It’s no secret nowadays that those who have spent their lives working in shipyards or factories run an increased risk of eventually developing an illness such as asbestosis or mesothelioma.

However, a recent story out of Scotland regarding a profession that is far less commonly associated with asbestos illnesses may be the cause of one man’s mesothelioma death.

According to the Daily Record, 79-year-old Scottish artist James Howie passed away earlier this month after having been diagnosed with both mesothelioma and a pulmonary embolism. When looking for what caused Howie to inhale the dangerous asbestos fibers that usually cause mesothelioma, his wife Joyce told the paper that she suspected that sanding methods he used on paint for his pieces may have been what released the fibers into the air.

“He used to do layer upon layer of paint, always scraping, sanding, cutting it back to paint over it again and again in order to create a certain effect,” she said. “He would keep repeating this process until it resulted in the thing he was looking for.”

She added that, at the time of the article’s publishing, there had still not been final results from her husband’s autopsy to either confirm or deny her suspicions.

Whether or not James Howie’s sanding methods ultimately led to the asbestos exposure that caused his mesothelioma diagnosis, his case is nonetheless another example that a mesothelioma diagnosis can happen to anyone, not just factory workers.

If you or a loved one have an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, speak with one of our mesothelioma attorneys today and learn more about any legal actions you may be able to pursue.

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Elbert County in Denver, CO has a unique asbestos abatement project to tackle – that of a public landfill and trash compactor site. The site has historically been used to dispose of roofing and building materials, much of which was from before the mid 1970’s when buildings were routinely constructed with an abundance of asbestos. The landfill has been the primary dumping site for such rubbish but then it is compacted into bundles and shipped off to another landfill.

Concern about asbestos at the site arose when a backhoe company began excavating the grounds in preparation to remove an old missile silo. Local residents in the area called in complaints to authorities that contaminants were being spread by the excavation. Subsequent soil tests and tests to the debris at the landfill showed the presence of asbestos. No charges were filed because the asbestos had not yet gone airborne, but rather was contained to the landfill site.

Upon learning of the presence of asbestos among other environmental contaminants, the excavating was ceased and the area was covered, pending professional asbestos abatement services.

Cory Stark, director of Elbert County Emergency Management determined that the backhoe company, Backhoe Services, was operating without having tested the soil first and without a formal contract with the city. As reported by the Denver Post, Backhoe Services could not be reached for comment.

Stark asserts that there has been no danger to local residents so far as the toxins have been contained. Still, local residents have remained cautious and concerned. They are now taking their trash and debris to an alternate dump site.

Asbestos diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesotheliomaare the unfortunate result of asbestos exposure. If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact a mesothelioma lawyer at Sokolove Law today for a free consultation.

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Only now, three full years after her conviction, is she finally sentenced, the woman responsible for endangering hundreds of illegal asbestos workers and innumerable members of New England communities. Albania DeLeon’s punishment is largely financial. She was ordered to pay $1.2 million restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and $370,000 restitution to AIM Insurance. Her prison sentence is a mere seven years, with three years of probation after her release. That seems mild compared to the death sentence handed down by most asbestos related illnesses, includingasbestosis, mesothelioma and other malignant cancers.

Here’s a crime that makes identity theft look gentle in comparison. Most of DeLeon’s customers were illegal immigrants who, rather than obtain fake documents from underground agencies specializing in identity theft, chose to bypass that step and go straight to a skilled trade.

Forget fake drivers licenses, how about fake asbestos abatement certifications? The place to buy those in Massachusetts, which thrived for six long years, closed up shop in 2007 when its owner, Albania DeLeon, was exposed and arrested. She had been selling certificates to people and placing them in jobs where they were supposed to be trained to perform asbestos abatement services, except they weren’t. The workers didn’t have to undergo training at DeLeon’s school, they just had to pay an extra $50 to bypass the federally-mandated 32-hour program and get the certificate.

The closing of the long-lived fraudulent Massachusetts school for asbestos removal training and certification was a high profile story back in 2007 when it happened. It was an even bigger story in 2008 when DeLeon fled the country after being charged with dozens of felonies. She sawed off the monitor locked around her ankle, abandoned her three-year-old child and disappeared. That should teach the feds not to merely house arrest someone who’s destined to be the first woman ever placed on the EPA’s most wanted fugitives list.

As reported by the Boston Globe in 2009, DeLeon wrote a three page letter to US District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, part of which read: “I pray that God will forgive my soul and allow me to atone the rest of my life repaying and repairing the harm I have done. This is my solemn promise.” Although a prayer for forgiveness is not a solemn promise, one might gather from the letter that DeLeon sincerely wished to amend her wrongs. Unfortunately not. She fled the country. Nineteen months later, on October 30, 2010, DeLeon was arrested again in the Dominican Republic. Her actual sentencing took a while because the sincerely remorseful DeLeon secured herself a better lawyer for the hearing.

Although Cynthia Giles, the assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance says that “justice was served” in this case, we disagree. Sure, DeLeon was ordered to pay back the IRS and an insurance company for fraudulent tax return filings and claims, but the real loss occurred when more than 2,000 untrained, illegally certified asbestos workers were exposed to carcinogenic asbestos fibers or silicate minerals while unsafely removing asbestos from hundreds of New England schools, hospitals, churches and homes. In addition to the illegally certified asbestos workers, nobody knows how many children and other innocent members of the community were also exposed to asbestos fibers during these projects.

If you were exposed to asbestos and subsequently diagnosed with mesothelioma, contact a mesothelioma attorney. If you have any questions about the details ofasbestos law and what is required to pursue a settlement, check out the information available on the Sokolove Law website as well as this Asbestos Resource website.

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Rainy weather in Reading, Ohio, has lead to the closing of an elementary school so the building’s asbestos-laden roof can be properly and safely repaired following some water damage.

According to local television station FOX 19, Hilltop Elementary School closed last week so workers could get to the building’s roof to reinforce 35 square feet of weakened plaster that is known to contain asbestos. The plaster roofing was weakened during heavy rains that had hit the area during the week.

In order to prevent asbestos fibers from falling into the school during the construction, some workers remained inside to monitor the building and make sure conditions were safe for students to return the following week.

“Technically they don’t have to follow the EPA regulations,” said Bradley Miller with the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services. “But the contractor has agreed to do everything in the US EPA regulations by wetting the material, placing it in bags in a wetted condition and then take it to an approved landfill for disposal.”

For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer that can be linked to asbestos exposure caused by a product or former employer, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact an experienced mesothelioma attorney to learn more about your rights, and to see if pursuing a mesothelioma settlement is in your best interest.

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We hear a lot about how mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are caused by “microscopic” asbestos fibers. Easily inhaled, these tiny spear-like fibers of death become embedded into the delicate linings of the lung where, over time they can lead to scarring and eventually, mesothelioma cancer.

But how small is small?

This old advertisement from the infamous asbestos leader Johns-Manville shows how impossibly small asbestos fibers are: over 1500 of them bundled together are smaller than a human hair.

What is perhaps more astonishing then the relative size of asbestos fibers is the fact that their size was once a selling point for the global asbestos industry.

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As the nation prepares to reflect upon the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a new report suggests a link between exposure to toxic chemicals released after New York’s World Trade Centercollapsed and the development of cancer in firefighters who toiled at ground zero.

The study, released in the British medical journal The Lancet, found that 9/11 firefighters are 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not at the Trade Center wreckage, according toThe New York Times.

Study leader Dr. David J. Prezant said the findings indicate an “increased likelihood for the development of any type of cancer” but noted that they were far from conclusive.

Toxic substances found at the site of the 9/11 attacks, such asasbestos and jet fuel, can trigger diseases that may take decades to develop, such as mesothelioma.

A portion of New York City was covered by a cloud of fine powder after the towers fell. A study released after the terrorist attacks by the Virginia firm HP Environmental reported that the powder creating this toxic cloud contained asbestos. In fact, the asbestos particles were so pulverized in the explosion that most were smaller than what could be detected by the EPA’s standard testing method. After adjusting the test to check smaller fiber concentrations, the study concluded that there was an “overwhelming concentration” of the ultrafine asbestos particles.

The 9/11 first responders, including firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel, “were exposed to a whole soup of carcinogens,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of. Dr. Landrigan is the director of environmental and occupational medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan and a leading expert on asbestos toxicity. He is also the principal investigator of a related report published in The Lancet on the health effects of the attacks on recovery and rescue workers.

However, Dr. James Melius, administrator of the New York StateLaborers’ Health and Safety Trust Fund and a peer reviewer of the firefighter study, warned that it “would probably not be enough to persuade federal officials to include cancer as one of the diseases covered under the Zadroga Act.”

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R. 847) was called into law by President Obama in 2010 and it statesthat those who have 9/11 related health conditions may be eligible for health care under this law.

If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma and suspect you wereexposed to asbestos at ground zero, you may be entitled to financial compensation. To learn more about your legal options regarding a possible mesothelioma settlement, please contact an asbestoslawyer.

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For the first time in 130 years, Canada’s asbestos mines are quiet. Finally.

The country has announced that production was halted at the Lac d’amiante du Canada operation in Thetford Mines, Quebec, following the closure of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Quebec, earlier this year. Financial and environmental issues were cited in the closure of each.

Once considered Canada’s Gold, asbestos has tarnished Canada’s legacy since some political leaders aggressively protect the deadly substance and support the industry’s expansion. To this day, Canada continues to be one of the world’s largest exporters of asbestos — even though it is universally considered a health hazard, a cancer-causing agent, and no longer used within the country itself.

It’s a hot-button issue, with all of Canada’s political parties except the Conservativespushing for a ban.

The Toronto Sun recently reported the appeals to government of an Ontario womanwho lost both of her parents to asbestos-related disease:

Heidi Von Palleske — a self-proclaimed “asbestos orphan” — wants to convince the Conservative government to ban the exportation and mining of asbestos. “Four days before [mom] died, I recorded a plea where she asked that the exportation of asbestos to Third World countries stop because nobody — nobody — should die the way she was dying,” said Von Palleske.

The Cobourg, Ont., resident said her father worked in an asbestos mine and her mother developed a rare illness because she inhaled asbestos fibres from his clothing.

Von Palleske’s 11-year-old daughter also had harsh words for the Canadian government:

“I can’t believe it,” said Cavanagh Matmor. “They don’t know how it feels to have a grandmother and grandfather die of asbestos. But they don’t listen to others… It breaks my heart knowing that they’re going to continue doing that.”

Canada introduced the western world to asbestos, according to this excellent magazine article from The Globe & Mail, Canada’s Chronic Asbestos Problem:

Defensive about his town’s reputation, [Thetford Mines Mayor Luc] Berthold told a Montreal reporter that the effect of asbestos dust on health pales compared to that of smog in Montreal. In the anteroom to Berthold’s office, piles of glossy flyers promote asbestos’s “safe and irreplaceable fibres,” with charts proving that tobacco and highway accidents are thousands of times more dangerous than asbestos in schools.

It’s hard to blame the place for this attitude. After all, it wouldn’t exist without the strange fibre that a farmer named Joseph Fecteau stumbled upon in 1876. He’d hit a rich vein of asbestos, long known in Europe as a miraculous substance that could not be burned or damaged by fire. Within a few years, the Thetford area was the asbestos capital of the world, and Quebeckers called the fibres white gold.

And some are not willing to let that tarnished reputation go quietly. The owner of the Jeffrey Mine says his mine isn’t closed. Both the Jeffrey Mine and Lac d’amiante du Canada continue selling asbestos in their reserve inventories. A prominent Montreal asbestos trader is working to reopen the Jeffrey Mine, and there’s talk that production may resume in Spring 2012.

It’s time to support our northerly neighbors as they try to eradicate asbestos production from their country once and for all.  Join us in our effort to Ban Asbestos Now!

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Last Thursday, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” brought its unique brand of political satire to point out a major flaw in the 9/11 Health Care Bill for Ground Zero first responders. The highly-touted bill covers a litany of diseases such as chronic coughing, laryngitis and carpal tunnel, but surprisingly does not cover cancer treatments. The argument used by some is that there is no scientific proof that the dust inhalation caused the cancers which are killing the brave heroes who fought dangerous conditions to find the remains of those who died there following the terrorist attacks.

When the World Trade Center was constructed in 1968, asbestos was used as a fireproofing material. While there were several asbestos abatement projects after construction, hundreds of tons of the toxic mineral were still present at the time of the terrorist attacks. When the buildings collapsed that fateful day, a toxic dust cloud filled with carcinogens rolled from the site, creating a 16-acre disaster zone. Dangerous levels of asbestos were reported throughout the city, and the clouds caused dust to enter vents and open windows throughout the city.

Over 40,000 emergency workers were exposed to this toxic dust at Ground Zero, and the results are beginning to show, as a large number of these rescuers are developing rare diseases and cancers such as mesothelioma at an alarming rate. Thousands more were exposed from being in the area during and after the events as well.  It will be very difficult to know just how many more first responders were effected since mesothelioma symptoms can take decades to surface.

Hopefully the attention brought to this story by Jon Stewart will create a need to change this situation. It is time to give first responders the medical treatment they deserve.

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With the rise and fall of the asbestos industry in Canada making headlines recently, it’d be easy for some to think that the global asbestos problem could immediately be solved with a ban. It sure seems to make sense: if we stopped mining and manufacturing asbestos, we’d be able to prevent deaths from asbestos-related cancers such as mesothelioma forever.

Unfortunately, a ban is only step one in the fight to beat asbestos-related diseases. Asbestos once was used so widely that it exists potentially everywhere. It can turn up in places you’d least expect it — in the ceilings and floors of buildings that were built before 1980, in duct tape, caulking and textured paints, and even in car brakes and other automotive parts, just to name a few.

Given the pervasiveness of asbestos over the years, signs of the material and deaths from mesothelioma can occur for decades after a country bans its use. One needs to look no further than the United Kingdom (UK) to see an example of how a country must manage its “asbestos legacy” long after it has been prohibited.

The UK government banned asbestos in 1999 with the passing of The Asbestos Prohibitions Amendment Regulations. However, The Health and Safety Executive, a UK government body responsible for the regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, estimates that more than half a million non-domestic buildings on the island of Britain contain asbestos to this day.

As a result, occurrences of mesothelioma in the UK are among the highest in the world. The UK government estimates that 4,000 residents die as a result of complications associated with asbestos exposure annually. Those numbers are expected to rise, since it can take years to develop illnesses after exposure to the deadly substance. By comparison, in the United States, there are an estimated 10,000 deaths attributed to asbestos-related diseases each year.

The dramatic rise in mesothelioma deaths both at home and abroad underlines the dangers associated with even the smallest exposures to asbestos. The United States will continue to face these same asbestos-related health risks so long as the material is allowed to be used – and perhaps even long after it’s banned.

There’s no reason for our political leaders to delay in banning this deadly material. It’s time to ban asbestos now.

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Mesothelioma was first recorded by the World Health Organization in 1994, but extensive demographic pictures just recently have emerged about the deadly disease.  And to no one’s surprise, the incidence of this asbestos-related cancer has increased and the age-adjusted mortality rate more than doubled during a 15-year study period.

According to a recent WHO bulletin, 92,253 deaths from mesothelioma were reported by more than 80 countries between 1994 and 2008.  (Sadly, this number only included mesothelioma deaths, and did not account for victims of other asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis or lung cancer.)  Most mesothelioma deaths occurred in the United States and in the western and northern regions of Europe, but more generally, deaths occurred in countries with high incomes.  The 10 countries with the highest incidence of mesothelioma deaths are in the industrialized world, including Japan and South Africa.  Not surprisingly, these countries also had high cumulative asbestos use.  South Africa, for example, was once a major producer of asbestos and was the site of the first diagnosed mesothelioma cluster.  The incidence of mesothelioma in countries with high incomes was 16 times the rate of incidence in low-income countries.

Some other disturbing facts from the WHO bulletin:

·The age-adjusted mortality rate increased by 5.37 percent per year during the study period

·The mean age at death was 70

·The ratio of male to female deaths was 3.6 to 1

·Less than 12 percent of all deaths occurred in middle- and low-income countries

As troubling as these numbers are, the incidence and mortality rates are probably much worse than reported.  The study was not able to draw data from China, India, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan or Thailand — all countries that have produced and consumed asbestos at high levels over a number of years.

Given mesothelioma’s long latency period – it sometimes takes 10-50 years after exposure for symptoms to surface — it’s expected that these numbers will only continue to rise until asbestos production and usage is banned.

Perhaps the most shocking fact of all is that this deadly material is still legal in the U.S.

It’s time for federal, state and local governments to understand the urgency of the spreading disease, the lack of any safe level of exposure to asbestos, and its lack of discrimination by age, gender or race of victim.

It’s time to join our fight.

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With the new school year getting underway and many parents getting their children settled into new schools across the country, safety precautions are generally a top priority. For families at George Washington University, one of those precautions involves asbestos exposure.

According to the GW Hatchet, the University’s newspaper, Rice Hall – which houses offices for some of the school’s highest officials – underwent asbestos abatement projects in August to prepare for renovations that are scheduled for the building in the near future.

Darrell Darnell, the senior associate vice president for safety and security at the school, said that students and faculty at the school would not be put in any unsafe conditions or see any adverse health effects caused by any exposure to asbestos. However, he also would not divulge what floors, pipes, tiles, or other building products in the hall had been found to contain asbestos.

“GW has an asbestos policy that guides the maintenance of asbestos-containing materials in University buildings,” added William Flint, the university’s director of the office of health and safety. “Prior to renovation or demolition of any university building, a hazardous materials survey is conducted using District of Columbia and EPA regulations to determine the risk to students, staff, faculty and construction workers. If hazardous materials are discovered, proper abatement is conducted to remove the materials prior to construction or demolition.”

The abatement processes only took one week. Hopefully there will be no asbestos problems at the university as classes get underway this fall.

If you or a loved one has been exposed to asbestos by using certain products or working for certain companies and have subsequently been diagnosed with mesothelioma, there may be legal options worth pursuing to obtain a mesothelioma settlement. Contact a mesothelioma attorney if you have any questions about the details of asbestos law and what is needed to pursue a settlement from the manufacturer of the asbestos product (not necessarily your company)

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We all know that schools use equipment that is old, dated or even expired on occasion. This can include old textbooks, course materials or even laboratory equipment. Before we knew of the dangers associated with asbestos, many schools used the material in laboratory exercises. Although the use of asbestos in schools has dropped off, school officials in Australia recently made a grim discovery with their science equipment. In the state of Queensland, which is supposed to have the strictest anti-asbestos regulations in Australia, asbestos-containing materials was found in school science kits.

Asbestos, the deadly substance known to cause cancers such as mesothelioma, harms its victims when the fibers are inhaled. Many of the science kits were more than 20 years old, meaning an entire generation of Townsville students were put at risk by using this equipment. It is indeed conceivable that similar situations exist in many American schools; this discovery is certainly cause for concern here, even though officials in Queensland contend that the materials posed little threat to students.

Queensland’s Minister of Education, Cameron Dick, said an alert was issued to schools at the time and a whopping 159 kits were taken out of area schools. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dick contended that students were at minimal risk as the asbestos was in rock form. “I’m advised by our asbestos health adviser, Dr. Keith Adams, that there is minimal risk to any student who may have come in contact with that and we have withdrawn all the mineral kits from Queensland schools,” he said.

Meanwhile, NineMSN is reporting that the asbestos-tainted science kits have generated considerable political fights between Queensland officials. “Labor is dangerously exposing our children to asbestos,” Bruce Flegg of the center-right Liberal National Party said on Monday. “We are still seeing far too many examples of children and teachers who are exposed to potentially deadly airborne asbestos fibers. It would seem Labor chose to keep the revelation under wraps to avoid adverse publicity.”

Queensland’s Premier, Anna Bligh of the leftist Labor Party, blamed the opposition for the asbestos material found in the schools. She said, “It was not the Labor Party who put asbestos in schools. It was the Liberal and National parties of Queensland who continued to put it in our schools long after the world knew that it was a dangerous material.” Bligh called her party’s efforts, “The biggest asbestos removal program in the country.”

The finger-pointing between politicians is incredible. Shouldn’t they be more concerned that these potentially dangerous materials were readily available in schools? This attitude is something we see in countries all around the world, including in the U.S. Even though this particular incident occurred in Australia, it’s a good reminder that we should be vigilant about the materials and products our schools and community centers use on a regular basis. Let’s ensure the safety of our children.

Let’s ban asbestos now.

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Industrialized nations have been living with the uses of asbestos – and consequences from that use — for more than a century. But it’s hard to imagine that we’ve been living for nearly 50 years with evidence, studies and research into the dangers of asbestos, and yet, it still continues to be manufactured, used and exported in many corners of the globe.

Here’s a chronological look at 10 articles over the past five decades that chronicle the effects of asbestos, as well as efforts in the global fight to ban this deadly material.

·”Asbestos Increases Cigaret Cancer Peril,” The Milwaukee Journal, June 20, 1967

The combination of exposure to asbestos particles at work and smoking cigarets [sic] greatly increases the risk of developing lung cancer, it was reported Monday.

·”Non-Tobacco Additives Probe Asked,” Lodi News-Sentinel, Sept. 28, 1970

Attorney Ralph Nader asked the Federal Trade Commission Sunday to investigate use of asbestos, glass fibers, and other non-tobacco additives in cigars and cigarettes.

·”Asbestos Fiber Peril in Coats,” Miami News, June 8, 1971

About 200,000 women’s coats containing potentially hazardous amounts of asbestos fibers woven into the woolen fabric have been sold in this country since last fall, a New York physician reported yesterday.

·”Asbestos, Cancer Linked,” St. Petersburg Times, July 27, 1972

Two cancer researchers say they have confirmed through human lung cancer cases the theory that occupational exposure to asbestos enhances the cancer-causing effects of cigarette smoke.

·”Asbestos to Claim 1 Million Lives, Researcher Says,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 23, 1973

A noted researcher told a Senate subcommittee today that by the end of this century asbestos will claim the lives of a million Americans who have worked or are now working with the fibrous mineral.

·”Powders Contain Asbestos Fibres,” Montreal Gazette, March 8, 1976

Ten out of 19 body and baby powders tested at Mount Sinai Hospital were contaminated with asbestos fibres capable of causing a rare form of chest and abdominal cancer, researchers said yesterday.

·”Petitioners Seek to Ban Asbestos,” The Free Lance-Star, July 15, 1976

Consumer and environmental organizations are petitioning the government to ban wall patching compounds containing asbestos, saying more than one million Americans may be exposed each year to the potentially cancer-causing fibers in their own homes.

·”Asbestos Feared As Hazard in All New Jersey Schools,” Miami News, Jan. 4, 1977

The air in New Jersey schools may have high levels of asbestos fibers, scientists reported yesterday after studying the levels at eight schools in one county.

·”US Bans Asbestos Products,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 29, 1977

The Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday banned spackling compounds and other wall patching mixtures containing asbestos as possible causes of cancer.

·”40 Added to List of Hair Dryers Containing Asbestos,” Deseret News, April 18, 1979

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has identified more than 40 additional models of hair dryers that contain asbestos, an insulation material that has been linked to cancer.

Despite the mounting evidence, product bans and agency directives in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. still has not acted to ban asbestos. The EPA banned most asbestos-containing products in 1989, only to have that rule overturned in the federal court system. Numerous bills in Congress have gone nowhere, most recently a bill passed by the Senate in 2007 that would have banned the importation of asbestos.

Asbestos is still found in more than 3,000 consumer products, and chances are you know someone who has been affected by this deadly cancer-causing agent. After 50 years, don’t you think it’s time to Ban Asbestos Now?

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Today, the United States processes more than 2,200 metric tons of deadly asbestos materials each year. In our opinion, that’s 2,200 metric tons too many, even though it is a significant drop compared to our usage 50 years ago. Although our country’s widespread usage of asbestos has diminished significantly over the past three decades, the toxic product is still actively mined, sold and used in construction projects worldwide, particularly in Asia. According to data compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, China and India, the two most populous countries on the planet, represented the two largest consumers of asbestos. Other major consumers include Russia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

“When asbestos was banned in industrialized countries and [producers] started to lose money, they came to the developing countries to recover their investments,” Dr. Guadalupe Aguilar Madrid told the Center for Public Integrity and the BBC.

Each year, one million metric tons of asbestos is mined in Russia, which exports most of this mineral and keeps only a quarter of this production within its own boundaries. On the other hand, China uses a staggering 626,000 metric tons of the toxic substance annually. But only half of that is mined domestically, and the country relies on other asbestos producing countries, such as Canada, Russia and Brazil, to make up the difference. India uses 300,000 metric tons annually, but produces very little domestically, relying almost exclusively on imports.

Given all that is known about the dangers associated with asbestos use, the numbers are staggering. If you were to look at production per capita, you’d see that Russia, a country of about 140 million residents, mines a whopping 15 pounds of asbestos per person, per year!

Research has shown that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure which avoids any risk of mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases. Although it is comforting to know that production and consumption of asbestos in the United States is declining, the substance still poses a risk to Americans at home and abroad, a risk that can only be mitigated with a full ban on asbestos here.

We should encourage Congress to ban asbestos in the U.S., to set the right example for other leading world powers. It’s time to do the right thing. Join our fight. Help us ban asbestos now.

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Imagine a hammock that more and more people keep piling into without anybody getting out. The weight would quickly become too burdensome to bear and, sagging with a tangle of limbs and torsos, the rope would break. That’s what companies whose livelihoods were once asbestosdependent are like. With billions paid in asbestos settlements each year, the financial strain of numerous personal injury lawsuits from employees exposed to asbestos is too much for any corporation to hold.

What’s best for both the injured employees seeking compensation as well as the companies themselves is for the hammock to hold, or at least have a safety net in place. That’s why more and more of those companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcies to reorganize their assets and debts as well as put aside money for injured asbestos workers into what are known as asbestos bankruptcy trusts. More and more of these have been established as more and more companies have filed Chapter 11’s over the past two decades.

The only problem with asbestos bankruptcy trusts is that the asbestos workers who are ill from asbestos exposure — whether with asbestosis,mesothelioma, or some other type of asbestos-related cancer — don’t receive what they need and deserve, which is the full value of their settlements. The system was created to make asbestos claims easier to file, often requiring no more than a diagnosis and a form to fill out. Yet, the amount of money that actually makes it to the injured worker is typically less than one third the amount of the settlement, according to a study by the RAND Corporation.

Now, there are around 50 different asbestos bankruptcy trusts paying out billions in asbestos claims each year. However, there are still many solvent companies liable for asbestos exposure injuries. Mesothelioma lawsuits are being filed against these solvent companies as regularly as the spinning of a well-oiled wheel. The companies have lawyers scrambling for ways to limit their liability and avoid taking responsibility for the widespread tragedy of asbestos-related cancer and other illness. To that end, defense lawyers want access to detailed records from asbestos bankruptcy trusts, allowing them to see who is paid how much for what specific illness.

Lately, Republicans in congress are looking at the issue, deciding whether to make changes to these asbestos bankruptcy trusts. As reported by the National Law Journal, asbestos lawyers andmesothelioma attorneys argue that the corporate defense lawyers want this reform only to expose the spokes of that well-oiled wheel so that they can throw in sticks.

There is no telling how soon or in what way Republicans in Congress will act on this issue. Meanwhile, if you have mesothelioma or another asbestos-caused illness, you may have a claim against an existing or future asbestos bankruptcy trust. If you were exposed to multiple asbestos products that were manufactured by different bankrupt companies, you may actually qualify for compensation under several trusts.

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