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6/27/2006 8:23:00 AM | UK's NICE Rejects Lilly's Alimta in Mesothelioma 
=(0) The British National Health Service's cost-control unit, "NICE", will discontinue funding a mesothelioma drug, pemetrexed (Alimta) in England and Wales. The drug's maker, Eli Lilly, contends that the drug is an effective therapy for a difficult-to-treat cancer caused almost completely by workplace exposure to asbestos. It will appeal the decis...
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6/27/2006 1:13:00 AM | ExxonMobil ordered to pay $5 million to widow =(0) The widow of a contract worker who died of mesothelioma was granted $5 million from ExxonMobil by a Louisiana jury. James Terrance chipped asbestos paint from pipes at an ExxonMobil plant in the 1960s, and later died of the asbestos-related cancer. His widow claims that ExxonMobil took greater precautions with the health of its employees than ...
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6/26/2006 10:07:00 AM | No compensation for wife mesothelioma victims as asbestos ... =(0) Courts in Britain are ruling that a company's asbestos liability does not extend to family members of employees. Cases decided this way have set a precedent, with many others declining to follow through because costs of litigation are too high. Many wives and family members of men who worked with asbestos in the 1950s and 1960s became ill...
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6/25/2006 8:15:00 PM | Asbestos society warns against Wittenoom visits =(0) A town in Australia is being shut down by the government because of asbestos contamination. Residents of the town, in northwest Australia, are said to be endangering the public by trying to lure tourists there. According to the Asbestos Diseases Society in Australia, there is still a dangerous situation there, as people who went to work o...
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6/24/2006 8:40:00 PM | 'Smoking gun' in asbestos case =(0) General Motors, beseiged with class action lawsuits claiming damage from asbestos used in car parts such as brake linings, is trying to get an insurance company to pay up on the claims. It is suing Royal & Sun Alliance, in both the US and UK, for coverage relating to policies between 1954 and 1972. In a pre-trial hearing, GM claimed it ha...
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6/21/2006 9:12:00 PM | Legal system shake-up on hold =(0) Scotland is planning to introduce a law next fall that will change the way asbestos victims there are compensated. Currently, mesothelioma sufferers must choose between immediate compensation, or have a larger payout go to their families after their death. The new bill proposes that the maximum payout be available to the victim while he i...
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6/21/2006 6:51:00 AM | Prime minister confirms plans to overturn Lords ruling on ... =(0) A change in the wording of the British Compensation Bill (in the form of an amendment) should improve the ability of British asbestos victims to receive proper compensation for diseases such as mesothelioma. Instead of the liability being spread among a victim's various employers, the employers are to be "jointly and severally liable" so that ...
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6/21/2006 4:01:00 AM | USG emerges from bankruptcy =(0) USG, the building products company, will emerge from a five-year bankruptcy, repay its creditors and establish an asbestos trust fund for personal injury claims. The company has forwarded $900 million towards the asbestos trust fund and will pay another $3 billion within a year if the government does not establish a national fund such as it is...
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6/19/2006 11:18:00 AM | Asbestos victims' long search for justice =(0) This is an overview of the ideas behind the current mesothelioma compensation legal debate in Britain. The basic question is, if an employee worked for more than one company and ultimately developed disease, which, if any, of the companies are responsible, and in what proportion? A recent legal ruling apportioned compensation according to...
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6/17/2006 1:16:00 AM | Court: Wrongful death trial can resume with 11 jurors =(0) The trial in a wrongful death lawsuit against ExxonMobil may resume with only 11 jurors, according to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The suit concerns the death of a worker whose job it was to chip asbestos off of pipes. James Terrance later died of mesothelioma, a lung cancer known to be caused by asbestos exposure. One of the original jur...
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6/16/2006 10:38:00 AM | Almost a Quarter of All Disease Caused by Environmental Exposure =(0) The World Health Organization reports that almost a quarter of worldwide disease is due to preventable environmental exposure. Much of this is due to conditions in third world countries which foster malaria and gastrointestinal infections, but preventable cancers, traffic deaths (due to poor urban planning), and pulmonary disease due to occupa...
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6/14/2006 11:20:00 AM | Ruling: WR Grace executives did not knowingly endanger Libby ... =(0) Part of the indictment against W.R. Grace & Co. on asbestos-related issues was dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations had run out. The charge of consipiracy, that is, knowingly endangering workers and residents, has a five year limit. The company operated a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana until 1990. It was later disc...
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6/13/2006 5:27:00 AM | Mesothelioma ruling ‘cruel’ =(0) A ruling in the British House of Lords last month is causing an uproar among British mesothelioma victims and Members of Parliament. The ruling limited compensation for asbestos-related disease victims who worked for more than one employer, with the idea that no single employer could be held entirely responsible. MPs will work to restore ...
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6/12/2006 11:02:00 AM | 5000 a year get cancer from their work =(0) Studies in Australia reveal that around 5000 Australians develop cancer each year because of exposure to various substances at work. For example, one third of lung cancer cases there are attributable to asbestos, second hand smoke, and various fumes and exhausts. Similar figures exist for bladder and colon cancers. Previous estimates...
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6/9/2006 1:11:00 PM | Baron & Budd, PC, Announces $13.5 Million Asbestos Verdict in ... =(0) The family of an asbestos victim has won a $13.5 million judgement in a second trial against Georgia-Pacific Corp. The victim, who died of mesothelioma, was exposed to asbestos in the course of working with a joint compound, a product made by Georgia-Pacific in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidence showed that the company knew about asbestos dang...
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6/8/2006 10:12:00 PM | Libby center gets asbestos treatment contract =(0) A Montana town drastically affected by the release of asbestos into the air by a vermiculite mine, has received a federal contract to test digital xrays on asbestos victims. The W-R Grace Mine in Libby Montana is blamed for 200 deaths and many more illnesses that occured before its closure....
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6/8/2006 5:18:00 PM | State probes fraud claims in silicosis diagnoses =(0) The Attorney General of Texas has launched his own investigation into suspicious litigation of silicosis claims. There is already a congressional probe into the issue, and courts are taking another look at asbestos claims as well. The possibility of fraud came to light when some doctors, testifying in such cases, withdrew their diagnoses....
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6/8/2006 4:37:00 PM | Building on asbestos soil stirs concerns in Centreville =(0) Residents in Fairfax County, Virginia are concerned about potential damaging levels of asbestos in the air because of construction projects on soil that contains asbestos. When the earth is dug up, asbestos fibers are released with dust particles. Builders are required to keep the ground moist to minimize dust but there are still concern...
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6/8/2006 1:09:00 PM | Dismissal of thousands of asbestos suits sought =(0) Allegations of fraud in the medical and legal professions have led to a request in a Pennsylvania court for dismissal of thousands of asbestos lawsuits in the US. Thousands more have already been thrown out, with plaintiffs forced to start the procedure over again in order to be compensated for diseases caused by asbestos exposure such as lung...
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6/7/2006 9:26:00 PM | Tunnel workers, Public Citizen team up on asbestos =(0) Even as the Senate holds hearings for a proposed law for compensation of asbestos victims, workers in government tunnels say they have been exposed to asbestos for decades with no monitoring or warning. Recent tests show asbestos levels in tunnels being repaired and maintained by the Capitol Power Plant's tunnel crew are many times higher than...
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