A British man who was employed at London’s Heathrow Airport for more than 30 years has received a six figure sum in compensation for his recent mesothelioma diagnosis and the expenses that accompany the disease.

According to an article in Legal and Medical Online Magazine, the man, who remains unnamed, was from the Middlesex region of England and worked at the airport as a maintenance fitter and boiler house supervisor from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. His lawyer notes that during this time, he was exposed to asbestos dust and fibers from pipe and boiler lagging, which he handled frequently. The gentleman was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal asbestos-caused cancer, in 2006.

The British High Court found that the airport “failed to provide the man with adequate respiratory protection and had negligently exposed him to asbestos.” In return, he was awarded a sum of £165,000

Helen Jones, a representative for the plaintiff, said: “Mesothelioma is a devastating disease…it is only right that people who develop it are fully and fairly compensated.”

The victim replied: I have been able to gain some benefit from the compensation and I can now be sure my wife will be finally secure in the future.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), concerned about the recent story questioning the safety of local beaches, has asked to meet with federal, state and local officials to discuss asbestos pollution at Illinois Beach State Park near Zion and possible contamination at other area beaches.

The senator was tipped off about the asbestos-ridden beaches when a local news station revealed a report from an official of the Environmental Protection Agency, stating that “significantly elevated” levels of asbestos were discovered on the park’s beaches during air monitoring tests last summer.

According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Durbin issued a press release which stated that he wants “a clear understanding about any potential threats of asbestos [at Illinois State Beach.]”

Others are also concerned about the state of the beach. The Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society says that park officials are shirking their duties and failing to clean up the asbestos debris that washes up on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

An official with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the park, told the newspaper that one person, one day per week, currently clears the beach. Last year, an attorney general’s task force recommended the beach be swept three times per week during heavy summer beach traffic.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health and Education is advising schools to stop using art clays that might have asbestos-contaminated talc added to them.

According to an article in The Day (New London, CT), a letter to public and private schools issued by the department recommends that schools “purchase clay that does not contain talc, and to clean up art room areas where talc-containing clays were used in the past.”

In its letter, the department noted that much of the talc used in art clays in Connecticut schools comes from one particular mine in New York where there have been ongoing investigations into whether the talc from this mine is contaminated with asbestos. The suspect talc is called NYTAL 100 and is sold by the R.T. Vanderbuilt Co.

The department added that it is concerned about the potential of users inhaling airborne asbestos dust, which causes an increased risk of various lung diseases, including asbestosis and mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has also been asked to examine this situation. In the meantime, the Art and Creative Materials Institute, which works with the commission to label art products as “non-toxic” for children’s use, has recently withdrawn its certification for products that contain talc from the mine in question, according to the article.

Sheffield Pottery of Sheffield, Mass., a major supplier of clay to schools in Connecticut, has notified its customers in the state that it will not sell the talc containing clay, and recommends alternative clays for school use.

A story appearing on several Montana news stations highlights a recent report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, stating that the legacy of WR Grace vermiculite contamination reaches far beyond Libby, Montana, where hundreds have already died or been sickened by exposure to asbestos.

According to the story, the newly-released report focuses on different places across the country where WR Grace workers and their families were exposed to Libby asbestos. This includes 28 locations throughout the U.S. where Grace vermiculite was made into commercial insulation.

Like Libby, where vermiculite-containing materials were made available to locals to be used as fill, similar situations were found across the country, including in western Pennsylvania, where the mineral surfaced at a playground located beside a Grace facility, and in Minnesota, where dozens of families used the vermiculite waste rock as fill for their yards.

Next year, the agency expects to release a larger report on the 28 processing sites including recommendations about what to do next. In the meantime, the Center for Environmental Health Sciences was founded at University of Montana in 2000, in part to study asbestos-related disease in Libby, and will begin to look at exposure outside of this small Montana town. Earlier this month, scientists with the center learned they were receiving a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to assist in their research.

Asbestos found in the ground around the site of a $200 million converted-mill condominium community may delay the opening of the project by several months.

An article in the North Andover (MA) Eagle-Tribune reports that 50 future residents of the luxury condominium development, Monarch-on-the-Merrimack, have been contacted in regards to their October move-in date. They’ve been told that their residency will be delayed a minimum of two months.

“At this point we have determined that unfortunately there appears to be no way to avoid a delay,” developer Robert Ansin wrote in a letter dated Thursday, July 19.

“The final date will depend on how soon we are given final approval to proceed from the state. I did not want to wait however to tell you that it is highly unlikely that we will in fact be able to deliver the lofts in the fall as planned,” he said.

The asbestos debris found in the ground is believed to be from a demolition project that occurred in the 1950s. When testing of the material showed trace amounts of asbestos, all exterior work was shut down immediately.

According to the article, Ansin’s development company, MassInnovation, contacted the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asking for guidance and hired an environmental consulting firm to develop a plan for the removal of the asbestos. They are still waiting for a reply from the state.

A representative from the DEP says they are “discussing the need to modify the existing plan, to fully assess the asbestos and the debris.”

Ansin responded by stating that the lack of state regulation over asbestos found in the soil has bogged down the project, because there are no specific requirements dictating when the state must issue a response to the developer’s plan.

A story appearing on several Montana news stations highlights a recent report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, stating that the legacy of WR Grace vermiculite contamination reaches far beyond Libby, Montana, where hundreds have already died or been sickened by exposure to asbestos.

According to the story, the newly-released report focuses on different places across the country where WR Grace workers and their families were exposed to Libby asbestos. This includes 28 locations throughout the U.S. where Grace vermiculite was made into commercial insulation.

Like Libby, where vermiculite-containing materials were made available to locals to be used as fill, similar situations were found across the country, including in western Pennsylvania, where the mineral surfaced at a playground located beside a Grace facility, and in Minnesota, where dozens of families used the vermiculite waste rock as fill for their yards.

Next year, the agency expects to release a larger report on the 28 processing sites including recommendations about what to do next. In the meantime, the Center for Environmental Health Sciences was founded at University of Montana in 2000, in part to study asbestos-related disease in Libby, and will begin to look at exposure outside of this small Montana town. Earlier this month, scientists with the center learned they were receiving a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to assist in their research.

Residents of one small West Virginia town believe that they may be experiencing exposure to asbestos caused by the demolition of an old, dilapidated glass factory.

According to an article in the Wheeling News-Register, concerned Moundsville citizens who live near the old Fostoria Glass Factory are concerned about a recent find by demolition workers who’ve been working to tear down the plant, which has sat empty for more than 20 years. Last week, demolition had to be halted due to the discovery of a large amount of asbestos on the property, which is located just a few hundred feet from several homes.

Residents say no one should have been surprised to find asbestos on the property and that the city, who now owns the property, should have checked for the presence of the toxic mineral before they began demolition.

“They made glass products there, and that building’s more than 100 years old. Of course there’s going to be asbestos. Everyone knows that,” she said. “What concerns me is that they did all that work before they stopped because they said they found asbestos. What were they thinking?” says Betty Kachalo, who has lived just down the street from the plant for 60 years.

The site is about 70 percent demolished, and City Manager Allen Hendershot told members of City Council demolition would not continue until all the asbestos is removed.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) has announced that representatives from the organization will attend key Congressional hearings on asbestos, scheduled to take place on July 31 and August 1.

The first hearing is before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and will include a full mark-up of Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)’s Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2007, a bill which is fully supported by ADAO. The second hearing will be before the Legislative Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee and will examine the Capitol Power Plant Utility Tunnels and those who work there. It will include testimony from employees who have been adversely affected by related asbestos exposure from the tunnels. ADAO has been in full support of the Capitol tunnel workers through their negotiations with the Architect of the Capitol.

Senator Murray’s Ban Asbestos in America Act suggests that all use and production of asbestos be banned in America. She hopes that the bill will result in public education campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of the toxic mineral as well as expand research and treatment for asbestos-related diseases.

Murray says the bill will also “authorize additional studies to determine which commercial products today still contain asbestos, increase funding for asbestos-related diseases, and call for a national mesothelioma registry to help public health professionals track this deadly asbestos-related disease.”

“It is an intense statement from Congress when hearings are held back to back in both chambers that address the deadly nature of asbestos,” said Linda Reinstein, Executive Director and Cofounder of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), in a press release from the organization. “ADAO is pleased to have the opportunity to show our support for increased education and awareness about this critical issue. Senator Murray continues to show great strength and leadership as she leads the fight to have this deadly substance banned forever. Her efforts and the rising voice of victims is helping to keep everyone - from Capitol tunnel workers to children who hugged their fathers after work - safe from the future effects of asbestos. We look forward to the day when asbestos disease will no longer needlessly claim lives.”

A San Francisco-area man who worked for more than four decades as a plasterer in the Bay Area has received a settlement in excess of $2 million, payable by several manufacturers and distributors of asbestos-containing products used on-the-job.

A settlement was reached during the second week of trial in the case brought about by John Dachauer, 69, and his wife Rita. According to a press release by the law firm representing the plaintiff, the defendants included San Ramon, Calif.-based Kaiser Gypsum Company Inc. and Pleasanton, Calif.-based Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. Hanson was previously known as Kaiser Cement.

According to the release, Dachauer worked as a plasterer from 1955 until his retirement in 1997. Testimony in the case showed that he regularly used exterior stucco and joint compound products manufactured and sold by Kaiser Gypsum and Hanson Permanente.
In 2006, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer for which the only known cause is exposure to asbestos.

“I’d like to say the settlement will allow John to live out the rest of his life with some comfort, but unfortunately there is no comfort for someone with mesothelioma,” says Russell Budd, managing shareholder of Baron & Budd, the law firm that represented the Dachauers in court. “The settlement provides some compensation for the years of life he will lose as a result of his exposure to asbestos.”

After months of complaints by local residents, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has agreed to examine efforts to limit asbestos-contaminated dust from a construction site in Hunters Point, a review, says the San Francisco Chronicle, which could lead to stronger pollution controls at the former Navy shipyard.

Residents have stressed that developer Lennar Corporation isn’t doing enough to protect their health during the process of building more than 1,500 homes on the 66-acre site that was once the location of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Shipyards, in general, are infamous for leaving behind large amounts of asbestos.

According to the article, the agency will investigate everything that has been done at the site to protect residents, including methods used to quell dust and to measure levels of asbestos in the air. If officials determine that more should be done, they will make that recommendation to San Francisco authorities.

Neighbors are most concerned about any efforts taken to limit flyaway asbestos. Many have reported increased nose bleeds, asthma attacks, and chest pains, symptoms which they believe may be connected to the asbestos left at the Hunters Point site, stirred up during construction. Those who appeared at a recent public meeting also noted that they don’t trust the current air quality tests, which are administered by Lennar.

San Francisco Public Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz has been adamant that residents are safe. “City residents requested an independent review. We believe we’ve been proactive with health protection. But we’re open to learning, and we thought (inviting federal officials to the site) will build community trust,” said Rajiv Bhatia, the city’s director of environmental health.

The article notes that the 500-acre former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was placed in the nation’s Superfund cleanup program in 1989. Over the years, parts of the shipyard were cleaned of chemical contamination including solvents, PCBs and radioactive materials. More clean-up is still needed in some areas.