A new study anchored by the University of Edinburgh has declared that long, thin carbon nanotubes might be as harmful as asbestos in the long run, especially if inhaled in sufficient quantities.

According to an Associated Press article, the study evaluated whether the carbon nanotubes can cause mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer for which the only known current cause is exposure to asbestos. The properties of the nanotubes are very similar to those of asbestos and the material is currently being developed for use in new drugs, energy-efficient batteries and futuristic electronics.

However, scientists have begun questioning the safety of the carbon nanotubes and their widespread use. “This study is exactly the kind of strategic, highly-focused research needed to ensure the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology,” said Andrew Maynard, co-author of the study. He published his findings in the latest edition of Nature.

Specifically, the study examined whether long and short carbon nanotubes, long and short asbestos fibers and carbon black cause pathological responses, known to be precursors of mesothelioma.

“The results were clear,” says Maynard. “Long, thin carbon nanotubes showed the same effects as long, thin asbestos fibers.”

“So we’ve got one piece of the puzzle here,” Maynard added. “There are a couple of other pieces of the puzzle which still need to be filled in and those are asking whether exposure to this material actually will occur.”

“Whether people can breathe it in and if they do, whether these fibers can work their way to the outer edge of the lung and then cause an effect. But we knew that if those two things happened, there is a very strong change that the prolonged carbon nanotubes will eventually lead to this disease.”

A three-judge panel for the Minnesota Court of Appeals agreed with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and ruled that the air at Northshore Mining Co.’s Silver Bay taconite processing plant will continue to be compared to fiber levels in St. Paul.

According to an article in the Duluth News-Tribune, the judges upheld the 34-year-old rule instituted by the MPCA in the interest of protecting the health of residents near the taconite plant.

“The standard was first imposed in a federal court ruling in 1974 and has since been included in operating permits issued by the MPCA to the company,” the article notes. “It requires that Silver Bay air be tested for asbestos-like fibers, and that the results be regularly lower than samples of St. Paul air.”

The ruling comes as the state begins to fund research to determine why so many Iron Range workers and residents have died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer. Some experts believes the miners were exposed to commercial asbestos used for industrial insulation in the mines, while others say the miners were exposed to natural asbestos-like fibers found in ore dust, the article explains.
The fibers are found in certain rock formations under the eastern Iron Range. These fibers came to the attention of the general public in the 1970s when Reserve Mining, Northshore’s predecessor, was ordered to stop dumping taconite tailings in Lake Superior because of potential serious health effects.
Northshore officials have declared the current standards “unnecessary and outdated” and insist that the iron ore the company mines and processes does not contain asbestos. The court didn’t buy that argument.

“Northshore cannot point to an adequate substitute for the ‘control city’ standard that is now in effect,” the decision concluded. “Thus, the standard is not obsolete and its elimination from the permit would be a major amendment.’’

Nova Scotia’s Justice Minister, Cecil Clark, has announced that two more correctional facilities in the province will be tested for the presence of asbestos. Clark was prompted to order the testing after the hazardous mineral was found at the Cape Breton Correctional Facility last week.

Precautionary tests will be conducted at the Antigonish and Cumberland County jails, Clark announced yesterday. During the announcement, Clark defended the way his department responded to the discovery of asbestos at the Cape Breton facility, even though guards claim they were not told immediately about the presence of the known carcinogen.

Once tests confirmed that asbestos was present, a union-management committee was informed, Clarke said in an interview aired on CBC News.

“All of the normal processes were followed. It isn’t about trying to strike hysteria within an institution, it’s about getting the facts,” he explained.

However, local politicians think Clark disregarded the safety and health of both prisoners and prison workers.

“There is absolutely no wonder that there’s distrust between the correctional officers and the Department of Justice. This is another example of something that’s been very badly handled,” said provincial official Bill Estabrooks.

“In no way, shape or form will we not do what’s necessary to [maintain] the safety of people within that facility,” Clark countered.

As Clark awaits testing results for the Cape Breton jail, the Department of Labour is looking into whether correctional officials broke any rules following the discovery of asbestos at the prison.
Labour Minister Mark Parent said the occupational health and safety division is examining the timing of when information was passed on to the union.

“Immediately would mean immediately. I mean, that’s what the policy is and we informed the Department of Justice that they had to adhere to it,” Parent said.

A Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal upheld a $3.2 million verdict on behalf of plaintiff Ray Rando against contractors Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group, Inc. and Jacobs Constructors, Inc. Rando worked as a welder and pipefitter from 1965 to 1985 and developed mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure while he worked for the defendants. He was diagnosed with the disease in 2006 and the original case was heard about 15 months ago.

“Ray Rando’s employers tried repeatedly to evade responsibility for his injuries, but these committed attorneys convinced the trial court, and then the Court of Appeal, that these companies were responsible to their employees for exposing them to dangerous levels of asbestos,” said attorney Russell Budd in a recent press release.

“The appeals court confirmed that Louisiana’s 1952 Workers’ Compensation Act does not cover mesothelioma and so does not bar suits by mesothelioma victims against their employers,” the press release noted. Also, the Court of Appeal ruled that Rando’s case “was not barred by Louisiana’s 10-year preemptive period to bring claims for injuries arising from deficiencies in the construction of improvements to real property.”

The court also ruled that, because Rando’s employer, a contractor who did major “turn-key” construction jobs at a chemical plant, had “control over the construction” at the time of his asbestos exposure, Rando’s claims against his employer “fell within the statute’s exception and were not untimely.”

A Montclair, New Jersey school remained closed today after high levels of hazardous asbestos were found in side the building.

According to an article in The Star-Ledger, Renaissance Middle School, which houses 239 students, was evacuated last Friday after testing found airborne asbestos in one of four samples taken during the installation of fire doors on the school’s third floor.

The sample had a reading of “460 structures” which, according to Steve Jaraczewski of Detail Associates, the Montclair school district’s asbestos consultant, is more than six times the acceptable levels. The school was build in 1899, when asbestos was regularly used as a fire retardant in schools and other commercial buildings. The mineral is a known carcinogen.

Parents were astounded at the news. “You want to keep them home tomorrow?” asked Frank Alvarez, the superintendent of schools, at a meeting held with parents on Monday morning. “Yes, Yes,” most of the parents shouted.

Cleanup was to begin over the weekend and was overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Parents requested that the students’ lockers also be included in the cleanup. Jaraczewski also told parents they should discard their children’s backpacks as a safeguard against asbestos fibers adhering to the porous fabric.

“If it was my kid … I’d get rid of the backpack,” Jaraczewski said.

The building that houses Renaissance Middle School is owned by the Archdiocese of Newark and leased to Montclair School District. Jaraczewski blamed the archdiocese for their poor asbestos management plan but parents were annoyed at the finger pointing.

Dana Sullivan, the Montclair schools’ business administrator, said the district just discovered that asbestos was present in a brown undercoating of plaster that is found on the walls throughout the school.

“We had not yet informed [the archdiocese] because we had not received a written report yet,” Sullivan said. “I wish we had. I don’t know that it would have mattered. I don’t know.”
The diocese, which performed the fire-door replacement at the district’s request, informed the district that work would begin last Monday, several days before school officials noticed the broken plaster, Sullivan said.

“We knew they were putting in fire doors. What we didn’t know was that they were disturbing this plaster, this brown coat,” Sullivan explained.

A group of 178 construction workers and members of their families as well as families of deceased workers have filed a 6.6 billion yen suit against the government and 46 manufacturers when they claim did not “swiftly ban the production and use of construction materials containing asbestos.”

According to an article in the Asahi Shimbun, the plaintiffs, many of whom are suffering from asbestos-related illnesses such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, are each demanding about 38.5 million yen in compensation for their suffering.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs note that this is the first time a group of workers filed a suit against the government for asbestos-related claims. It was also noted that this is one of the largest suits of its kind ever filed in Japan.

“The construction workers handled construction materials containing asbestos in the Tokyo metropolitan area starting in the 1960s,” the article explains. “Many have since died of lung cancer, mesothelial tumors and other ailments. About half of the plaintiffs are bereaved family members.”
The plaintiffs’ argument states that “the Japanese government should have heeded warnings from international organizations in 1972 that asbestos could be a carcinogen and taken steps to ban the production and use of the substance.”

The complaint also cites Japan’s Building Standards Law, which authorizes the use of construction materials containing asbestos. It also holds the industry ministry responsible for approving the material under Japanese Industrial Standards.

A 2006 law provides monetary relief for workers and residents living near asbestos-related plants who are not covered by labor accident compensation insurance. But the plaintiffs say the compensation amount offered is too small, the article notes.

Several guards at the Cape Breton (Nova Scotia, Canada) Correctional Facility remain off the job this week, awaiting the results of asbestos testing at the prison.

According to a Canadian Press article, some guards stopped coming to work last Thursday night when they learned that the prison may have a potential asbestos problem.

Joan Jessome, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, announced that a group of guards attended an emergency union meeting Friday night to discuss the issue and to clarify the findings.

“There’s very strong support for the position they’ve taken,” said Jessome. “It’s my understanding that they’re not going back (to work) until the results are in.”

The facility is 33 years old and was built during a time when asbestos use was quite commonly used as a fire retardant. During routine air testing by the Justice Department on May 8, asbestos material was found wrapped around some piping inside the institution.

However, department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead has said no traces of the cancer-causing mineral were found, but a second round of testing was conducted on Saturday and results were expected early in the week.

Aikenhead stressed that when asbestos is left undisturbed, “it’s not considered a health hazard.”
Jessome said an inmate staged a complaint about asbestos last fall and Aikenhead confirmed that the maintenance staff at Cape Breton Correctional Facility was aware of the problem. However, nothing had been done to address the issue after the complaint.

A Washington man who worked as a U.S. army machinist for more than 40 years has filed suit in a Madison County (Ill.) Circuit Court, alleging he has developed mesothelioma due to wrongful exposure to asbestos.

James Regal was a machinist for the army from 1962 until 2003 in Illinois and in other locations and also was employed as a maintenance man at various sites in Illinois, Washington and Massachusetts throughout his working career.

Though the U.S. army cannot be sued by Regal for asbestos exposure, the companies that manufacture asbestos products used by the army can indeed by sued. In the case of Regal’s suit, some the 68 defendants include Bondex International, CBS, Chrysler, Federal-Mogul Asbestos Personal Trust, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Goodyear, Honeywell International, Ingersoll-Rand, International Paper, John Crane, MetLife, Owens-Illinois, Philips Electronics and Riley Stoker.

“The plaintiff’s exposure and inhalation, ingestion or absorption of the asbestos fibers was completely foreseeable and could or should have been anticipated by the defendants,” the complaint states.

Regal says he was diagnosed with mesothelioma on February 8 of this year. He is currently undergoing treatment for the disease and seeks damages to help pay for the cost of his treatment. In addition, Regal is seeking at least $300,000 in damages for “negligence, willful and wanton acts, conspiracy, and negligent spoliation of evidence” among other allegations.

The Hill, a newspaper for Capitol Hill workers, notes that “the 2009 defense appropriations bill has become a battleground for cancer research,” with more than a dozen senators rallying for funds to more closely examine asbestos-related cancer.

Those supporting the push for funding argue that about one-third of all mesothelioma victims are either Navy veterans or worked as a civilian employee at naval shipyards across the country during a time when the widespread use of toxic asbestos was commonplace.

“Without a steady funding stream for mesothelioma research, scientists who may have considered work in such a field have been turned off,” says Chris Hahn, the executive director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Meso Foundation).

“Mesothelioma starts out somewhat as an orphan disease,” Hahn said in an interview with The Hill. “It’s hard to motivate [researchers] unless there are consistent funds.”

Hahn said the main goal of the Meso Foundation is to see mesothelioma listed as a priority part of the Pentagon’s peer-reviewed medical research program. Researchers would then compete for grants from the Department of Defense.

Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have been at the forefront of the effort to secure additional funds for research and treatment of malignant mesothelioma, which kills quickly but can lay dormant in the system for up to 50 years.

“The town of Bremerton in Washington state, near the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, has one of the highest incidences of asbestos-related cancer. And hundreds of people have been sickened or killed because of asbestos exposure from a now-defunct vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont.,” notes the article, explaining Baucus’ and Murray’s involvement in the issue.

“Advancements in the early detection and treatment of this deadly cancer are greatly needed and the mesothelioma medical and research community is well-positioned to achieve this goal,” the senators wrote to the panel’s leaders. “Funding through the Department of Defense appropriations bill is an important demonstration of our nation’s commitment to addressing the tragedy of mesothelioma and its disproportionate impact on those who serve our country.”

Another asbestos-laden ship is heading towards India’s Alang ship-breaking yards where its owners hope it will be dismantled.

According to an article posted on Yahoo News India, the 682-feet ship S.S. Oceanic, headed for Alang on the Saurashtra coast, is carrying about 250 tonnes of asbestos.

Alang was thrust into the news last year when the Norwegian ship Blue Lady was beached off the coast and later allowed to enter the port. Workers at the ship-breaking yard were eventually allowed to dismantle the ship under supervision of a technical committee, the article notes.

Alang is known for its improper handling of toxic waste from dismantled ships, according to reports by a number of environmental groups, including Green Peace. The shipyard also suffers a high number of industrial accidents caused by poor work safety regulations, experts say.

Sources in the Alang ship-breaking yard said the Blue Lady is being dismantled at present. A spokesperson for the yard, however, said he was unaware that the S.S. Oceanic was coming to Alang for dismantling.