ADPH calls for ban on asbestos, warnings for workers

In a news release yesterday the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) applauded a recent decision by the American Public Health Association (APHA) to strengthen its policy against asbestos. The APHA has adopted a resolution calling on Congress to ban the manufacture, sale, export or import of asbestos containing products. ADAO co-founder Linda Reinstein says she hopes this is one more step forward in finally securing a total ban of asbestos in the United States.

According to its web site, the ADPH is the largest, oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world, and has been working to improve public health since 1872. The association “aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States.”

“We can’t let history repeat itself,” Reinstein said in the news release. “APHA renews our optimism that a federal asbestos ban is imminent.”

The APHA resolution for the elimination of asbestos includes a brief history of the known links between asbestos and adverse health effects, including malignant respiratory disease, including asbestosis, lung and other cancers, specifically mesothelioma. It also states that the organization opposes legislation that would limit the right of victims of asbestos disease to recover damages from asbestos manufacturers, and supports the Bruce Vento Ban Asbestos and Prevent Mesothelioma Act of 2008.

In order to strengthen its stance on asbestos, the resolution not only calls for the complete ban on the manufacture, sale, export or import of asbestos-containing products, but also recommends the U.S. Congress should direct research funding to identify public health hazards resulting from asbestos mining or excavation of minerals that occur naturally with asbestos. It urges the U.S. Surgeon General to warn and educate people annually about the public health issues related to asbestos exposure (building on a similar warning issued in April this year) and to “disseminate widely and annually its asbestos warning to all federal and state health, consumer, labor and environmental protection agencies.”

The resolution also recommends that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issue an annual statement to alert workers in high-risk occupations to the dangers and adverse health risks associated with asbestos.

Other recommendations address testing existing structures for the presence of asbestos, and asking the government to take a harder stance against asbestos manufacturing, sale and exportation by other nations, as well as by corporations, calling for a global ban on asbestos.

The ADAO news release quotes Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH, who is Chair of the ADPH Occupational Health and Safety section, as saying, “With this new policy, the ADPH is joining the World Federation of Public Health Associations and other international organizations calling for a global ban on asbestos mining and manufacturing, and the dangerous practice of exporting asbestos containing products.”

Read the ADAO News Release.

Read the full APHA Resolution.

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Tags: ADAO, American Public Health Association, APHA, asbestos, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Linda Reinstein, mesothelioma, U.S. Congress

This entry was postedon Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 3:31 pmand is filed under Events, News, Organizations.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Minnesota study of Iron Range workers continues

A recent report on WDIO-DT and WIRT-DT ABC stations 10 and 13 says approximately 1,000 Iron Range miners and their families have been screened as part of an ongoing study into the link between taconite mining and mesothelioma. The study is being directed by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health, and funded by the Minnesota State Legislature, which allocated $4.9 million to the project in April 2008.

An investigation into the link between taconite mining – which takes place in what is known as Minnesota’s Iron Range – began when state health officials noted an unusually high incidence of mesothelioma occurring in taconite mine workers. Mesothelioma is traditionally linked only to asbestos exposure. There is a theory that the taconite mineral may contain similar fibers to asbestos mineral.

Researchers began screening workers and their immediate family members in July. According to the news report, researchers say the study is on track. They would like to see about another 1,000 people, however. Analysis of the respiratory is estimated to take another 18 months.

This screening is one part of the comprehensive five-year study. There are four health studies associated with the project, including a mortality study under the direction of the Minnesota Department of Health and related to miner deaths; a cancer rate incidence study; a respiratory health assessment for miners or former miners (and expanded to include spouses or other close family that may have had secondary exposure to taconite dust), and an occupational exposure study.

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Tags: asbestos, iron range, mesothelioma, Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Health, taconite, University of Minnesota

This entry was postedon Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 5:03 pmand is filed under News, Research/Treatment.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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9/11 rescue, cleanup workers reach health care settlement with City

A story published by the New York Times reports thousands of rescue and cleanup workers who were exposed to the toxic air at Ground Zero after the 9/11 tragedy at the World Trade Center have reached a settlement agreement with the city over damage to their health. According to the Times, the city has agreed to pay out up to $657.5 million to about 10,000 plaintiffs in the case.

The settlement agreement has been in the works for about two years, taking place among a great deal of confusion and disagreement about the city’s responsibility for injured workers. The city had claimed it was immune because injuries occurred during a national emergency or civil defense situation. However, injured workers and their families argued they were employed by the city and entitled to compensation as they would be for any injury incurred on the job.

According to the Times report, 95 percent of the plaintiffs in this case must accept the terms of the settlement for it to take effect. Each plaintiff’s case will then be examined individually to determine how much compensation that person will receive, which lawyers estimate could run anywhere from a few thousand dollars to as much as $1 million. Individual compensation will depend on the severity of illness and level of exposure to contaminants at the World Trade Center site.

A variety of health screening and tracking programs were established in the days and months following the September 11 tragedy. Workers and others who simply lived and worked near the disaster site began complaining of a variety of illnesses, especially respiratory problems. There is an official World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, as well as studies conducted by the New York Fire Department and other organizations.

Some health problems presented immediately following exposure to the site, such as respiratory distress, while others are only just showing up in those who worked at the site. It is now known that the Ground Zero site was contaminated with asbestos at levels at least two times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s “safe” level. Because of the long latency period between exposure to asbestos and the development of mesothelioma – an average of between 10 and 50 years – the true effect of asbestos exposure may not be known for years to come.

Some of the plaintiffs involved in the current settlement are not yet ill, but fear they will develop illnesses in the future as a result of their exposure to the toxins like asbestos. According to the Times, the settlement provides a $23.4 million insurance policy to cover possible future claims.

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Tags: 9-11, 9/11, asbestos, Enviornmental Protection Agency, EPA, Ground Zero, mesothelioma, New York, Sept. 11, September 11, World Trade Center, World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program

This entry was postedon Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 9:10 amand is filed under Events, Legal, News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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ADAO provides a voice for workers at ‘OSHA Listens’ hearing

Linda Reinstein, co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) recently had the opportunity to participate on a panel discussion as part of an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) public meeting. The event, held March 4 and called “OSHA Listens” was designed to solicit comments and suggestions from OSHA stakeholders on key issues facing the agency. As a representative of ADAO, Ms. Reinstein was able to address OSHA leaders about the urgency and importance of a complete ban on asbestos. The meeting was held in Washington, D.C.

The program was designed to help OSHA learn about key areas that will enhance and encourage the efforts of employers, workers and unions to identify and address workplace hazards. The agency asked for feedback about emerging unaddressed health and safety issues, how to improve efforts to engage stakeholder in program and initiatives, and for help in identifying priorities.

Ms. Reinstein, who lost her husband Alan to mesothelioma in 2004 as a result of his exposure to asbestos in the workplace, was joined on the panel by others who had lost loved ones to workplace hazards. Overseeing the panel discussion was David Michaels, Assistant Secretary, OSHA; and Deborah Berkowitz, Chief of Staff, OSHA.

“ADAO urges OSHA to move from helping to control to preventing asbestos exposure, and we urge you to help disseminate other government agencies’ information … to increase awareness and support for best practices and encourage compliance,” Reinstein told the panel. She pointed out that OSHA’s own web site estimates 1.3 million employees in construction and general labor have faced “significant asbestos exposure.”

Reinstein also took the opportunity to ask OSHA’s leaders to support pending legislation that calls for a complete ban of asbestos in the U.S.

“Clearly, one life lost to asbestos disease is tragic, but hundreds of thousands of lives lost is unconscionable,” she said. “OSHA has the opportunity – and the responsibility – to protect Americans from these preventable diseases. We count on you to push this forward, and we would encourage and ask that Secretary (of Labor Hilda L.) Solis support asbestos ban legislation to prevent asbestos-caused diseases to protect workers and their families on behalf of the tens of thousands who have lost their life.”

Transcripts of the meeting are available on the OSHA web site.

A web cast of the meeting, including Panel 1, which features Ms. Reinstein, also is available by visiting OSHA online.

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Tags: ADAO, asbestos, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, asbestos exposure, Hilda L. Solis, Linda Reinstein, mesothelioma, Occupational Safety & Health Administration, OSHA, OSHA Listens, Secretary of Labor, Washington, workplace safety

This entry was postedon Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 12:50 pmand is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Study reveals persistent, significant reduction in lung function for 9/11 responders, workers

A study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine reveals that Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS) workers who responded to the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center have suffered significant, persistent declines in lung functions. According to the report, exposure to World Trade Center dust created when the towers collapsed led to “large declines” in lung functions for FDNY rescue workers during the first year, and that “the declines were persistent, without recovery over the next 6 years, leaving a substantial proportion of workers with abnormal lung function.”

The study included 12,781 workers who were present at the WTC site between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 24, 2001, which is 91.6 percent of the workers that were present. The report notes that the event exposed the workers – as well as those living and working in the surrounding area – to a dense cloud of pulverized building materials and chemical byproducts, including pulverized glass and cement, insulation fibers including asbestos, and toxic chemicals.

According to a report in The New York Times that summarizes the study findings, this is the first study to document long-term harm in a large group of firefighters and emergency medical workers who worked at Ground Zero. All of the subjects of the study had had previous lung function tests, providing a baseline for the study.

The study was authored by Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer in the Office of Medical Affairs at the New York City Fire Department. The study was approved by the institutional review board at Montefiore Medical Center.

Results of the study revealed that firefighters, who had heavier exposure to dust by the nature of their work had greater first-year declines than EMS personnel, especially for firefighters who were present in the morning on 9/11, when the dust cloud was most intense after the buildings fell. However, researchers noted they were surprised to see “little or no recovery of average lung function during the 6-year follow-up period.” In fact, they noted continued decline in lung function among the study groups.

Normally, the study notes, “smoke inhalation during firefighting causes relatively mild and reversible respiratory impairment.” Additionally, according to the report, long-term effects of firefighting on pulmonary function also are normally mild.

The average loss of lung function for 9/11 rescue workers is about 10 percent. Most of the loss occurred within the first year after 9/11 exposure, with little or no subsequent recovery.

Thousands of workers injured at Ground Zero have been fighting for compensation from the City of New York. Last month about 10,000 plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement totaling $657.5 million, but a judge rejected the settlement shortly afterward, saying it did not provide enough compensation for the plaintiffs. The matter is now back in negotiations, and a new hearing is set for Monday, according to the Times.

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Tags: 9/11, asbestos, FDNY, Fire Department of New York, Ground Zero, New York, New York City, World Trade Center, WTC

This entry was postedon Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 2:03 pmand is filed under Events, Legal, News, Research/Treatment.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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