Diagnosis

Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. Diagnosis begins with a review of the patient's medical history, including any history of asbestos exposure. A complete physical examination may be performed, including x-rays of the chest or abdomen and lung function tests. A CT (or CAT) scan or an MRI may also be useful. A CT scan is a series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body created by a computer linked to an x-ray machine. In an MRI, a powerful magnet linked to a computer is used to make detailed pictures of areas inside the body. These pictures are viewed on a monitor and can also be printed.

A biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma. In a biopsy, a surgeon or a medical oncologist (a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating cancer) removes a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope by a pathologist. A biopsy may be done in different ways, depending on where the abnormal area is located. If the cancer is in the chest, the doctor may perform a thoracoscopy. In this procedure, the doctor makes a small cut through the chest wall and puts a thin, lighted tube called a thoracoscope into the chest between two ribs. Thoracoscopy allows the doctor to look inside the chest and obtain tissue samples. If the cancer is in the abdomen, the doctor may perform a peritoneoscopy. To obtain tissue for examination, the doctor makes a small opening in the abdomen and inserts a special instrument called a peritoneoscope into the abdominal cavity. If these procedures do not yield enough tissue, more extensive diagnostic surgery may be necessary.

If the diagnosis is mesothelioma, the doctor will want to learn the stage (or extent) of the disease. Staging involves more tests in a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to which parts of the body. Knowing the stage of the disease helps the doctor plan treatment.

Mesothelioma is described as localized if the cancer is found only on the membrane surface where it originated. It is classified as advanced if it has spread beyond the original membrane surface to other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes, lungs, chest wall, or abdominal organs.

Study finds increased mesothelioma death rates in a group of shipyard workers

A recent study conducted on workers in a US Coast Guard shipyard has found a significantly greater mortality rate associated with lung cancer and mesothelioma compared to the general population. The study also found an increased general mortality rate.

The study followed 4702 (4413 men and 289 women) civilian workers who were employed at the shipyard between January 1950 and December 1964. The study then measured the number of deaths and their causes through 31 December 2001.

The study was conducted by S Krstev, P Stewart, J Rusiecki, A Blair and was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The original study publication is available at http://oem.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/64/10/651.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is usually associated with exposure to asbestos. The majority of individuals who are diagnosed with mesothelioma have a history of exposure to asbestos particles at work or home. Family members of workers have also been affected. Renovators of homes containing asbestos cement material are accounting for an increasing number of diagnosed sufferers. Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear for decades after the exposure to asbestos. Symptoms include abdominal pain and weight loss. Diagnosis of mesothelioma can be difficult due to the fact that the symptoms are similar to other respiratory diseases.

Since mesothelioma is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma can be best be prevented by avoiding or limiting exposure to asbestos in homes, public buildings, and at work. Workers that may be at risk include miners, factory workers, insulation manufacturers, railroad workers, ship builders, contractors and construction workers, particularly those involved with insulation. If there is a possibility of exposure (such as when renovating old buildings) protective equipment should be used and safety procedures should be applied. Asbestos was commonly used in building materials due to its durability and fire-resistant properties. In addition to buildings, asbestos was used in the manufacture of cars and ships and many other products.

Asbestos worker deaths still rising in Canada

Mesothelioma/asbestos related deaths are rising in Canada. “The OHCOW fears mesothelioma, which can take decades to develop, will soar in coming years. ..”

Full article here:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/10/08/canada-asbestos.html

Volunteers Needed for Asbestos Study

Voulunteers are wanted for an Australian asbestos study. Monash University will conduct a study of asbestos disease in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055927.htm

Police worker dies of mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos as a child

“She used to play in the boiler rooms in the basement of her family’s council flat in Islington when she was 13 years old and was among a group of 20 children who gathered there in the winter evenings.”

Source: www.theargus.co.uk

Internet is a gold mine for mesothelioma lawyers

One man’s misery can be another man’s fortune. This seems to be the case with the mesothelioma victims on the one hand and mesothelioma lawyers on the other. An online feeding frenzy is currently taking place. The average mesothelioma case today is settled at around 1 million dollars, and that figure jumps to 6 million dollars when the lawsuit goes to the courts. With such enormous money to be made, legal firms are hungry for a slice of the action, and are shelling out big money for online visitors. The result is that search engines and other sites that can supply them with those visitors are racking up huge revenue.

It works like this. In the sponsored listings of search engines, visitors are auctioned off to the highest bidder. When someone searches “mesothelioma”, the highest-bidding law firms appear. With the keen competition, these firms are paying as much as $100 per mesothelioma-related visitor to their web site. That’s $100 every time someone just clicks on their ad - and a lot of the clicks are from competitors. Less than one in ten visitors may actually submit an inquiry about the services of the legal firm. And only a fraction of the inquiries convert into clients. Therefore, it is costing lawyers tens of thousands of dollars in advertising to secure a single client.

There is something truly obscene about this situation. But, it is inevitable that while there is huge money to be made from litigation, lawyers and publishers will continue to hustle for their slice of the action. You can even find these vultures on YouTube making an undignified pitch for business. If only a portion of the money could be directed to cancer research. Perhaps these legal firms and others who profit from this horrendous disease should consider donating a portion of their gains to research organizations. By doing so, they may appear a little more genuine and less like vultures.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure. In fact, 70% to 80% of mesothelioma cases are caused by a history of exposure to asbestos. It can take decades for the symptoms to appear. Each year, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are reported. In the past 20 years, the number of reported cases has increased significantly. Although it can take up to 50 years for symptoms to manifest, mesothelioma patients experience a host of symptoms. These include shortness of breath, or a wheezing and hacking cough, which often lead to chest or abdominal pain. In the more serious cases, individuals may have bowel blockages, anaemia, a bloody cough, and jaundice. It is extremely difficult to secure accurate statistics about how many individuals suffer from mesothelioma because in the early stages, the symptoms are quite similar to various other conditions. This often leads to a misdiagnosis of the disease. In addition, when an accurate diagnosis is finally made, the disease has typically already progressed to a more advanced stage. With the renovation craze that has occurred in the past 2 or 3 decades in countries such as Australia and the US, it is expected that the high rates of diagnosis will continue for decades to come. And as long as there is money to be made from this disease, the vultures will also be around.

The Legal History of Mesothelioma

Each year, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are reported. In the past 20 years, the number of reported cases has increased significantly. Although it can take up to 50 years for symptoms to manifest, mesothelioma patients experience a host of symptoms. These include shortness of breath, or a wheezing and hacking cough which often lead to chest or abdominal pain. In the more serious stages of this disease, individuals may have bowel blockages, anaemia, a bloody cough, and jaundice. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to secure accurate statistics about how many individuals suffer from Mesothelioma because in the beginning stages, the symptoms are quite similar to various other conditions. This often leads to a misdiagnosis of the disease. In addition, when an accurate diagnosis is finally made, mesothelioma has typically already progressed to a more advanced stage. Mesothelioma is most often caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In fact, 70% to 80% of mesothelioma cases are caused by this type of exposure. In most cases, the infected person was either directly or indirectly exposed to asbestos and it may have happened when they worked in a factory or lived in an environment where the chemical was present. Commonly, the affected person was unaware of the asbestos. For instance, an employer could have taken over a site that was previously used by another company to produce asbestos related materials. One could be exposed simply by washing the clothes of an employee who worked there and was directly exposed to it. There are also numerous other ways that someone can be indirectly affected.There are many asbestos related products in our homes. In the past, some companies put asbestos in home insulation, carpet pads, and other products, even thought they realized that it was potentially dangerous. This can be dangerous news for the family who lives in one of these homes. Since the beginning of the 1900’s, it was recognized that asbestos was a workplace hazard. Between 1945 and 1966, a type of commercial asbestos mining took place in Western Australia. A group of the miners were tracked in a study, and after 10 years, there were no deaths that could be blamed on Mesothelioma. However, just nine years later, there were about 85 Mesothelioma related deaths in this evaluated group. Another nine years later, the mesothelioma death count of miners in the Western Australia group had risen to a staggering 539 deaths.

1929 began the very first of the lawsuits that were brought against employers and asbestos manufacturers. The case was settled, however the lawyer agreed not to pursue any more cases. In 1960, an enlightening article was the first to point out asbestos as the main cause of Mesothelioma. The article actually referred to over 30 case studies of people who had suffered from Mesothelioma in South Africa. In Western Australia where the miners were tracked, mine waste containing asbestos was used to cover playgrounds and schoolyards. An important publication by the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1965 brought to light the fact that people who lived in asbestos mining towns, but didn’t work in the mines, were contracting Mesothelioma. However, the mine in Western Australia continued to pump out these harmful chemicals, practically handing them out to children, mothers, grandparents, and other people.

In the United States, the first asbestos caused Mesothelioma lawsuit was filed in 1966. This took place in Beaumont, Texas. This case was lost, however, immediately after, a co-worker of the man to file the first lawsuit filed one as well. He won and was awarded $80,000.00. During the years which followed this lawsuit, many others were filed by victims suffering from asbestos related Mesothelioma. In fact, it came to light that in most places infested with asbestos, the senior managers knew all about the link between asbestos and Mesothelioma, but hid it from the employees purposely. When the lawsuits began popping up, even more companies worked as hard as they could to cover their tracks. Many managers were not allowed to discuss asbestos related Mesothelioma at all. It was known as the “hush hush” policy. The managers knew about the link between asbestos and Mesothelioma and hid it from the employees, taking away their option of saving themselves from the damaging effects of asbestos.

In fact, a very important deposition was taken by one senior manager that proved just that. Stating that the disease was terrible, had no cure, and that it would damage a man’s health, the manager asked other managers to keep quiet about the whole thing. His reasoning was that the men would eventually be compensated for their disease. However, there was no reason to let them know about the condition they might already have, because the company still had many years to benefit from the experience and knowledge of these men. The men were then kept in the dark about the dangers they were exposed to everyday. They were never given a chance to decide against working there because of the asbestos. They didn’t know. Basically, many years of life were taken away from these men, and with the management knowing that they would suffer because they could be “paid off” later.

In June, 1982, a retired boiler-maker of Unarco, James Cavette won a record $2.3 million dollars in compensatory awards, and $1.5 million in punitive damages. In June, 1982, Unarco filed bankruptcy. They manufactured Unibestos, which they sold to Pittsburg Corning in 1962. One of the biggest portions of the asbestos litigation history was also in 1982, when the Johns-Manville Corporation filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This company manufactured building and fireproofing materials from the time they opened in 1958. With the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, the company was able to suspend all personal injury lawsuits filed against them.

Currently, most people know about the dangers of asbestos and what it can do to a person’s body, in addition to causing Mesothelioma. It is a known fact that the majority of Mesothelioma cases are caused by asbestos. This affects not just the people who were exposed to the asbestos at their jobs, but their family members and in some cases, others in towns that were covered somehow with asbestos, such as in the Western Australian town. Today, the cases of asbestos related Mesothelioma are taken very seriously, and companies have given up trying to hide their awareness and negligence.

As litigation continued from that first lawsuit through the 1980’s and 90’s, lawyers began representing large numbers of victims who had been exposed to asbestos and getting “mass settlements”. While this wasn’t a good thing for the companies being sued, they were able to save on transaction costs, including lawyer’s fees and other defense fees. This also made it difficult for the companies to thoroughly evaluate each and every claim. This means that particularly weak cases sailed through and received payment when they might have lost in a one-on-one lawsuit. However, very strong cases which might have been awarded much more in a one-on-one case were settled for less.

At one point in the 90’s, there was quite a lull in the number of asbestos related lawsuits filed, so most people thought that the worst of the storm was over. Many different businesses had filed bankruptcy and gone out of business, and many of the Mesothelioma victims had died. What happened next actually changed the course of the lawsuits. With the popularity of the internet growing, lawyers were getting in touch with people who suffered from asbestos related injuries, and those lawyers had a different set of targets. They began to go after the companies that were not so directly involved with the damaging asbestos. For example, the companies that produced the materials, and company owners who had purchased firms that were once used for asbestos related materials.

One victim, who was diagnosed with Mesothelioma in 2004, filed suit against Asbestos Corporation Limited. They are the owners and former operators of several Asbestos mining companies in Canada. The plaintiff who suffered with the symptoms of Mesothelioma was a boiler room worker with the Navy for 10 years. During this time, he was exposed to asbestos frequently. He was awarded $1.1 million dollars, his wife was awarded $400,000 for loss of companionship, and they were awarded an additional $10 million dollars because the defendant acted with “oppression and malice”.

On March 8, 2006, a jury awarded James Morrison $5,150,000 for Mesothelioma. James had worked as an HVAC mechanic in the 70’s and 80’s in California. At 52 years old, and a life-long non smoker, James is dying of cancer. His condition is terminal. This is the first case ever filed against the Copeland Refrigerator Company. On May 18, 2006, a Sunnyvale man was awarded $5,900,000.00. A 74 year old business tech sued the Kaiser-Gypsum company. The victim, Robert Johnson, was exposed to asbestos when he was remodeling his homes in the 60’s, and in the 70’s when he supervised the building of his own home.

There are many cases that will be filed in the future from the 60’s and 70’s exposure era. Many of the claimants will exhibit Mesothelioma symptoms, whereas others will not. In fact, an individual may suffer from the disease and not even suspect that something is wrong for many years to come. The symptoms of Mesothelioma can take up to 50, and even 60 years, to show up. So, many of those workers are still not experiencing symptoms even though they have been exposed to asbestos. The truth is that a lot of them will begin to experience symptoms and upon going to the doctor, they will find out that they too, are victims of Mesothelioma.

The companies that are being sued are terrified of class action and individual cases like this, and today, there are still many Mesothelioma cases which have not been settled. These companies are trying to somehow stop these class action cases. They argue that they should reserve the resources they have to settle with the victims which have malignant Mesothelioma. In their view, the victims which have damaging, but not malignant conditions caused by Asbestos, are entitled to little or nothing. The difficult thing about that is this:

Even if victims do not develop malignant mesothelioma, severe asbestosis and pleural thickening can cause horrendous suffering. What essentially happens is that the victim is slowly strangled to death by his or her own lung tissue. The disease keeps getting worse as well, whether the exposure to asbestos has stopped or not. The average case today is settled at around 1 million dollars, and that figure jumps to 6 million dollars when the lawsuit goes to the courts. It’s no wonder that the companies are terrified of the lawsuits placed against them, while the families of the victims are terrified that their loved ones will not be around long enough to benefit from the settlements.

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