While thousands of people poured into Oakland’s venerable Jack London Square during the past weekend for a food festival, the area frequently is all but deserted with the prime business real estate sitting mostly vacant. Via KTVU

Our firm has been helping asbestos victims and Vietnam veterans for over 30 years. For details about asbestos disease and information for veterans, navy shipyard workers and their families (especially those who served or worked for the military between 1940 and 1980) please see our Practice Focus: Vietnam Veterans page.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced that during World War II, several million people–civilians and those in Navy service–“were exposed to chrysotile products as well as amosite and crocidolite [all are types of asbestos] since these varieties were used extensively in military ship construction.” Continue reading →

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has investigated industry efforts in developing countries to promote the use of asbestos – a deadly carcinogen banned or restricted in 52 countries. The report, Dangers in the Dust, is the result of a nine-month investigation done in partnership with the BBC’s International News Service.

The ICIJ documented the activities of a global network of industry groups, led by the Canadian Chrysotile Institute, which has helped promote the use of asbestos in the developing world. They have tracked nearly $100 million in public and private money spent by industry groups since the mid-1980s in just three countries, Canada, India, and Brazil. With the help of industry-funded scientists, such as David Bernstein who has traveled at industry expense to 19 countries promoting chrysotile, these groups attempt to stifle governmental efforts to regulate the deadly mineral. Continue reading →

Developers Ellis Partners LLC and Kazan, McClain, Satterley, Lyons, Greenwood & Oberman PLC today announced thtat the nationally-recognized plaintiffs’ asbestos law firm will relocate its offices to Jack London Square. The firm, a fixture in Oakland since its founding in 1974, will occupy a full floor in the new Jack London Market building on Oakland’s scenic waterfront.

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Please support SB 624 via twitter and facebook. This has been a long 7 weeks with false allegations and misinformation to oppose SB 624 and confuse people about asbestos.

Our website has detailed information and blogs about SB 624

#CASerpentine Written by Kim who lost her Father to mesothelioma: Please Tweet this if you have an account. VERY IMPORTANT. Helping a cause important to me – asbestos awareness. Industry attorneys in CA – THE SAME ONES WHO REPRESENT BP – are trying to fool everyone when it comes to asbestos. Help.

#CASerpentine – CJAC fooling everyone. SB 624 is about people not rocks. Stop hiding behind a rock.

Some time ago, we were privileged to publish this volume on the research site we sponsor, www.WorldAsbestos Report.org, where it can be found as the first item under the Articles drop-down list. After the original was posted on the web site, we were fortunate enough to receive and publish translations into Mandarin, Bengali, and Japanese. We are pleased to announce that we have just published another translation; this book is now available in Farsi. This latest translation joins the other resources made available on www.WorldAsbestos Report.org in support of our effort to increase worldwide knowledge about the hazards of asbestos. Killing the Future is worth reading in any language, and we encourage you to pass the link on to anyone who might find it interesting.

In a study partly funded by the National Institutes of Health published late last year by the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory of the University of California, San Francisco’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, a group of researchers reported on a very interesting discovery. Hung, et al., wrote in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (Cul4A is an oncogene in malignant pleural mesothelioma, J Cell Mol Med 2009, Vol. XX, No. XX, p. 1-9) that Cul4A is an oncogene found in malignant pleural mesothelioma, which could point the way toward a potential therapeutic approach to treating mesothelioma.

Cul4A is a very specific type of cellular protein and plays an important role in the life cycle of cells of various kinds. This is the first report relating to its role in mesothelioma. Earlier reports showed that the gene responsible for this protein appeared to play a role in breast and liver cancer, so the authors looked for it in several different mesothelioma cell lines obtained from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, and also in surgical specimens obtained at the University of California, San Francisco. They found that this protein was increased, or “overexpressed,” in most mesothelioma cell lines and surgical specimens studied, and also determined that when the level of this protein was reduced, the growth rate of mesothelioma cells also slowed appreciably, and when they increased the levels of this protein, tumor growth increased. They concluded that the presence of this protein’s gene may play an important role in causing mesothelioma to develop, and thus may be a potentially interesting target for cancer therapy.

While it is way too early to make any predictions, this study is at least an important and interesting step on the road toward more effective ways to treat mesothelioma. One can only hope that the authors’ work will continue and they will have more to tell us in the years ahead.

There have been some recent developments in the world of asbestos bankruptcies that justify this brief note. After many many years of contentious litigation, the Congoleum Trust Fund, established in the reorganization of the Congoleum Corporation, has become effective. I was pleased to be one of five members of the Asbestos Creditors Committee counsel group in this case and have been appointed by the Court as one of three members of the Trust Advisory Committee. My colleagues have elected me Committee Chair, and I look forward to working with our sole Trustee, the Honorable Alfred M. Wolin, retired United States District Judge from the District of New Jersey, and R. Scott Williams, the court-appointed Future Claimants Representative. This Trust will be funded with approximately $300 million in assets, and we hope to get it up and running quickly so that claims can start to be paid shortly after the new year. Continue reading →

During National Asbestos Disease Awareness Week (April 1-7), we’ll be cross-posting a piece every day from the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. Today’s post has two parts.

Many thanks to The Pump Handle for spreading the word about National Asbestos Disease Awareness Week and highlighting the work of ADAO!

The criticism “North American Week Against Asbestos, a retrograde step”1 which appeared on May 18, 2010 on a pro-asbestos blog2 backed by the Brazilian Chrysotile Institute (BCI) highlights the ruthless determination which propels the asbestos industry’s agenda in Brazil. Disregarding the global consensus which condemns all types of asbestos as extremely harmful to human health, industry stakeholders continue their discredited attempts to progress the asbestos propaganda campaign in Brazil.

It is quite ironic that this despicable tirade appeared just a few days after the World Health Organization (WHO) issued another policy statement underlining the threat posed by current asbestos exposures to 125 million people worldwide: “All types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis.”3 The WHO reinforced its 2006 policy statement on banning asbestos saying “the most efficient way to eliminate asbestos-related diseases is to stop the use of all types of asbestos…“

The BCI, which is funded by asbestos industry money, has clear cut reasons to force asbestos down Brazilian consumers’ throats; indeed, if it did not do so doubtlessly well-paid BCI employees would be out of jobs. The WHO, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and other independent and reputable authorities have other agendas; their remits are to protect public and occupational health from avoidable risks such as asbestos.4 Indeed, the United States Senate is in no doubt about the need to raise national awareness of the asbestos hazard. For this reason United States Senate Resolution 427 was issued on March 1, 2010. This is not a retrograde step – it is a rational and important initiative taken by a body of public spirited legislators concerned for the lives of U.S. citizens.5

The BCI is not concerned about the lives of ordinary Brazilian workers or citizens exposed to dangerous asbestos products; neither is it concerned about the lives of Mexicans or Colombians or Sri Lankans exposed to the hazards of Brazilian asbestos exports. The BCI is concerned first and foremost with the industry bottom line. As long as there is money to be made, there will be people callous and ruthless enough to prioritize corporate profits over human life. When it comes to the asbestos hazard, civil society would do well to heed the warnings of impartial and reputable associations such as the WHO, the ILO and the IARC and to treat assertions made by the BCI and other asbestos apologists with the disregard they deserve.

1. For further information contact:
ADAO Executive Director, Mrs. Linda Reinstein email: linda@adao.us www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org
IBAS Coordinator Laurie Kazan-Allen, email: laurie@lkaz.demon.co.uk ibasecretariat.org

ABREA President: Eliezer João de Souza email: abrea@abrea.com.br www.abrea.org.br

2. The World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the European Union, the International Commission on Occupational Health, the United Nations, the Collegium Ramazzini, groups representing global labor and many other international agencies and national governments agree that exposure to all types of asbestos is hazardous. 6

3. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 100,000 asbestos deaths a year, one person every five minutes. Other estimates put the global toll much higher.

In the document it released on May 13, 2010, the World Health Organization called for urgent action to protect human health from exposure to 10 chemicals, amongst which is asbestos. The WHO said that “in 2004, asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis from occupational exposures resulted in 107,000 deaths and 1,523,000 DALYs,” “the sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability.”7