The July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has a report on mesothelioma mortality for the first five years of the new millenium.  The article is based on a report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) analyzing mesothelioma deaths from 1999 - 2005.  For that period 18,068 deaths attributed to mesothelioma cancer were reported; increasing from 2,482 deaths in 1999, to 2,704 in 2005.  This death rate is considered “stable” because the ratio of deaths to total population remains more or less constant over the period analyzed.  The fact that the latency period for mesothelioma ranges from twenty to forty years would seem to skew this assumption somewhat.

The CDC report goes on to note that asbestso usage peaked in the United States in 1973 at 803,000 metric tons.  By 2007, asbestos use in this country had declined to 1,700 metric tons.  It is interesting to note that the histories written about asbestos use in the latter half of the twentieth century often indicate that as the result of action by the Congress and the EPA, asbestos products were essentially off the shelves by 1975, and that increasing awareness of the health problems associated with asbestos had caused manufacturing usage of the mineral to begin slowing prior to federal action.  The fact that asbestos usage peaked in 1973 suggests that the reduction in asbestos products began in the mid seventies and tapered off rather than dropped precipitously.

80.8% of the mesothelioma deaths over this period occurred among males.  The six states where death rates were the highest are Maine, Wyoming, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Washington.  The report goes on to speculate that mesothelioma deaths in the United States will peak in 2010 and will be reduced to “background levels” by 2055.  On a cautionary note, the report estimates that 1.3 million American workers are still working in the presence of asbestos.  Most of these are construction workers, and the report goes on  to state that new exposure to asbestos is going to occur when existing structures are either remodeled or demolished.  The statistical analysis projecting peak death rates and reductions is based on minimal cases of exposure in the future.  New cases may develop, according to the CDC, if proper protective measures aren’t used during demolition and remediation.

The CDC reports that based over the years,  professions found to be most at risk based on the mortality figures are plumbers, steamfitters, mechanical engineers, electricians and elementary school teachers.  Regarding continued exposure, the report notes that in 1971, OSHA established an acceptable level of asbestos in the air on industrial sites, and that levels had been reduced across the board over the years.

The exception to this trend was a notation that in 2003, twenty percent of all construction sites tested had asbestos pollution that was above the OSHA benchmark.  Many legal experts in the asbestos liability field remain skeptical about the effective end of asbestos exposure in the U.S. as long as the level of exposure on construction sites remains elevated to a significant degree.  Asbestos claims will continue to be filed against asbestos manufacturers present and past; not only mesothelioma but asbestosis and COPD continue to take their toll among workers and military veterans regardless of statistical speculation.

On June 17th the EPA declared its first-ever “public health emergency” in a belated response to the massive outbreak of asbestos related diseases in Libby, Montana.  The federal agency has allocated $6 million dollars to pay for healthcare costs related to mesothelioma and other health problems that have developed in Montana residents who worked in and live in the vicinity of the W.R. Grace vermiculite mine located in Libby.

From 1963 until 1990 the Grace corporation operated the vermiculite mine, extracting ore that was used to make insulation and that was contaminated with tremolite asbestos.  The ore was shipped all over the nation for insulation production, leading to potential health problems for the workers who manufactured Grace’s Zonolite insulation, the workers who installed it and the millions of homeowners who currently live with asbestos contamination in their walls and ceilings.

The grant of funds was made to Lincoln County, Montana, where the two towns of Libby and neighboring Troy are located.  The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that there are 500 people with asbestos-related illnesses such as lung cancer and asbestosis in the two towns which total 3.900 in population.  A spokeswoman for the department said 50 new cases are diagnosed every year, including some in workers’ relatives and children who never set foot in a mine.

“I don’t think anybody escaped from the exposure,” said Montana Senator Jon Tester. “Nearly every family, if not every family, that was exposed to it has some health issues.”  The deadly asbestos fibers that cause asbestos health problems were carried home on the dusty clothes of mineworkers.  Daily operations at the Libby mine and the mill that processed the ore sent clouds of asbestos dust drifting over the area.

Six weeks ago several W.R. Grace executives were acquitted on charges that they knowingly allowed exposure of Libby miners and residents to the asbestos fibers released by their vermiculite ore.  However Grace still faces over one hundred thousand asbestos lawsuits and liability claims filed by Montana citizens who have developed mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases.

Asbestos legal experts expect the liability claims to continue for years because of the broad exposure to asbestos that has occurred in the Montana region.  The EPA has had the authority to issue public health emergency alerts since 1980; the years of potentially fatal toxic exposure in and around the W.R. Grace mine is their first such emergency declaration.

The family of a retired Navy sailor who developed mesothelioma cancer from his exposure to asbestos on the job has been awarded $1.2 million in damages.  Virginia resident Gerald Gray was exposed to asbestos decades ago when he was stationed aboard a ship for four years and following that duty, was stationed at a Navy shipyard.  At one time he was the second highest ranking enlisted man in on active Navy duty.  The defendant in the case, John Crane Inc. is a company that made asbestos gaskets and packing materials for marine engines.

The only known cause for mesothelioma is asbestos fibers, which can be inhaled without knowledge in the presence of asbestos products that are damaged or aging.  The asbestos lawsuit was heard in a Newport News courtroom, where the jury awarded a total of $4 million in damages against five defendants.  Four of the defendant companies had settled out of court prior to the verdict, while the John Crane Company chose to fight the accusation.  Among the complaints in the case is the fact that asbestos manufacturers such as Crane turned out their products without warning users of the potential danger involved in installing and using asbestos materials.

This is not the first asbestos liability suit the company has faced.  In 2008 a San Francisco court awarded a plaintiff suffering from an asbestos-caused disease the sum of $3.9 million; this complaint evolved from the use of Crane asbestos products while working at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Navy veterans and shipyard workers have proven to be extremely high risk groupd for the development of mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer - all caused by asbestos.  Every shipped commissioned by the Navy between 1930 and the early 1970s was loaded with asbestso, used as insulation for boilers, engine rooms and piping systems.  Thirty percent of all mesothelioma victims in the United States are military veterans.

Attorneys for asbestos liability claimants have challenged the General Motors bankruptcy plan, claiming their exclusion from the process is unconstitutional.  Attorneys representing current sufferers from asbestosis and mesothelioma argued that future claimants who may not yet have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease have been excluded from the proceedings and require representation.

From 2002 to 2008 the asbestos liability claims against GM jumped from $32 million to $648 million.  The apparent reasoning behind the argument presented to the bankruptcy court is that this increase in claims warrants consideration because it reflects the rise in asbstos related illnesses that are now coming upon workers who were employed by GM over the last three decades.  The attorneys filing the action claimed that due process limits the court’s ability to “enter an order affecting the rights of unknown future claimants absent appointment of a legal representative to protect their interests.”

In other words, asbestos attorney(s) should be permitted to represent potential future creditors of GM based on diseases as yet undiagnosed.  The arm of the Justice Department that handles bankruptcy matters, the Office of the U.S. Trustee, last week appointed an official committee of GM’s unsecured creditors, which included two current asbestos liability claimants.  Asbestos attorneys have become necessary advocates for the thousands of people affected by workplace asbestos exposure over the last thirty years.

Former workers with asbestos claims also joined with other creditors to oppose the Chrysler transaction with Fiat.  Their protests were overruled, and the transfer of assets to Fiat went forward, as did the establishment of a new legal entity holding Chrysler’s domestic assets.  In General Motors’ case, there is the option to establish a trust fund for the retirement of asbestos liability claims as they are currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  For many asbestos product companies part of their bankruptcy plans approved by the court included trust funds to pay off claims for health damage from asbestos; the trust funds - some over $1 billion - capped the company’s liability for asbestos claims.

Whether GM pursues that course with the United States Government and the Canadian Government included in the bankruptcy plan as major stockholders remains to be seen.  Now that saving GM has become a government priority, the rights of asbestos victims and other unsecured creditors regarding the development of a bankruptcy emergence are substantially reduced.  The issue could become highly politicized with asbestos attorneys, mesothelioma victims and asbestosis sufferers right in the middle.

A report from the federal Centers for Disease Control predicts that deaths in the U.S. from mesothelioma will peak in the year 2000.  Their analysis looked at mortality rates for the disease from 1999 to 2005, which showed a continuing increase in death rate,  The number of malignant mesothelioma deaths increased from 2,482 in 1999 to 2,704 in 2005, according to researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Ki Moon Bang, Ph.D., of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and colleagues reported in the April 24 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly. One of the points contained in the study is that  annual mortality remained stable at 14 deaths per 1 million in 2005, compared with 14.1 per 1 million in 1999. The rate for the entire study period was 13.8 per 1 million.

“Because mesothelioma manifests 20 to 40 years after first exposure, the number of mesothelioma deaths will likely peak by 2010,” according to the study.  “Although the health threat posed by asbestos has decreased, it has not disappeared, they emphasized. Asbestos continues to be imported legally for use in certain construction and transportation products.”
The observation about new asbestos products neglects to mention that there remain tens of millions of buildings in this country that still contain asbestos.  Millions of  do-it-yourself homeowners are removing asbestos floor tiles, roofing, ceiling tiles and walls that were constructed with asbestos products.  Thousands of HVAC workers are removing asbestos insulation from old steam boilers and pipes on a daily basis.

The assumption that mesothelioma deaths have peaked is based on the premise that dispensing with the use of new asbestos products has reduced the treat of continued asbestos exposure to zero.  There are thousands of mesothelioma and asbestosis victims yet to come who have developed their diseases through asbestos exposure from 1975 forward.  The authors do acknowldge that mesotheliioma mortality will not “return to background levels for another 50 years.”

Many health experts will argure that there has never been a “background level” of mesothelioma and asbestosis in this country since asbestos products were introduced in the late ninetheenth century.  The low levels of mesothelioma diagnosis that preceded the 1975 ban on asbestos products in the U.S. were probably due in large part to misdiagnosis, due to the fact that mesothelioma symptoms are similar to those found in many more common diseases.

Workplace exposure continues to be an an issue, and the authors of the report also acknowledge that 1.3 million workers in this country are still exposed to asebestos on a daily basis.  Moreover, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) established a workplace permissible exposure limit (PEL) for asbestos in 1971. As recently as 2003, 20% of air samples in the construction industry exceeded the PEL.