The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation is leading a charge on the Pentagon budget for money to fund meso research. Their reasoning is simple:  according to a Capitol Hill newsletter,  “…at least one-third of the people suffering from mesothelioma – a lethal form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure — have either been in the Navy or worked in Navy shipyards across the country.”

More than a dozen senators, aided by an intense grassroots lobby, are pushing for funds to examine asbestos-related cancer. Part of the Department of Defense Budget includes funds for “peer reviewed medical research.” It is this program that the Foundation wants funded. Congress sets the priority for what research priorities are; if falls to the Defense Department to make the grants.

Several senators sent a letter last month to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Defense panel, including Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Patty Murray of Washington, who have been at the forefront to get more money for research and treatment.

The town of Bremerton in Washington State, near the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, has one of the highest incidences of asbestos-related cancer. And hundreds of people have been sickened or killed because of asbestos exposure from a former vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont.

Last year the Congress approved a Department of Defense budget that included $50 million for the peer review program. A steady flow of research funds for mesothelioma may lead to earlier detection methods – and accordingly, a longer period of survival for victims of the disease.

In the United States, the rate of fatality among mesothelioma patients is two to three thousand a year.  The UK nearly matches that rate: British mesothelioma deaths occur at the rate of about 2,000 per year.   In both countries it has been established that family members of individuals who have been repeatedly exposed to asbestos at some point during their working years are also at higher risk for contracting the disease.  Mesothelioma often surfaces decades after the exposure to asbestos.

Compensation is provided to British workers who suffered asbestos exposure through government programs, since it is classified as an industrial injury.  Victims most commonly worked in the shipyards; in the construction industry; or in one of the metal working trades.

Now, The Guardian reports that there is a law working its way through Parliament which will provide compensation to family members who may have developed mesothelioma as a result of living with someone who was repeatedly exposed to asbestos at work.  This bill currently has a clause which limits the opportunity for a family member to file a claim to twelve months after diagnosis of the disease.

As in the U.S. the largest group of people who were most likely exposed to asbestos on the job site are now retired or approaching retirement.  The concern about the twelve month limit for claims is that those family members who have already been diagnosed may be ineligible for benefits if they have managed to live more than twelve months after the initial diagnosis.

The Guardian reports further that the diagnosis of asbestos-related mesothelioma has yet to peak among Britain’s workers, both those retired and those who are still active.  Presumably, the same will be true of family members.

Mesothelioma is a particularly aggressive form of cancer that in more than four out of five cases attacks the lungs.  It has become a well-known disease over the last three decades because it is most often caused by exposure to asbestos and because of its lethal nature.  Perhaps the most unusual property affecting the link between asbestos and mesothelioma is that the disease can and does often take decades to develop after the individual goes through asbestos exposure.

While asbestos has been considered to have toxic properties at least since the 1930s, the definitive link to mesothelioma was firmly established by the 1950s and the government acted to ban uses of the substance in the 1960s.  By that time, hundreds of thousands of people had been exposed to asbestos in mines, in factories, in the construction industry – essentially, anywhere that asbestos has been used.

What is often overlooked in this story is the fact that a number of mesothelioma patients have been people who simply lived in the same house as the individual who was exposed to asbestos fibers.  These tiny particles inhaled by mesothelioma sufferers also traveled home on clothing.  The National Cancer Institute  reports that “There is some evidence that family members and others living with asbestos workers have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma, and possibly other asbestos-related diseases.”

A San Francisco jury has awarded a $20 million damages verdict to a woman who was exposed to asbestos while working with her husband in their home remodeling business.  Mrs. Joan Mahoney was awarded the judgment after suing a number of defendants including Georgia Pacific, the corporation who produced a joint compound that contained asbestos fibers.  The Mahoneys used this compound repeatedly in the course of business, remodeling homes through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.  The San Francisco Chronicle reports that this is one of the largest asbestos liability awards ever made.

One third of the liability was attributed to Georgia Pacific, who will now be under a court mandate to pay the Mahoneys $7 million under a shared liability formula.  The balance of the award was directed at companies who have already settled with the Mahoneys.  According to Mrs. Maloney’s legal team, the settlement against Georgia Pacific is particularly apt.

Georgia Pacific, so the evidence suggested, knew from the moment it entered the asbestos business that asbestos exposure causes disease. Years before the Mahoneys first used Georgia Pacific’s asbestos-containing joint compound, Georgia Pacific knew that its product posed a substantial risk to workers.

By the decade of the ‘70s many firms had ceased to manufacture asbestos laden compounds and other asbestos products, as the relationship between asbestos fibers and mesothelioma had been firmly established.  According to the Mahoney legal team, Georgia Pacific was the last such manufacturer to cease production of their compound, after it had been the sole remaining such product available on the market.

Mrs. Mahoney filed suit and survived to see the case resolved.  She remains seriously ill and has the responsibility to care for her husband, who suffered an unrelated but debilitating stroke some years ago.