It is hard enough for adults to have to worry about contracting mesothelioma from the harmful things that they work with – but to learn that our children may be at risk is something that none of us expected. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization has performed tests and have learned that there is a harmful amount of asbestos in the usual toys that they play with. Many toys have already been pulled off the shelves.
Hospitals in Europe have been working on creating a new treatment for the deadly mesothelioma disease and are happy to see that it was a success. The new anticancer drug – which has been called “Vinflunine” – has already proven positive results and higher survival rates on diagnosed patients.
Bernie Banton spent most of his life finding ways of helping those who had been diagnosed with Mesothelioma due to their work enviroment by campaigning against James Hardie (asbestos company). We are sad to say that he has died at the age of 61 at his home in Sydney with his family by his side.
Mr. Banton is a long standing campaigner for the drug Alimta to be listed on the government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This week he received news that they would be taking his recommendation and – something he was very excited to hear about.
Mr Abbott said a re-elected coalition government hoped to have Alimta on the PBS in January. Labor has also supported the drug’s listing. Alimta became a campaign issue last week when Mr Abbott apologised after Mr Banton tried to present a 17,000-signature Alimta petition at the minister’s Sydney electoral office.
Researchers have been trying to narrow down where people can catch the deadly disease, mesothelioma, and have recently discovered that those who work at the US Coast Guard shipyard have a high chance of catching it. The study also found an increased general mortality rate.
The study followed 4702 (4413 men and 289 women) civilian workers who were employed at the shipyard between January 1950 and December 1964. The study then measured the number of deaths and their causes through 31 December 2001. The study was conducted by S Krstev, P Stewart, J Rusiecki, A Blair and was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack has begun picking a jury for the county’s first asbestos trial in more than a year. The victim Chester Black of Joplin, Mo., was diagnosed with mesothelioma early in 2006. He will be represented by Randy Gori of The Goldenberg firm in Edwardsville, filed suit earlier this year, seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $400,000.
Investigators in Australia discovered that abnormally high concentrations of soluble mesothelin in pleural and peritoneal effusions are highly suggestive of mesothelioma. Knowing this they are hopeful that they might be able to recognize the disease before it spreads too far. “Measurement of mesothelin in effusions…might be a useful adjunct to serum analysis in patients with suspected malignancy,” Dr. Jenette Creaney, at the University of Western Australia in Nedlands, and associates advise.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence(NICE) in the UK has decided to give mesothelioma patients access to the NHS, the only licensed drug. This drug has the ability to releive the pain that mesothelioma patients go through and can possibly prolong their life span. Unite, the UK’s biggest union in the UK, has welcomed this decision with open arms.
Most mesothelioma victims were having trouble finding health care that they could afford. But now things look to be taking a turn for the better. A new bill, that was passed and is planning to be put in effect in 2008, will be allowing more victims of this harmful disease to state benefits.
The Child Maintenance Bill, published this month, confirmed that the government will provide up-front financial support to victims of mesothelioma who were previously not eligible, including those who were exposed to asbestos from a relative, exposed to asbestos environmentally, self-employed and those who can’t trace their exposure to asbestos.
A Grandfather battling an asbestos-related disease yesterday won £948,565 High Court damages. The award to 59-year-old Raymond Shanks is believed to be one of the biggest of its kind. Mr Shanks, of Grindon Close, West Monkseaton, north Tyneside, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2005, two years after his son, Michael, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 28.