Cancer Care

Tiny fibres used in tennis racquets, bicycle frames and some electronic equipment could be as dangerous to inhale as asbestos, experts warned on Tuesday.

A new study has linked the fibres, carbon nanotubes, with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining. Thousands of Britons have died after contact with asbestos, which can trigger the disease.

Carbon nanotubes, which are about 1/50,000th the size of a human hair, are extremely strong and able to transmit electricity.

They have been used in around a dozen products including tennis racquets, baseball bats and electronics but experts predict their use will significantly increase in coming decades.

Prof Ken Donaldson, of the University of Edinburgh, has shown that one type of nanotubes damages the lungs in the same way as asbestos.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology on Wednesday, show that in tests in mice, long, thin versions of the particles were able to penetrate the outer walls of the lung. They cannot be expelled and provoke scarring and inflammation, eventually leading to mesothelioma, often decades later.

Dr Anthony Seaton, from the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, warned that those involved in the manufacture of the particles were most likely to be exposed to airborne particles, particularly as the industry is predicted to grow rapidly and be worth more than £1 billion by 2010.

Dr Noemi Eiser, medical director at the British Lung Foundation, said: “It is imperative that the questions raised by this research are answered before the commercial use of long carbon nanotubes becomes widespread. We must be vigilant about preventing future exposure.”

Source : www.telegraph.co.uk

AN ALSTON woman whose husband died from asbestos related cancer has launched a legal battle for compensation of up to £150,000.

Robert Stewart, 81, died from malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissues surrounding his lungs or abdomen, according to a writ issued in London’s High Court.
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His hair, combed straight back, is whiter and sparser now, and the creases in his face are more pronounced.

But Miles Lord hasn’t lost any of his old fire.

At 87, he’s still going after Minnesota’s steel and taconite industry, just as he did 33 years ago when, as a federal judge, he issued a landmark environmental ruling against the old Reserve Mining Co.
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Retired asbestos moulder William Adams died from long-term exposure to the deadly mineral during his working life at a factory near Stroud, a coroner has ruled.Mr Adams, 85, who spent his career shaping asbestos at the Fibrecrete plant in Chalford, had inhaled so much of the fibrous material that it spawned the rare cancer, malignant mesothelioma, in the lung lining.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease after hearing that Mr Adams died of the asbestos-related cancer.

Mr Adams’ daughter, Beryl Bullock, told the hearing, at Cirencester Register Office, that her father worked as an asbestos moulder for Fibrecrete between 1948 and 1970.

“He said he used to make sheet boards from blue asbestos and that the workers wore no protective clothing,” she said. “The dangers weren’t known at that time.”

When he began to suffer breathing difficulties, the family were not shocked when suspected malignant mesothelioma was diagnosed.

“We knew people who worked with him who had become affected by the disease, so it was not too much of a surprise,” she said.

Mr Adams, of The Glebe, Sapperton, died on March 21 this year at Cirencester Hospital, where he was receiving palliative care.

Pathologist, Dr Richard Bryan, said tests found that his lungs contained on average 529 asbestos fibres per gramme of dry lung tissue.

“That shows significant occupational exposure,” he said.

He died from pneumonia caused by the malignant mesothelioma tumour, which is almost always caused by asbestos exposure.

Mr Crickmore said: “I have yet to see a case of malignant mesothelioma without asbestos exposure.

“In a countryside setting such as Gloucestershire, that amount of fibres is far higher than you would expect to see.

“I am satisfied that this man died as a result of being exposed to asbestos during the course of his employment.”

source : www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

Stephen Jay Gould died in 2002, a prolific writer of popular science, teacher at Harvard and polymath. He was diagnosed with abdominal mesothelioma some 20 years before and was told the median survival was eight months.

Anybody diagnosed with such a disease should read his essay The Median Isn’t the Message, for it brings some sense of hope into an otherwise depressing world.
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When offered one wish, most of these children pick a vacation in Walt Disney World, to meet Mickey and Pluto and take a breather under the Florida sun.

Last spring, the Make-A-Wish Foundation Inc. of Connecticut got in touch with Carlos Brantley’s mother. The foundation wondered what would make Carlos happy.
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The Asbestos Victims Association of South Australia is calling for the mesothelioma drug Alimta (permetrexed) to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The call follows the news that Alimta (pemetrexed), a drug that has shown it can prolong survival time and improve quality of life to people with mesothelioma, has been rejected for listing on the PBS.

Asbestos Victims Association of South Australia secretary Terry Miller, said time is something people with this cruel and insidious disease do not have and they should not be forced to wait for affordable access to such vital treatment.

Whyalla Asbestos Victims’ Support Group chairperson John Arthur said he did not know of any local sufferers using the drug, mainly due to its cost.

“We are certainly for the push to list it,” Mr Arthur said.

“If it was on the PBS they (Whyalla sufferers) would give anything a go.”

He said there were no other drugs available which had similar effects on the disease.

“It would be great,” Mr Arthur said, if the drug was made available on the scheme.

Mr Miller said it wasn’t fair for people to miss out on gaining extra lie expectancy because of the drug’s cost.

“This drug has been shown to work for many people with the disease, giving them more valuable time with their loved ones and a better quality of life for the time they do have left,” Mr Miller said.

“People with mesothelioma are always having to wait for justice and it is not fair to ask them to wait any longer.”

It would cost $4million a year to list Alimta in the scheme.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital head of cancer services Dr Ken Pittman said Alimta was the first and only chemotherapy agent approved for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Dr Pittman said while Alimta was not a cure it was the only drug to have demonstrated a significant survival benefit in this difficult to treat disease.

It also reduced pain and shortness of breath, with manageable side effects.

Australia had the highest reported incidence of mesothelioma in the world since 1985.

About 600 cases are reported each year and the incidence will increase into the next decade, part due to Australia being the world’s highest user per capita of asbestos in the 1950s.

source : yourguide.com

LegalView.com, your resource for everything legal, has introduced a new glossary of terminology relating to the condition mesothelioma. This terminology reference is intended to add to LegalView.com’s full range of Mesothelioma resources. The glossary features hundreds of legal and medical terms and exists as a compliment to the site’s articles and legal information related to mesothelioma.
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MILTON CENTER, Ohio - Donald L. Burkhart, 82, a former councilman in Milton Center and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday in the Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township.

He died from mesothelioma, a form of asbestos-related lung cancer, his daughter, Vicki Blasius, said.

Mr. Burkhart was a World War II Marine Corps veteran who served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946. He was stationed on Tinian Island in 1945 when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was assembled, his wife, Mary Lou, said.
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Grandfather Raymond Shanks sued Newcastle-based Swan Hunter, where he worked as an electrician for four years from 1965.

The 59-year-old was diagnosed with mesothelioma two years ago and is only likely to live until early 2009. He was awarded £948,565 at the High Court on Thursday for pain, suffering, loss of earnings and other expenses.
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