The son of a British man who worked for decades as a tile maker and died of malignant mesothelioma is launching a battle for compensation for his father’s suffering and death.

According to an article in Blyth and Wansbeck Today, Stewart Grimes – the son of John Grimes - is claiming damages from his father’s former employer, Armstrong World Industries, whom he blames for his death. He is suing for up to £100,000.

The elder Grimes was employed by the tile manufacturing giant from 1959 to 1964 and 1967 to 1987, the article states. His job involved placing pins in a frame or mould to create a patterned finish on the tiles, which contained asbestos.

The asbestos came in polythene bags, explained the younger Grimes, and bags of asbestos were added to a mixture of compounds used to make the tiles. The bags were then tipped into the open mouth of a mixing machine which generated large amounts of asbestos dust and debris spread throughout the factory, the claim states.

Stewart Grimes added that the bags were difficult to handle and often split as they were loaded, and much of the factory was constantly coated with asbestos dust, which settled onto all surfaces and onto the overalls of the employees, the writ claims.

Stewart Grimes says he plans to rely on an admission by the company’s insurers last October. He says they admitted that his father would indeed have been exposed to asbestos during his work at the tile factory.

John Grimes was diagnosed with mesothelioma in July 2005. He died a week later.

The widow of a former Bloomington (IL) High School teacher who died of mesothelioma in March has been awarded $3.8 million in an asbestos lawsuit filed in McLean County Circuit Court.

According to an article printed on Pantagraph.com, Daniel Malcolm and his wife, Nancy, had agreed to settle claims against several defendants before he died, including Pneumo Abex Corp, a manufacturer of asbestos.

Malcolm taught at Bloomington High School from 1968 until 1994. He was also employed at a foundry at Caterpillar’s East Peoria plant from June to August 1964. In the complaint filed with the court, it states that Malcolm was exposed to asbestos at both the school and foundry assignments, though no specifics were available as to how he came in contact with asbestos at the school.

Malcolm was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May 2006 and died about 10 months later. The settlement agreements allocate a portion of the funds to Malcolm’s wife, who has been obligated for her husband’s medical expenses, court documents said.

A study released earlier this week by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) reports that workers at a Glendale, California vermiculite processing plant were exposed to asbestos while on the job.

According to an article in The Student Operated Press, the vermiculite at the Glendale plant came from mines in Libby, Montana, a town that has already been scarred by the legacy of asbestos contamination. Thus far, more than 200 individuals in Libby have died of asbestos-related diseases and hundreds more have been sickened.

The article reports that the former California Zonolite/W.R. Grace & Company plant, located at 5440 West San Fernando Road in Glendale, processed vermiculite from Libby between 1950 and 1977. The ATSDR estimates that from 70 to 150 former workers were exposed during the time the plant operated.

The report, the final one in a series of 28 evaluations being conducted at W.R. Grace plants across the country, notes that not enough information is available to determine how and if residents who lived near the plant or family members of workers have been affected by exposure. However, the Glendale report is consistent with the other 27 in noting that workers who had direct contact with the vermiculite are at highest risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. The report also states that their families may have suffered exposure due to asbestos dust brought home on clothing or hair.

New York Public Radio reports that a new study whose results were released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week states that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “misled the public” regarding the presence of dangerous asbestos particles in many Lower Manhattan apartments after 9/11.

According to the report, the EPA had paid for the clean-up of about 4,000 apartments in the WTC area in the 2 years following the attacks. The report noted that “a very small number” of apartments contained unsafe levels of asbestos. What the report did not state, however, was that the air testing was done after the apartments were cleaned, not before.

The report was released on June 20th during hearings held by the Senate Health Committee. One GAO official described the EPA’s asbestos testing as “misleading.” During the hearings, EPA officials also answered questions about giving the “all-clear” to workers and residents to re-occupy Lower Manhattan after the attacks. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said she will request that the GAO conduct another study to measure the preparedness of the EPA should another similar catastrophe occur in the future.

The widow of a New Jersey man who worked as an electrician at many sites in New York City, including the World Trade Center, is suing Alpha Wire Company and several other defendants for asbestos exposure. Included in the suit are manufacturers of products causing asbestos exposure, contractors who used asbestos materials at work sites, and at least one premises owner who specified the use of asbestos materials, all of whom are believed to have contributed to her late husband’s death from asbestos-caused mesothelioma.

Joel Rosenberg, who grew up in Flushing, Queens (New York) and most recently lived in Jackson, NJ, died of mesothelioma at age 64. He was a lifelong electrician who began working in the field when he was a teenager. While working in the New York City area, he was employed at the Arthur Kill Powerhouse in Staten Island, Rockefeller Center, and Kennedy Airport, in addition to the World Trade Center. It is believed that he was exposed to asbestos from the cutting and splicing of wires that were insulated with the material.

According to a press release by Rosenberg’s attorney, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma in April 2006 and died this past May. Mr. Rosenberg’s father, also a lifelong electrician, died of the same disease in 1981.

A similar case in New York City involving an electrician who died of mesothelioma resulted in a $19.5 million settlement in favor of the plaintiff.

Many retired mine workers are fuming at the Minnesota Department of Health’s decision to withhold information for a year about the death of 35 miners from mesothelioma, reports Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).
Bob Skiba, from Hoyt Lakes, Minn – a company town where most Iron Range miners lived – says he was a “zinc man” at the mines. His job was to combine zinc and asbestos to make liners for the ore crushers.
“They used to have asbestos, and you had to mix it with oil and grease,” he explains. “Dust flying all over, regular asbestos. And when we poured, we wore an asbestos coat,” he laughs in disbelief. “You wore it, that’s what you had for protection for the hot heat.”

Skiba says he and the others never realized that the asbestos could cause deadly diseases like mesothelioma, an aggressive and painful cancer that kills quickly.

“If I would have, I wouldn’t have been playing with it, mixing it, I don’t guess,” he says with some bitterness. “But you had to do it, I guess. No, I wasn’t aware of it.”

Skiba retired in 1995, but told MPR that one in three of his co-workers now have a myriad of lung disorders associated with asbestos exposure. Some haven’t worked in the mines for decades.

“I got it, I guess. I don’t know what it is,” Skiba says softly. “It’s in my lungs anyhow. I’m short of breath, always seems like I’m plugged up, and I tire a little easier than I used to. Apparently it’s a progressive thing; I don’t know what they can do with it. What do they do with it?”

Mary Stodola, a registered nurse and the wife of a fellow miner, tried to explain. “Your tissues in your lungs turn into pearls, and eventually they go into turning into little cavities throughout your lungs,” she says. “And it’s a progressive disease, as it gets worse your lungs will break down, to virtually nothing.”

Mary’s husband Bill worked in the repair shop at the mine for years. “The north doors faced the crushers, and you could see the dust roll out of the top of the crushers,” he says “And sometimes it would come right in, you’d have to shut the doors because it would come through the shop, and the same thing on other end, the south doors faced the pelletizer and you’d get the soot; you’d have to shut the south doors. So it was the same thing no matter where you went out there.”

Stodola has asbestosis, and last year his doctor told him he has mesothelioma.

New York Public Radio reports that a new study whose results were released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week states that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “misled the public” regarding the presence of dangerous asbestos particles in many Lower Manhattan apartments after 9/11.

According to the report, the EPA had paid for the clean-up of about 4,000 apartments in the WTC area in the 2 years following the attacks. The report noted that “a very small number” of apartments contained unsafe levels of asbestos. What the report did not state, however, was that the air testing was done after the apartments were cleaned, not before.

The report was released on June 20th during hearings held by the Senate Health Committee. One GAO official described the EPA’s asbestos testing as “misleading.” During the hearings, EPA officials also answered questions about giving the “all-clear” to workers and residents to re-occupy Lower Manhattan after the attacks. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) said she will request that the GAO conduct another study to measure the preparedness of the EPA should another similar catastrophe occur in the future.

Newspapers throughout Minnesota have reported that the state Department of Health has identified six more cases of asbestos-caused mesothelioma among the tens of thousands of individuals who worked in Minnesota’s iron mining industry from the 1930s through the 1980s.

The discovery was apparently made as the department was making preparations for a new study. The Health Commissioner came under fire last week when it was discovered that she and her department had withheld information for more than a year pertaining to 35 additional miners who had developed the aggressive form of cancer, which attacks the pleura – the lining of the lungs – and results in death usually within a year of diagnosis.

According to an article in All American Patriots, discovery of the six new cases brings the total number diagnosed with the disease to 58. MDH officials report that they learned about the new cases as they reviewed information about the workers and data from the Minnesota Cancer Surveillance System (MCSS).

The Department of Health reports that the new study, which is currently being organized, will differ greatly from a study conducted in 2003, which identified 17 miners with the disease. This study will look at possible past exposure of workers to taconite dust, as well as potential exposure to commercial asbestos, and will use a “case-control” strategy to compare workers who developed mesothelioma with those who did not, in an effort to determine what aspect of their jobs might have placed them at risk.

The government of New South Wales (Australia) has announced that, amid growing fears of asbestos exposure, they will search two thousand public schools to determine whether staff and students at each particular school are at risk for exposure to the deadly material.

According to an article posted on News.com Australia, the Department of Education and Training (DET) for New South Wales will begin to accept bids next month for a multi-million dollar contract to search every school building in the vicinity that was built prior to 1988. Though asbestos wasn’t officially banned in Australia until 2003, its use in public buildings had ceased by 1988.

Officials say that charts showing the location of asbestos materials in primary and secondary schools will be created for each school so that teachers, staff, or parents do not disturb the material by hammering or drilling into it.

It’s been reported that $3 million has been set aside for this project, but that figure does not include any remediation that might be deemed necessary after the search. Officials say that could cost in the tens of millions of dollars. The article notes that more than $19 million has already been spent in the last four years on asbestos safety measures at 287 schools across New South Wales.

In the continuing saga of cancer cover-ups in regards to Minnesota’s Iron Range workers, Senator John Marty and the United Steelworkers Union have called for further investigations and have vowed to stay involved with the situation until reasonable answers are provided.

Senator Marty (D-Minn) told the Star Tribune that the Senate Health Committee would begin to investigate the issue next week during a hearing set up specifically to discuss the withholding of important information pertaining to mesothelioma rates among the state’s taconite mine workers. The Steelworkers say the State Legislature and attorney general must determine whether or not there was a cover-up by the health commissioner.

“One diagnosis of mesothelioma is a personal tragedy. Several dozen diagnoses, all among men of similar age who worked in the same Minnesota industry, is a serious public health issue,” noted an editorial in the June 20th edition of the Star Tribune.

“Going public, informing the citizenry and enlisting their participation in crafting a response is how democracies solve shared problems. Providing the public with information about such matters is among government’s responsibilities,” it continued.

“Meanwhile, as-yet-unaffected taconite workers, their families and their health care providers would have been put on notice,” the editorial said of the year-long delay in releasing information about the increasing number of cases of asbestos-caused cancer. “Sadly, most mesothelioma cases are not diagnosed until the disease is too advanced for effective treatment. Heightened awareness of the risk might change that.”