Mesothelioma Law Blog

A bill has been introduced in the Scottish Parliament that would allow compensation for pleural plaques.

Pleural plaques are smooth, white, raised irregular areas of fibrous collagen tissue that develop on the pleura (usually the parietal pleura) and often become calcified.

Pleural plaques are not considered pre-cancerous but are a certain indication of exposure to asbestos and therefore also an increased risk of developing other diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.

The bill filed would overturn a ruling by the House of Lords that pleural plaques are not compensable. In 2007 the House of Lords ruled that because the condition has no adverse physical effects claimants should not be compensated for the anxiety caused by pleural plaques.

The Association of British Insurers has said that this bill “flies in the face of common sense.”

“The Scottish Parliament must now scrutinize this proposal very carefully. It risks considerable damage to the Scottish economy and imposing a significant cost on the Scottish taxpayer,” said Nick Starling, director of general insurance and health at the ABI, in a statement.

In a related news release a Scottish government official has issued a warning to lawyers not to seek rich pickings from this new legislation.

Launching the legislation, community safety minister Fergus Ewing said: “There has been evidence that lawyers who handled personal injury claims have benefited more than the victims.”

On Monday, the Supreme Court denied an appeal by W.R. Grace Company. This paves the way for a criminal trial against the company. In 2005 the company and several officers were indicted on charge related to improper disposal of asbestos-containing materials which was linked to many residents of Libby who are either currently suffering asbestos-related disease or who have died from such diseases.

The executives could be facing fifteen years in prison if convicted and the company could be facing up to 280 million dollars in restitution costs. W.R. Grace had already agreed to refund to the federal government 250 million dollars to cover decontamination costs in Libby. It has been estimated that W.R. Grace could, by the time the criminal trial is over, be paying out over a billion dollars.

“We will be prepared to defend ourselves,” stated Grace Spokesman Greg Euston.

Asbestos exposure has been conclusively linked to the onset of mesothelioma, a deadly form of lung cancer that has a survival rate of less than 1%.

The Johns-Manville Superfund Site is located in Waukegan Illinois and is host to about a million tons of asbestos waste. It’s 150 acres contain about 3 million cubic yards of wastewater sludge and -off-specification materials. Water from the site is released and goes into Lake Michigan where the current transports the asbestos fibers southward thus washing up on beaches along the way.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ran tests in 2002 and found that water coming from the site contaminated the lake with millions of asbestos fibers per liter of water. Lake dredging did not help the situation because it only disturbed the sediment allowing fibers to break loose and wash ashore.

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

While public officials claim there is no threat to public health, Jeffery Camplin disagrees. Mr. Camplin is an environmental/health safety engineer and nationally known asbestos expert. He was hired by the Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society to review studies done by the EPA, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and a Chicago Park District contractor. He found those studies to be “deeply flawed and severely lacking in standardized scientific protocols.”

The Illinois Duneland Preservation Society offers some advice as to how to minimize the exposure and inhalation of the asbestos fibers. They warn against shaking off towels and blankets since this can release asbestos fibers into the air, against eating and drinking at contaminated beaches and suggest that beachgoers vigorously clean belongings and shower before leaving.

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

A three-judge panel of the New Jersey Superior Court has determined that Spanish citizens who worked on U.S. Navy warships while docked in Spain can bring suit in the U.S. for the illnesses brought on by their asbestos exposure.

The plaintiffs, 15 Spanish citizens, contend that their illnesses developed because they worked on the navy vessels between 1950 and 1998. Suit is being brought against Owens-Illinois which manufactured the asbestos-based insulation in 2 plants in New Jersey.

Lawyers for Owens-Corning had argued that the case should be heard in a Spanish court and apparently had received a decision in their favor. This current ruling overturns that and sends the case back to Superior Court for trial.

In overturning the earlier ruling, the judges found that, wherever they are docked, Navy warships are considered U.S. territory and liability for the plaintiffs’ exposure should therefore be heard in a U.S. court, not a Spanish one.

This is significant and if the ruling sticks could mean many more mesothelioma lawsuits brought by foreign citizens in our courts.

The Canadian Labour Congress is calling for a ban on all asbestos mining in Canada. Health Canada recently hired seven scientists and medical professionals to examine the link between asbestos and cancer. That report was submitted in March but has not yet been released. However, Leslie Stayner, one of the report’s authors, has said that there is nothing in the report that would argue against the sensibility of an asbestos ban.

The CLC passed a resolution that bans the mining of asbestos and also provides financial support for the 700 miners who would be affected by the shutdown. Quebec province has the only 2 Canadian asbestos mines and that province has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world.

Canada still exports asbestos to countries like India and Pakistan even though most countries have banned asbestos.

TOM CRUISE, KATIE HOLMES, JOHN TRAVOLTA and KELLY PRESTON have been told to seek medical attention, after deadly asbestos was found on a cruise ship they have all sailed on.
The foursome have all celebrated birthdays or other functions aboard Church of Scientology cruise ship the MV Freewinds, which was recently discovered to be contaminated with dangerous levels of blue asbestos.
Toxicologist Dr. Chris Coggins says, “This is the most dangerous type of asbestos because the fibres are smaller than the white asbestos and can penetrate the lung more easily.” Asbestos particles can stay dormant in the lungs for years before causing a deadly cancer called mesothelioma.
Dr. Coggins adds, “Once diagnosed with mesothelioma, the victim has six months to a year to live. It gradually reduces lung function until the victim is no longer able to breathe and dies.”

Yes they may have been exposed, but come on, it take 40 years for the mesothelioma diagnosis to show up, just ask all the pipefitters, and shipbuilders around.  The news media has again latched on to a none issue here.

Having received a jury verdict of twelve million dollars, James Grumley has settled with Garlock Sealing Technologies for a confidential amount. Grumley was diagnosed with malignant pleura mesothelioma in 2006 after having worked for decades as a boiler mechanic at a Johnsonburg paper mill. For all those years he was exposed to asbestos on the boilers as well as the asbestos gaskets and rope packing.

“Jim Grumley’s cancer was entirely preventable. Asbestos was just too
profitable for Garlock. The worst thing about it is that instead of
promptly eliminating asbestos from their gaskets and packing once they knew
what asbestos could do, Garlock chose to spend decades devising ways to
cover up the cancers its asbestos products cause,” said
attorney John Langdoc.

“It breaks my heart because he did everything right,” said his son Bob.
“He raised us, he educated us, he labored for us. He did everything right
and he shouldn’t have to go through what he’s going through. No man, no
person should have to go through what’s facing him.”

In Northern Ireland, Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie has introduced a mesothelioma compensation bill to the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Parliament is also referred to as “Stormont” because of its location in the Belfast area.

Her bill will extend payment to all sufferers even if they do not have an occupational or causal link. That also means that spouses who were exposed to asbestos by washing work clothes or children who may have played with the work clothes will benefit as will those who lived near the factories that used asbestos.

“I will give early access to a lump sum payable within weeks of diagnosis,” she said.

“This means sufferers will get compensation while they can still benefit from it during the final months of their lives.”

Mesiothelioma is a signal of asbestos exposure and can follow exposure by upwards of 25 years. It attacks the mesothelium, the protective lining of many of the body’s internal organs and leaves its victim with a shortened life expectancy - on average up to a year.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Florida has given new life to thousands of asbestos related lawsuits. What the court did invalidates the retroactivity feature of the 2005 law which would limit the number of people eligible to sue. Industry lawyers said that this ruling was likely to be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court partly because the 3rd District Court of Appeal had ruled that the retroactivity is valid.

Judge Gary Farmer wrote for the unanimous court that the Florida Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act “may not constitutionally be applied to eliminate the existing vested rights in the lawsuits pending when the act became effective” July 1, 2005. Judges W. Matthew Stevenson and Carole Taylor concurred.

Attorney Joel Perwin who helped handle the 4th District appealfor the plaintiffs has said that this means that there thousands of cases that were in the pipeline before the law was passed that now have new life. He said that there are limits to legislative power and that you don’t take away existing rights when you pass new laws.

The 2005 law set impairment standards for plaintiffs. People with nonmalignant asbestosis must have lost at least 20 percent of their breathing capacity to sue, and those with lung cancer would have to have asbestosis and diminished breathing capacity to discount the effects of smoking.

Attorney John Pelzer, who handled the appeal for the industry, said he was disappointed by the ruling.

The law was designed to “put people who were sick at the head of the line” for compensation from a limited fund ahead of people who were exposed to asbestos but not yet sick, said Pelzer, a partner at Ruden McCloskey Smith Schuster & Russell in Fort Lauderdale.

The 4th DCA ruling is an attempt “to undo that effort and put us back to what I call the Dark Ages of asbestos litigation where people who aren’t really sick are cutting in the line ahead of people who are sick,” he said.

A woman in Galveston has filed suit against several companies claiming that her Mesothelioma was caused by asbestos particles carried into her home on her father’s clothing when he came in from work. Companies named in the suit include Marathon Petroleum Company, BASF, Todd Shipyard and Monsanto.

The suit contends Chason “was exposed to large quantities of asbestos from the products and/or machinery manufactured, sold, designed, supplied, distributed, mined, milled relabeled, resold, processed, applied, or installed by the above-named Defendants.”

It also alleges that the defendants knew of the dangers from asbestos exposure but failed to provide any warning or protection to its employees including her father. Each day when he came home from work asbestos particles from his clothing became airborne. Only years later would she be diagnosed with mesothelioma, a disease that only shows up 30 to 50 years after asbestos exposure.