Buddy knifed boy, 15; friend, mother, hospital, doctors blamed for death

By Julie Wallace

Beacon Journal staff writer

MEDINA - The father of a Wadsworth teen stabbed to death in early 2004 has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the assailant and his mother, as well as Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital and the doctors who treated him.

According to a recent article published in the Annals of Oncology, immediate treatment with chemotherapy improves survival rates at one year and provides improved quality of life compared to administering chemotherapy once symptoms occur in patients with malignant mesothelioma.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer that develops in the tissue that covers the lungs and lines the interior of the chest. The majority of individuals who develop malignant pleural mesothelioma have a history of chronic exposure to asbestos.

The only curative treatment for mesothelioma is surgery.

Laundry caused 84-year-old's asbestos illness, lawyers claim in Madison County trial

Thursday, February 16, 2006

By Steve Gonzalez - Edwardsville Bureau

An 84-year-old woman from Burbank , Ill. is asking a Madison County jury to award her damages because she was exposed to asbestos while washing her husband's work clothes between 1966 and 1970.

On Thursday, the first asbestos trial of 2006 got under way in Circuit Judge Dan Stack's courtroom.

Fire investigator found deadlier dangers after quitting police

After 24 years of sifting through the toxic remains of fires, Les McPhee died of cancer. Ironically, he had left police work due to the risks, Shelley Page writes.

 Les McPhee began his career as a police detective, but after too many close encounters with criminals wielding weapons, he quit to become an investigator for the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office. For the next 24 years, he sifted through the smouldering rubble of 3,000 fires across Eastern Ontario looking for clues.

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO , Feb 15 (IPS) - As a child, Yoshiharu Sawada, now 77 years old, would visit his mother at the local asbestos factory where she worked and wait till she finished her shift so they could walk home together.

But, today, says Sawada, a frail, soft-spoken man, those happy memories have turned into a terribly tragedy. Sawada was diagnosed with pleurisy ten years ago and suffers horribly from long bouts of coughing that leave him numbed with pain.

''I never realised those happy days had actually laid the foundation for my disease because nobody told us that asbestos is deadly,'' he explained to IPS.

Contact Persons
Martin Hestmark
Brenda South

DENVER - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Denver Office has sent Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) compliance assistance letters to local education agencies (LEAs) in Wyoming , Montana , South Dakota and North Dakota as a reminder of school responsibilities concerning asbestos.

These letters explain the LEAs' responsibilities under the TSCA Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). AHERA requires that all LEAs inspect their buildings for asbestos material and develop management plans for properly managing the asbestos.

Kevin Pilgrim found guilty of perjury in landmark environmental trial

By BRENDAN LYONS , Staff writer

A former Schenectady man will spend 10 months in federal prison for his role in one of the nation's largest asbestos scandals. Kevin Pilgrim, 38, a Canadian immigrant who graduated from Union College , was prosecuted on perjury charges after he took the stand as a defense witness during the 2004 trial of former Loudonville residents Raul and Alex Salvagno, and their company, AAR Contractor Inc.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Twenty of 143 people who died of an asbestos-related disease between 2002 and 2004 in Hyogo Prefecture had never worked with asbestos, but had lived in Amagasaki , where asbestos-related factories were located, according to a ministry survey released Thursday.

The result of the study by the Environment Ministry showed that scattered asbestos could be regarded as being harmful to residents living near asbestos-related factories.

In the prefecture, 222 people died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer, between 2002 and 2004.

By JERRY WOLFFE

Of The Oakland Press

BLOOMFIELD HILLS - Mirella Panozzo vividly recalls the last few years of her husband's life.

She remembers sadly how Carl's 6-foot, 175-pound frame dwindled to just skin and bones and how cancer took his right lung and left him in excruciating pain just before his death Aug. 25, 2003. He died at age 62, three years after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma.

But the Bloomfield Hills woman says one thing never changed, even after his death.

"Love cannot just stop," she says.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber that was used commonly in a variety of building construction materials for insulation and as a fire-retardant.

The Environmental Protection Agency has banned several asbestos products. Manufacturers have also voluntarily limited uses of asbestos. Today, asbestos is most commonly found in older homes, in pipe and furnace insulation materials, shingles, paint, coating materials and floor tiles.

Elevated concentrations of airborne asbestos can occur after materials are disturbed by cutting, sanding, drilling or other activities.