More than 20,000 individuals who have filed asbestos-related tort claims against insulation giant Robert A. Keasbey Co. celebrated a victory on Tuesday when Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Braun ruled that the defunct company’s insurers may be liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in coverage.

According to an article on Law.com, Keasbey’s insurers, Continental Casualty Coverage and American Casualty Co. of Reading, Pa., had sought a sought a declaratory judgment holding that their policies were exhausted by $8.7 million in previously made payments.

The judge did not agree with the insurers’ stand and announced that they may be liable for tens of millions of dollars in compensation payments to individuals, including both employees and customers, sickened by asbestos caused by exposure to Keasbey-manufactured products.

Keasbey was founded in 1885 and the company installed, repaired and removed job-site insulation. They ceased doing business in 1995 and were dissolved in 2001, reports the article.

“I’m thrilled for the defendant class that the court has properly found coverage to exist for these thousands of people whose injuries would otherwise be left without any opportunity for compensation,” Philip M. Halpern of Collier Halpern said Tuesday. “The court made a careful, detailed, reasoned elaboration as to each and every one of the many facets of these complex causes of action.”

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) recently reported that “an increasing number of patients suffering from asbestos-related diseases are now younger than in previous reports.”

According to a press release issued by the organization, which serves as a united voice for today’s asbestos victims, case reports from the past three years “reveal a new median age of 51 and nearly fifty percent of those are women.”

“Anecdotal evidence suggests a changing profile of newly diagnosed patients, many of whom are under 40 years old, nearly forty percent of which have never worked with asbestos, but have environmental exposure,” the press release notes.

The Columbia University Mesothelioma Center has cited similar data pertaining to those treated at the New York City location. “The average age of our peritoneal mesothelioma patients is 51.7,” said Dr. Robert N. Taub, Milstein Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Columbia University Mesothelioma Center in New York City. “And less than fifty percent had immediately recognizable asbestos exposure.”

“As workplace exposures come under better control, the percentage of environmental exposures continue to increase,” said Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD, Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, ADAO Science Advisory Board Co-Chair.

“ADAO is being contacted by young fathers and mothers in their late 20s and 30s who are seeking medial resources and support because they have been recently diagnosed with asbestos-caused diseases,” said Linda Reinstein, Executive Director and Cofounder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “Our patient profile program will continue as asbestos exposure and deaths continue to claim more lives. Prevention is the only cure for asbestos diseases.”

In 1990, the Centers for Disease Control had reported that the median age of all mesothelioma sufferers was 70 and that 80 percent of the patients were men. Also, more than 50% of the cases profiled in the 1990 report were as a result of workplace exposure.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) representatives report that the long and costly asbestos cleanup of the former Johns-Manville Corporation factory site in Waukegan (IL), on the shore of Lake Michigan, may finally be nearing an end.

According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, a dump truck convoy running for more than two months between the Veolia landfill on Green Bay Road west of Zion and the cleanup site on the far north end of Waukegan has made significant progress in clearing the area, which has been undergoing a federally-directed cleanup for the past 20 years.

“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now,” Denny Clinton, a Manville engineering manager, said Wednesday as among the last of 24,000 semi trucks filled with clay and dirt roared onto the site and emptied their 10-cubic-yard loads.

The plant operated in Waukegan for more than 60 years, manufacturing asbestos shingles and pipes. The plant’s 150-acre waste landfill was declared a Superfund site in 1983. The factory closed in 1996, though it ceased manufacturing asbestos products in 1985. The plant has since been demolished.

The 240,000 cubic yards of fill dirt that has been moved will fill what was a 33-acre wastewater treatment pond, about 100 acres once covered by the sprawling Manville plant and other areas, the article notes. Another 150,000 to 160,000 cubic yards of fill will be needed in remaining phases.

The cleanup is expected to cost Denver-based Johns-Manville Corporation in excess of $30 million.

In light of Israel’s ongoing asbestos contamination problem, a team of experts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently traveled to that country to conduct workshops for the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), US State Department, and local non-governmental organizations in Israel. The goal, notes an article on Azom.com, was to address the problem of serious asbestos contamination in several portions of the country.

“This trip was an opportunity for the EPA to use its technical knowledge and experience to help Israel avoid environmental problems that could potentially harm local residents,” said Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. “This mission gave our experts the opportunity to learn from and share with our Israeli colleagues.”

One of the areas in question was the town of Nahariyya, near Lebanon. Once the site of a massive cement factory where asbestos was regularly used in its products, experts say that the toxic mineral can be found in most homes throughout the town and in fill material that was used in the surrounding community.

The article notes that, during the workshop, EPA representatives “gave an overview of the U.S. government’s asbestos responsibilities; survey and sampling methods for asbestos in soil, air, and solid materials; and discussed the U.S.’s asbestos response in Libby, Montana, including how the U.S. government determined the need for cleanup, set cleanup goals, addressed asbestos within buildings, and involved the affected community.”

According to a press release on eMediaWire, New York County Supreme Court Justice Karen S. Smith has ruled that training manuals from automaker giant Ford Company can be submitted at trial as admissions by Ford that its asbestos-containing brakes are hazardous and can cause cancer.

Ford’s litigation position has always been that asbestos-containing brakes are safe, however, their training manuals note otherwise. Ford believed its training manuals should not be permitted as evidence, noting that the information on the brakes was placed there involuntarily in order to meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements.

“Justice Smith rejected this argument in light of the fact that Ford disseminated its training materials to the public at large, whereas the OSHA requirements were only applicable to the employer-employee setting,” notes the press release. “Furthermore, Justice Smith observed that the warnings contained in Ford’s training manuals, in many respects, exceeded the relevant OSHA requirements.”

Justice Smith also noted that “no where in Ford’s training materials does it state that it’s warning about asbestos-containing brake parts have been given solely for the purposes of complying with government regulations.”

In Ford’s training materials, which are distributed to dealerships, vocational instructors, and automotive students, the company warns that asbestos from brakes can “cause cancer and other diseases.” The materials are also made available to the public at large through printed publications, training videos, and web-based training.

The Oregon State Hospital in Salem has been fined more than $10,000 for asbestos violations, potentially stemming from a January 2007 incident that may have caused dangerous amphibole asbestos to be released into the air.

The situation occurred when a contractor was hired to install a new water line. As he dug, he hit an old asbestos-covered water pipe, reports the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

According to an article in the Statesman Journal, the DEQ reports that hospital administrators should have known about the asbestos, due in part to a 1990 geological survey that showed where hidden asbestos was located on the grounds of the hospital, which covers approximately 144 acres. However, the hospital failed to tell the contractor before he began to dig.

When DEQ representatives examined the work site, they found asbestos insulation in a pile of dirt and debris next to the excavated pit. The insulation material was determined to be “friable”, which means it was likely to release dangerous fibers into the air.

State hospital officials have said that January’s incident occurred about 200 feet from the nearest residential area. By all accounts, the asbestos materials were properly disposed after the DEQ’s inspection.

The fine, however, was levied because the hospital allowed asbestos to accumulate in the open and because they hired a contractor, Emery and Sons, that was not licensed to remove asbestos. The contractor has also been fined but they will contest the penalty, alleging that they were unaware of the presence of asbestos in the area in which they were installing the new line.

On International Workers Memorial Day on April 28th, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization paused to honor the more than 100,000 workers killed worldwide by asbestos-related diseases, noting that “asbestos is still the number one carcinogen in the world of work and causes 54% of all deaths from occupational cancer.”

“Asbestos has touched the lives of millions of people, each with names and families, like Nellie Kershaw, the 33 year old factory worker, who was the first case of asbestosis published in medical literature in 1927,” said Dr. Richard A. Lemen, Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (ret.), and Co-Scientific Director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “Today we think of the thousands of people, like Nellie Kershaw, who have lost their lives to the highly preventable diseases caused by asbestos.”

Dr. Arthur Frank, Co-Scientific Director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, spoke about the recent plight of the U.S. Capitol Tunnel Workers who have been unnecessarily exposed to dangerous asbestos inside the miles of tunnels that carry steam and cold water throughout the Capitol complex.

“Given that we are in the 21st century and the hazards of asbestos have been known since the 19th century, and further revealed in the 20th, it is outrageous that the Congressional tunnel workers were subjected to asbestos exposures over a protracted period of time. Given their exposures and the absence of adequate protection, they have an elevated risk of lung cancer, mesothelioma, and all the other diseases related to asbestos, on top of the asbestosis that has been diagnosed among of members of this group,” said Frank. “As we pay tribute to former workers on this day of remembrance, we need to take action to protect current workers who are still being abused.”

The family of a former electrician was awarded a $2.3 million settlement as a result of his workplace exposure to asbestos.

Charlie Piazza, of Santa Clara, CA died of mesothelioma at age 62 in May 2005, less than 6 weeks after being diagnosed with the asbestos-caused disease. The suit claimed that Mr. Piazza was exposed to asbestos products manufactured by Houston-based Union Carbide Corp.; Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.; San Carlos, Calif.-based Kelly-Moore Paint Co. Inc.; Orange, Calif.-based Hamilton Materials Inc.; Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc.; and Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based CertainTeed Corporation.

Mr. Piazza worked both as an electrician and as a construction subcontractor in the Santa Clara area for more than 40 years. According to an article in Insurance NewsNet, documents in the case showed that the defendants “knew about the dangers of asbestos for years, but failed to protect Mr. Piazza from being exposed and failed to warn him about the deadly side effects of his exposure.”

“This is a significant settlement, and the attorneys are very pleased to be able to secure this award for the Piazza family,” said the Piazza family’s attorney, Russell W. Budd. “Charlie Piazza was a hard worker who provided for his wife and grandson, and we hope today’s settlement will help them move forward with their lives.”

A British woman who was married to an asbestos worker for more than 40 years has died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Hazel Lea, age 60, who had multiple tumors on her right lung when she was diagnosed with the disease, died recently of bronchopneumonia caused by mesothelioma, according to an article in Hastings Today.

Attorneys for Mrs. Lea believe that she was not exposed during her own employment at various jobs, including as a roller for Birdseye, in a warehouse, and for Ladbrokes. Instead, they believe she came in contact with dangerous asbestos that was brought home on the clothing of her husband, who worked for Spray Finishing Ltd.

“He would come home from one of his jobs covered in dust after he had been cutting asbestos sheets,” attorneys for the family said.

“I used to take my clothes off and she would shake them and wash them,” added Mr. Lea, who is also suffering from respiratory problems. “The dust from the clothes was like a fog.”

Mr. Lea also worked at various other jobs, but was unaware of any other employment situations which may have exposed him to asbestos and caused him to bring the dangerous dust into his home.

Parkway Village, a co-op development located in the Briarwood section of Queens (NY), has been hit with $117,000 in fines for knowingly exposing workers to asbestos.

The owners of the cash-strapped cooperative allegedly sent workers into a crawlspace to repair pipes that were covered with old, crumbled asbestos, despite the fact that they knew asbestos was present. They also failed to provide any sort of protective safety equipment for the workers.

According to an article in the Queens Chronicle, “the charges are based on the findings of a three-week inspection that began last November, when environmental protection workers and FBI agents appeared with little warning at the historic 3.7-acre property, headquartered at 81-26 150th St., and began testing soil samples around-the-clock.”

“There’s no good reason for needlessly exposing these employees to the hazards of asbestos, particularly since Parkway knew these work areas contained asbestos and also knew what it had to do to protect its employees,” said Richard Mendelson, director of the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for Queens.

Earlier this week, the Department of Labor proposed $117,000 in fines, charging that co-op members violated federal safety standards on nine counts. Charges of showing “plain indifference or intentional disregard” to safety risks accounted for $112,000 of the total fine. The additional $5,000 was earmarked for “serious” citations, including failing to provide adequate protection for workers’ hands, face and eyes; overlooking deficiencies in respirator safety equipment; lacking enough eye-washes for workers who routinely come in contact with airborne particles; and failing to dispose of the contaminated materials.

The co-op’s executive board has two weeks to either contest the charges or seek a settlement that would allow the fines to be reduced.