Attorneys for three Illinois mesothelioma sufferers have petitioned the court for an immediate trial while the plaintiffs are still alive.  The Madison St. Clair Record reports that the three men “claim that a provision in the Illinois constitution guarantees that a litigant has the right to ‘obtain justice by law, freely, completely, and promptly’.”

The plea goes on to note that the judge has received full documentation of their suits for compensation for the fatal cancer they have contracted as the result of asbestos exposure.  The circuit court judge has indicated that he will hear cases presented to him out of order if there is a precondition of special hardship.

The plaintiffs claim that “a1983 Second District appellate ruling in…could cause their claims for punitive damages to be denied unless their cases are tried prior to their deaths.”  Because mesothelioma progresses so rapidly and has such a poor survival rate, the prospect of the plaintiffs not living long enough to participate in a regularly scheduled trial is a reasonable fear.  Many courts have been faced with mesothelioma lawsuits that have been completed and awards made to plaintiffs who have died during the course of litigation.

The request to the court specifically requests inclusion in the upcoming docket “in order to reasonably ensure that they survive to prosecute their claims and personally appear before a jury.”

MV Freewinds is a cruise ship owned and operated by the Church of Scientology under the name ‘Majestic Cruise Lines’.  The ship has been used for decades as a traveling educational and social center for Scientology members and potential members.  Thousands of people have been aboard the MV Freewinds after paying to attend Scientology courses, training services and functions.

As of April 28 the ship has been sealed and quarantined in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, following the discovery of significant amounts of blue asbestos in the ship’s structure. A statement from the ship’s captain has revealed previous incidents where blue asbestos was released into the ship’s ventilation system. The Curacao Drydock Company was contracted to conduct refurbishment and repairs on the MV Freewinds, but has ceased work due to the risk of exposure to the asbestos.

Samples taken from the paneling last week by inspectors showed that they contained significant amounts of blue asbestos.  Seven years ago, allegations were made that Scientologists aboard the ship were being put at risk of asbestos exposure.

An affidavit filed in 2001 by Lawrence Woodcraft, a former Scientologist and trained architect, claims that Woodcraft encountered the blue asbestos while working on the ship in 1987, and promptly informed Scientology leaders.  Apparently, his concerns were ignored.

A team of Turkish and US doctors has received a US award of $100,000 for advances in cancer research related to their work in Cappadocia, Turkey.  Lead researcher Michele Carbone and his team of international collaborators have discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages in Cappadocia and have demonstrated that it is caused by a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis, a gene-environment interaction.

An article published by the team stated that the unprecedented mesothelioma epidemic causes 50 percent of all deaths in three small villages in Cappadocia.   The article said: “Initially linked solely to the exposure to a fibrous mineral, erionite, recent studies by scientists from Turkey and the United States have shown that erionite causes mesothelioma mostly in families that are genetically predisposed to mineral fiber carcinogenesis.”

The genetic link to mesothelioma is an intriguing development, although it means little to the tens of thousands of people already afflicted as a result of mining or working with asbestos.  The fact that this comparatively rare disease is responsible for half the deaths in the area of these villages is astonishing.

It is a recognized fact that some people are exposed to asbestos through naturally occurring “hot spots” and contract the disease even though they have never knowingly had exposure to asbestos.  However about ten percent of all mesothelioma cases are generally believed to be as a result of this type of exposure.  The discovery of this epidemic in Turkey suggests that naturally occurring asbestos may be a much more common occurrence than once thought.

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• Related Blogs on Turkish, US doctors receive US Cancer Research Award

A Sydney geologist is currently engaged in attempting to identify determine the number of Australians exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos at little-known, naturally-occurring asbestos “hot spots”.  As a preliminary step in his study, he requested the results of a study undertaken in the 1980s for a survey on mesothelioma.

The missing records contain full occupational and environmental histories of about 1,000 mesothelioma cases reported in the early 1980s.  However, the Office of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council says they cannot be found.

Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos.   However about 10% of all cases occur in people with no known exposure and at least some are believed to be caused by hidden deposits of naturally-occurring asbestos. The upcoming study was to map to show potentially dangerous areas.

The study was to also reduce the risk of developments accidentally disturbing the asbestos deposits and exposing residents.  However records collected since 1985 lacked the necessary detail to complete such a map, making it “no longer possible,” according to the research team.

“The potential permanent loss of these records would be a great loss to mesothelioma research is Australia and raises questions about the federal government’s policies surrounding long-term storage and archiving of nationally significant scientific research datasets.”

The asbestos-caused cancer mesothelioma has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements against asbestos mining companies along with the manufacturers and users of asbestos products.  Mesothelioma usually appears in the lungs and usually ten to forty years after exposure to asbestos.

In the United States, many of these settlements have gone to asbestos miners, to their family members and to people whose employer manufactured asbestos products or to those who used asbestos during the course of a day’s work.

In the U.S. the most likely candidates for mesothelioma have been Navy veterans, plumbers and pipe fitters, miners and construction workers who used asbestos insulation or roofing tiles.  In Canada, the trends have been somewhat different.

Canada does not maintain a large Navy so their populace did not have widespread exposure to the asbestos pipe fittings and tiles used on Navy ships.   The United States has far more functioning ship repair facilities and has had a far larger wave of post-WW II construction, the years when asbestos was used for everything from ceiling tiles to insulation to shingles.

What the Canadian medical community has seen as a major source of mesothelioma cases is the auto repair industry.  One legal news site quotes from a Montreal physician who says ‘eighty five percent of the cases we see are people who worked in the auto industry’.

Brake shoes and engine gaskets are just two products that were primarily asbestos products since the early days of the auto industry.  People with careers in the auto maintenance business should realize the threat that years of exposure to the asbestos fibers contained in auto parts can be a physical threat, and should consult their physician at the first sign of a cough or shortness of breath.

Construction workers and next of kin of deceased workers filed a lawsuit in Tokyo, Japan Friday seeking damages of approximately 6.6 billion yen (about US $444 million) from the government and manufacturers related to illnesses stemming from exposure to asbestos. 178 plaintiffs including construction workers and family members filed the suit against 46 building manufacturers and the Government of Japan.

According to the Mainichi Daily News, the class action suit is the first that has been filed in Japan related to health damages caused by asbestos exposure at construction sites.

The government and manufacturers knew of the dangers of asbestos inhalation but failed to take proper precautions, according to the plaintiffs. Negligence included failing to cease promoting asbestos as a cheap fire retardant and failure to ban production of the material.

Plaintiffs have also scattered responsibility among a number of government agencies, including the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for sanctioning the use of asbestos under Japanese Industrial Standards, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for approving the use of materials comprised of asbestos and other substances under Japan’s Building Standards Law.

As evidence the filing states that after inhaling asbestos in the workplace, 172 people have developed lung cancer or mesothelioma, and that almost half of those afflicted are now dead. The argument continues stating that the government and health ministry did not act quickly enough after international organizations issued warnings in 1972 that asbestos could be a carcinogen.

Another lawsuit is expected in Yokohama shortly, to be filed by 40 construction workers. It will be interesting to watch this process unfold; the Japanese government and large Japanese corporations are interlinked in ways that make the relationship between Congress and the Washington DC lobbyists look like a casual acquaintance.