Quoted from http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3495057.htm

Asbestos victims claim some justice in James Hardie ruling

 

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 03/05/2012

Reporter: Matt Peacock

Australia’s highest court has found seven directors of former asbestos manufacturer James Hardie guilty of breaches over the company’s asbestos compensation fund.

Transcript

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: It’s been a long and bitter journey, but today the High Court ruled that seven former James Hardie directors broke the law by making a misleading statement about the company’s asbestos compensation fund.

The decision is a major victory for the corporate regulator. But asbestos victims say justice has still not been done and that there’s still nothing in law to stop companies from hiding behind the corporate veil.

Matt Peacock has been covering the James Hardie saga since the 1970′s and he filed this report.

MATT PEACOCK, REPORTER: 11 years on, Australia’s highest court finds the directors of the former asbestos manufacturer guilty.

SERAFINA SALUCCI, MESOTHELIOMA SUFFERER: Obviously I’m pleased. I think it just sends a message that companies and corporations can’t get away with doing whatever they think they can get away with.

GREG MEDCRAFT, ASIC CHAIRMAN: No person is beyond the law. And Australians would expect nothing less from us.

TANYA SEGELOV, BERNIE BANTON’S LAWYER: Finally there is some justice for asbestos victims. A small amount of justice, but justice nevertheless.

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Quoted from http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/5/1658?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=6&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=mesothelioma&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct

Radical Pleurectomy and Intraoperative Photodynamic Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Joseph S. Friedberg, MDa,*, Melissa J. Culligan, BSNa, Rosemarie Mick, MSc, James Stevenson, MDe, Stephen M. Hahn, MDb, Daniel Sterman, MDd, Salman Punekar, MDb, Eli Glatstein, MDb, Keith Cengel, MD, PhDb

a Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
b Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
c Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
d Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
e Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Accepted for publication February 6, 2012.

* Address correspondence to Dr Friedberg, Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center, 51 N 39th St, Wright-Saunders Building, Ste 250, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Email: joseph.friedberg@uphs.upenn.edu ).

Presented at the Forty-seventh Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, San Diego, CA, Jan 31–Feb 2, 2011.

Background: Radical pleurectomy (RP) for mesothelioma is often considered either technically unfeasible or an operation limited to patients who would not tolerate a pneumonectomy. The purpose of this study was to review our experience using RP and intraoperative photodynamic therapy (PDT) for mesothelioma.

Methods: Thirty-eight patients (42–81 years) underwent RP-PDT. Thirty five of 38 (92%) patients also received systemic therapy. Standard statistical techniques were used for analysis.

Results: Thirty seven of 38 (97%) patients had stage III/IV cancer (according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC manual 7th Edition, 2010]) and 7/38 (18%) patients had nonepithelial subtypes. Macroscopic complete resection was achieved in 37/38 (97%) patients. There was 1 postoperative mortality (stroke). At a median follow-up of 34.4 months, the median survival was 31.7 months for all 38 patients, 41.2 months for the 31/38 (82%) patients with epithelial subtypes, and 6.8 months for the 7/38 (18%) patients with nonepithelial subtypes. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 9.6, 15.1, and 4.8 months, respectively. The median survival and PFS for the 20/31 (64%) patients with N2 epithelial disease were 31.7 and 15.1 months, respectively.

Conclusions: It was possible to achieve a macroscopic complete resection using lung-sparing surgery in 97% of these patients with stage III/IV disease. The survival we observed with this approach was unusually long for the patients with the epithelial subtype but, interestingly, the PFS was not. The reason for this prolonged survival despite recurrence is not clear but is potentially related to preservation of the lung or some PDT-induced effect, or both. We conclude that the results of this lung-sparing approach are safe, encouraging, and warrant further investigation.

Quoted from http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/asbestos-now-affecting-third-wave-of-victims-20120330-1w25r.html

Asbestos now affecting third wave of victims

Stephanie Gardiner

March 30, 2012 – 1:41PM

Asbestos … the number of mesothelioma sufferers continues to rise. Photo: Peter Rae

 

Adventurer Lincoln Hall famously defied death on the world’s highest mountain, but what eventually caused his demise was something so small he could not even see it.

Mr Hall, 56, famous for his Mount Everest expeditions and his near death experience below the summit in 2006, died last week from mesothelioma, linked to asbestos cement flat sheets used to build cubby houses with his father as a child.

Mr Hall was part of what is known as the third wave of mesothelioma sufferers; those who were exposed to asbestos fibres not as miners or workers, but as “bystanders”.

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Quoted from http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/03/05/judge-frees-travelers-from-big-payout-for-manville-asbestos-creditors/

Judge Frees Travelers From Big Payout for Manville Asbestos Creditors

• WSJ – Bankruptcy Beat
• March 5, 2012, 3:35 PM

By Jacqueline Palank

A federal judge recently freed insurer Travelers from obligations to pay out $510 million in long-running litigation over asbestos liabilities in the three-decade-old bankruptcy of Johns Manville Corp.

Under settlements struck nearly a decade ago, Travelers agreed to pay $445 million to individuals who said they were injured after being exposed to asbestos in Manville’s insulation and other building products. According to Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl last week ruled that Travelers doesn’t have to make these payments, or another $65 million in interest, because a condition of the deals wasn’t met.

“Because a condition precedent in the settlement agreements was not satisfied, it was error to require Travelers to make the settlement payments,” Koeltl said, referring to the 2011 bankruptcy-court ruling he said was wrong to keep Travelers on the hook.

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