Company appealing asbestos payout

Quoted from http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/11929189/company-appealing-asbestos-payout/

Company appealing asbestos payout

KATE CAMPBELL, The West Australian November 22, 2011, 5:35 pm

A mesothelioma sufferer awarded more than $2 million compensation after contracting the disease from playing in asbestos waste as a child is “very disappointed” the company deemed responsible has decided to appeal the ruling.

Supreme Court Justice Michael Corboy last month awarded Perth man Simon Lowes $2.07 million in damages after finding James Hardie had caused or significantly contributed to his cancer.

Mr Lowes, now a 42-year-old father of two, contracted mesothelioma after playing in asbestos waste dumped by James Hardie at the popular Castledare miniature railway site in Wilson in the early 1970s.

[Article continues at original source]

Hardie asbestos claims may have peaked

Quoted from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/hardie-asbestos-claims-may-have-peaked-20111117-1nkq6.html

 

Hardie asbestos claims may have peaked

 

Kim Christian

November 17, 2011 – 5:04PM

 

Asbestos claims against James Hardie may have peaked but it could take about a decade until compensation costs begin to wane.

 

The building products manufacturer, which set up a fund in 2001 to compensate people exposed to deadly asbestos dust, said the number of claims being made was now running below “actuarial forecasts”.

 

“This year was projected to be our peak but the way it’s going it looks like we might have actually peaked in 2008,” James Hardie chief executive Louis Gries told AAP.

 

However, he said the value of claims would not peak for at least eight to nine years due to inflationary effects.

 

Following the experience of similar claims in the United States, Mr Gries was confident that cash compensation payouts would begin to decline within a decade.

 

[Article continues at original source]

 

Payout for former Crewe railway worker

Quoted from http://www.creweguardian.co.uk/news/9354145.Payout_for_former_railway_worker/

Payout for former Crewe railway worker

9th November 2011

A FORMER Crewe railway worker has received a ‘substantial payout’ after he developed fatal cancer mesothelioma while employed at the town’s locomotive works.

Former union official Dennis Jones, 82, has been compensated for the asbestos disease he developed while at Crewe Railway Works.

He is one of many railway workers from Crewe to be exposed to asbestos and the town has a high numbers of mesothelioma sufferers.

Mr Jones was first exposed to asbestos when he was just 16 years old and has now received an undisclosed sum after developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.

Mr Jones was exposed to asbestos while working as an apprentice for Crewe Locomotive Works from 1945.

He went on to become a full-time union official for Amicus, now part of Unite the Union.

He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in July this year after attending his GP complaining of breathlessness.

There is no cure for mesothelioma, which can take decades to develop and is only caused by exposure to asbestos.

[Article continues at original source]

Importance of gender in diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma

Quoted from http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/11/03/annonc.mdr477.abstract

Importance of gender in diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma

*Correspondence to: Dr T. D. Yan, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Tel: +61-2-95158181; Fax: +61-2-95158184; E-mail: tristan.yan@hotmail.com

  • Received July 7, 2011.
  • Accepted September 20, 2011.

Abstract

Background: Combined therapy involving cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy has been shown to improve survival outcomes for patients with diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM). The present study aims to investigate gender as a potential prognostic factor on overall survival.

Patients and methods: Over a period of two decades, 294 patients who underwent CRS and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy were selected from a large multi-institutional registry to assess the prognostic significance of gender on overall survival.

Results: Female patients were shown to have a significantly improved survival outcome than male patients (P < 0.001). Staging according to a recently proposed tumor–node–metastasis categorization system was significant in both genders. Older female patients had significantly worse survival than younger female patients (P = 0.019), a finding that was absent in male patients. Female patients with low-stage disease were found to have a very favorable long-term outcome after combined treatment.

Conclusions: Gender has demonstrated a significant impact on overall survival for patients with DMPM after CRS and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. An improved understanding of the role of estrogen in the pathogenesis of DMPM may improve the prognostication of patients and determine the role of adjuvant hormonal treatment in the future.

Therapy hope for asbestos disease

Quoted from http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/02/3354364.htm

Therapy hope for asbestos disease

2 November, 2011 2:19PM AEDT

By Celine Foenander

An interest in cancer research set Manfred Beilharz on the pathway to explore a treatment for asbestos disease sufferers.

The Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia is researching a way to boost an individual’s immune system to tackle the fatal asbestos disease, mesothelioma.

“This is an old dream of immunologists that’s been around for perhaps 20-30 years, that you should be able to hype up your body’s own defences and use them as part of the armament against cancer,” Assoc Prof Beilharz told ABC Gippsland’s Mornings Program.

The ‘triple therapy’ method has been tested on mice and is showing positive results.

It involves manipulating the immune system in three different ways, after research found single and double treatment methods had not completely eradicated cancerous tumours.

It’s a case of third time lucky for researchers.

[Article continues at original source]

Nurse exposed to deadly asbestos in hospital tunnels

Quoted from http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Nurse-exposed-deadly-asbestos-hospital-tunnels/story-13712710-detail/story.html

Nurse exposed to deadly asbestos in hospital tunnels

Monday, October 31, 2011

Grimsby Telegraph


A NURSE who dedicated her life to helping others died from mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos lining the tunnels in the hospitals she trained in, an inquest heard.

Shirley Burns, 71, of Grimsby Road, Waltham, died in May at St Andrew’s Hospice, Grimsby, after doctors told her there was nothing they could do to help her beat the incurable lung disease.

  1.  

The district coroner for North East Lincolnshire, Paul Kelly, overruled consultant pathologist Dr William Peters who, following a post-mortem examination, said the mesothelioma was the “rare and spontaneous” result of natural causes.

Instead, Mr Kelly, said he believed it was the result of exposure to asbestos – and therefore industrially related – after hearing Mrs Burns worked in the London training hospitals.

Mr Kelly said: “In the past two or three weeks, the link coroners throughout the country keep in touch with has been quite active with reports of people suffering from mesothelioma and it being traced back to some of the London teaching hospitals – in particular, the tunnels the staff used.

“There is a proven link between asbestos used in these tunnels and later incidents of mesothelioma.”

[Article continues at original source]

Cancer Victim Wins $2 Million Compensation from James Hardie

Quoted from http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/239138/20111028/asbestos-compensation-james-lowes-hardie-fund-castledare.htm

Cancer Victim Wins $2 Million Compensation from James Hardie

October 28, 2011 9:48 AM EST

A WA man has won $2 million in compensation from James Hardie after the Western Australian Supreme Court found the building materials company negligent in dumping asbestos that caused him to develop mesothelioma.

The award ordered on Wednesday ended 42-year-old Simon Lowes’s more than two years of legal battle with the James Hardie compensation fund, which denied responsibility for the cancer he developed for playing in an orphanage playground used as an asbestos dumpsite.

Judge Michael Corboy’s decision on Wednesday said James Hardie should have never dumped asbestos at the Christian Brothers’ orphanage at Castledare, where other children also played in a favorite miniature railway built from asbestos waste and inhaled asbestos dust.

Lowes was diagnosed in 2008 with mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. He had undergone several surgeries, chemotherapy and medical tests.

[Article continues at original source]

Mesothelioma suit allowed to continue in court

Quoted from http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=533342728


Mesothelioma suit allowed to continue in court

In Missouri, the workers’ compensation exclusivity provision does not apply to occupational disease claims.

Case name: State ex rel. KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations Co. v. Cook, No. WD73462 (Mo. Ct. App. 09/13/11).

Ruling: The Missouri Court of Appeals held that a worker’s suit related to his occupational disease did not fall within the exclusive remedy provisions of workers’ compensation so his suit could continue.

What it means: In Missouri, the workers’ compensation exclusivity provision does not apply to occupational disease claims.

Summary: A worker sued his employer, alleging that his work-related exposure to asbestos caused him to develop mesothelioma. The employer asserted as an affirmative defense that the worker’s claims were barred because workers’ compensation was his exclusive remedy. The Missouri Court of Appeals held that the worker’s claims were not subject to the exclusivity of workers’ compensation because they did not arise out of an “accident” as the term is defined.

[Article continues at original source]

GAO Reports Shines Light on Secretive Asbestos Trusts

Quoted from http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202519467829&GAO_Reports_Shines_Light_on_Secretive_Asbestos_Trusts

GAO Reports Shines Light on Secretive Asbestos Trusts

Corporate Counsel

October 20, 2011



The Government Accountability
Office
released a new report on Wednesday analyzing asbestos injury trusts,
shining some light on a multi-billion-dollar system of plaintiff claims and
payouts that operates largely in secret.

The report, Asbestos
Injury Compensation: The Role and Administration of Asbestos Trusts [PDF]
,
reviewed 52 asbestos-related bankruptcy trusts that “have paid about 3.3 million
claims valued at about $17.5 billion.”

The GAO found that while the
majority of the trusts made general data available, very few provide detailed
information about their activities without being directed to by a court of law:
“Most asbestos trusts we reviewed publish for public review annual financial
reports and generally include total number of claims received and paid. 
Other information in the possession of a trust, such as an individual’s exposure
to asbestos, is generally not available to outside parties but may be obtained,
for example, in the course of litigation pursuant to a court-ordered
subpoena.”

[Article continues at original source]


Payout over Scunthorpe steel worker’s asbestos death

Quoted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-15242708

 

Payout over Scunthorpe steel worker’s asbestos death

10 October 2011 Last updated at 11:11 ET

The family of a Scunthorpe man who died after being exposed to asbestos while working at the town’s steelworks has been awarded £48,000 in compensation.

Reg Grimshaw died last year, aged 88, from the lung disease mesothelioma.

He spent his entire working life at the plant, which was run by a number of companies over the years, including the nationalised British Steel Corporation.

Current owners Tata Steel said the claim was from a “historic exposure to a risk”.

Malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer which affects the thin membrane that lines the chest and abdomen. About 2,400 people are diagnosed with the condition in the UK each year.

According to Cancer Research UK, up to 80% of cases of malignant mesothelioma are caused by exposure to asbestos fibres.

[Article continues at original source]

Law Offices of Thomas J. Lamb, P.A.
1908 Eastwood Road, Suite 225
Wilmington, NC 28403
Tel: (800) 426-9535
Email@LambLawOffice.com
Disclaimer and Copyright