Mesothelioma Law Blog

Last week the Bureau of Land Management closed about half the Clear Creek Management Area in the Diablo Range on Friday.  The reason was that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report saying asbestos in the area posed a serious cancer risk to those who work, hike, camp, hunt, collect gems and ride dirt bikes.

“Frankly, we were surprised at how high the levels of asbestos are at Clear Creek,” said Jere Johnson, a Superfund project manager for the EPA who worked on the study. “What we found is that there is a lot of asbestos in the soil, and when you disturb the soil it poses a health risk.”

Clear Creek has the largest deposits in the United States because of the unique geological combination of volcanic rock and faults.  Arnold Den, a science advisor for the EPA, said that a 2005 UC Davis study found that people living near naturally occurring asbestos had a significantly higher cancer rate than those who don’t.

Dirt bikers are not happy at all saying that the type of asbestos there is not toxic and are upset about being denied access to public land.

“The recreation community is in a state of shock,” said Don Amador, a frequent visitor to Clear Creek and Western representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an off-road advocacy group.

“It’s unprecedented, as far as public land issues go. We’re going to want to fight it, either administratively or in court.”

“The bottom line is, asbestos is a very potent carcinogen,” he said. “We don’t want to wait around and count the bodies. We’d rather prevent the bodies in the first place.” 

Arnold Den says that the government is taking no chances because the danger from asbestos particles can cause cancer of the lungs and throat, called mesothelioma, and scarring of the lungs that interferes with breathing.   

The dangers of inhaling asbestos or being exposed to other forms of asbestos have been known for many years. However, only in the last couple of decades has the public become more aware of the danger, perhaps because only now is the effect being felt from exposures many years ago.

According to the American Cancer Society, Mesothelioma can be caused by asbestos and it can take twenty to fifty years to show up after first exposure. Not only that but the risk is lifetime and does not reduce over time.

ASBESTOS IN CHILDREN’S TOYS??

Lawsuits have been filed in California against Planet Toys, Inc. and CBS Broadcasting System, Inc. Planet Toys makes a series of kits modeled after the popular CBS program CSI and CBS licenses the kits. The suits allege that fingerprint powder in the kits contained large quantities of asbestos.

“This should be a no-brainer,” says Victoria Ni, the lead Public Justice attorney in both cases. “The facts are that even small quantities of asbestos are hazardous when inhaled, that the fingerprinting powder has been found to contain asbestos, and that this powder has been marketed and sold to thousands of children who are told to spread it around and blow off the excess. It’s a shame that we’ve had to resort to litigation to force these companies to do what they should have done in the first place to protect the American public.”

WHO DA THUNK??

A film actress and singer who developed the terminal cancer mesothelioma, and her husband, have won a $20 million damage claim against manufacturers of asbestos home remodeling products, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Daniel and Joan Mahoney, who starred in a 1960s B movie, “Psycho a Go-Go,” sang in nightclubs and toured with the USO, will claim a portion of the award, $7 million from Georgia Pacific Corp., the only defendant that didn’t previously settle, according to the Chronicle.

Source: TheDailyGreen

In what could be W.R. Grace and Co.’s first step in a seven year attempt to leave Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection, the company has agreed to pay $250 million for the investigation and cleanup of asbestos contamination around its Libby, MT mine.The vermiculite mine was among the more publicized cases of asbestos exposure that affected not only the mine workers, but also the surrounding town. Traces of asbestos were nearly everywhere in the town, including in schools, homes and businesses. Nearly all traces of asbestos could be attributed to the nearby mine’s failure to properly control their hazardous waste.

Read Article Here

Here is a lady who created a website about her family’s experience with mesothelioma.

A Webster woman whose husband died in 2006 at age 58 from mesothelioma has put together a Web site to help others cope with the rare cancer.

Patricia Gaglio’s husband, Mike Gaglio, was a sheet metal worker who was exposed to asbestos on construction projects; he also ran Mike Gaglio Photography in Webster.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles.

“Those of us that have had to deal with it know that time is of the essence,” says Patricia Gaglio. Her husband traveled to New York City for chemotherapy, surgery and radiation; others go to Boston.

At http://meso-westernny.com, Gaglio has compiled travel information, mesothelioma resources, books and legal resources, and created an online forum where people can post questions and get support.

Source: DemocratandChronicle.com

The elementary school in Libby was damaged during snow removal recently, and raw vermiculite poured out of the resulting hole in the wall. At least one child picked up the dangerous substance delivered courtesy of W.R. Grace. Will Libby ever be clean? Has the government done the best it can for Libby residents? And will the government’s case against Grace ever actually make it to court? Read Vince Devlin’s story in Thursday’s paper, then come back and drop us a line.

http://westernmontana360.com/

I’ve blogged recently about how WR Grace wants to get back in business and limit its liability for asbestos diseases. Frankly it looks to me like WR Grace should be paying “through the nose” so to speak and should really be held responsible for ALL of the damage that they caused in Libby and elsewhere.

Why should the taxpayers have to pay the bill to clean up WR Grace’s mess? We shouldn’t.

WR Grace and Bankruptcy Court

Asbestos and Libby, Montana

This is possibly one of the largest asbestos verdicts in New Jersey.

The disease killed 50-year-old Mark Buttitta in 2002, although he had only handled auto parts containing asbestos while working summers at giant GM warehouses in New Jersey, Maimon said.

However, Buttitta’s father worked there, and his brother also spent summers at the warehouse, the lawyer said.

The three men wore the same work clothes for several days “bringing home cancer-causing fibers every day from work, unknowingly letting the microscopic fibers fragments waft throughout their home and settle,” said Maimon, who specializes in asbestos cases.

“Worse yet, as a young boy Mark would sit on his dad’s lap _ or next to him on the sofa _ every night to watch TV, and was innocently exposed to asbestos,” he said.

The six-person Bergen County jury on Tuesday found against Asbestos Corp. Ltd. of Canada, which provided material for GM brakes, and BorgWarner Inc. of Michigan, which made clutches.

Source:  Newsday.com

Lawyers with W.R. Grace are getting more time to file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, as well as to perhaps settle pre-trial issues in the government’s criminal case dealing with Libby asbestos.

Interesting abstract here on the difference between deterrence and compensation as it applies to possibly fraudulent claims.

Deterrence and compensation goals should be distinguished, and compensation priorities should change in response to the deterrence goal. This has immediate implications for the problem of handling marginal and fraudulent claims in asbestos litigation. Where the deterrence goals come to the forefront, for example in instances of reckless exposure, it may be desirable for courts to require defendants to pay damages that are not transferred to any claimants. Where the deterrence goals are less compelling, as in instances of ordinary negligence, the importance of weeding out marginal and fraudulent claims becomes paramount. I consider optimal penalties for attorneys who bundle fraudulent claims.

Social Science Research Network

Travelers Cos. Inc. announced Tuesday that the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned a bankruptcy court’s approval of a $500 million asbestos-related insurance settlement. The decision, made late Friday, would reverse a $500 million settlement in March 2006 of certain insurance claims arising from a suit by Denver-based Johns-Manville Corp. The case has been remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for reconsideration. In its decision, the New York-based federal appeals court said the bankruptcy court that approved the settlement had no legal jurisdiction to do so.

Travelers, Manville’s longtime primary insurer, agreed in 2004 to settle three groups of “direct action” lawsuits filed against it by claimants allegedly injured by products made by Manville. The plaintiffs argued that Travelers violated state and common law in handling the claims and did not disclose what it knew of the asbestos hazards.