hazardous Jobs/ Products

New Treatment Options
Veteran's Resources
Financial Assistance

Fill out the form below or call 1-800-780-2686.

Use the "tab" key to move to the next field, not enter.

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip
Phone
Email

Have you or a loved one been diagnosed or have:

Mesothelioma:			Yes No
Symptoms of Mesothelioma: Display symptoms			Yes No
Lung Cancer:			Yes No
Fluid in the Lungs/ Pleural Effusion:			Yes No
Did you or your loved one work around asbestos?:			Yes No

Comment / Info Request

Please just hit Submit once, then wait for the form to be sent