Mesothelioma Lawyers Blog

February 9, 2015

Boston Surgeon to Start New Lung Institute to Fight Mesothelioma

According to a recent news article from Houston Chronicle, a world-renowned surgeon from Harvard University is leaving Massachusetts to help start a new lung institute in Texas.

This surgeon will be heading a team of over 80 doctors put together to treat serious lung conditions including asthma and cancer. He will be using gene-based techniques to treat patients. He is known as a world-leading expert in treatment of mesothelioma. He credits this recognition to his vast experience in seeing patients suffering from the deadly asbestos-related cancer due to Boston’s once burgeoning ship building industry. Asbestos was used heavily in many aspects of the maritime industry and caused many workers to develop mesothelioma.

One reason asbestos was so common at shipyards is because a fire at sea is one of the biggest fears among sailors, because there is not where to go if a fire starts on a boat. It’s not like you can evacuate a boat at sea in rough weather. Asbestos is cheap and naturally resistant to heat, fire, electricity, and caustic chemicals. It has been used in fabricated components, joint compounds, and insulation. Asbestos was very commonly used as pipe insulation whereby sheets of the material were woven into fibers and wrapped around hot pipes to keep the heat in and prevent burns.
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February 3, 2015

Asbestos-Laden Old Sign Shop Turned into Boston Homeless Shelter

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Harsh Boston winters can be particularly hard on the city’s many homeless who are confined to outside. In an effort to find more temporary housing for homeless residents of Boston, the city has opened a new homeless shelter in what was once a sign shop operated by the city of Boston.

The industrial space used for the homeless shelter, according to a recent news article from the Boston Globe, house the old sign shop less than a month ago. It contained asbestos tiles throughout the building, and most of the windows were broken with cracked frames. The building was also filled with tools and metal scraps used to make street signs, parking meters, and traffic signal lights. The walls were covered with plaster, which also contained asbestos.

While renovation projects like this normally take years, teams of private contractors were brought in and worked around the clock to remove all remnants of the old sign shop, complete all asbestos abatement (removal), and renovate the structure.
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January 30, 2015

Asbestos Concerns a Part of Fight for New Bridge in Boston

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

There is no question traffic is a major problem in Boston. Many of the roads and bridges were built at a time when such a high volume of traffic was never contemplated. Much has been done in the past couple of decades to alleviate traffic. Anyone living in Boston in the late 1990s and early 2000s remembers the Big Dig project to replace the central artery bridges with an underground highway.

Now a fight between residents and Department of Transportation has arisen over the fate of the Casey Arborway overpass. City officials intend to demolish the bridge and replace it with a series of surface streets designed to facilitate flow of traffic. Many residents feel a bridge is needed, so their respective back yards do not become parking lots full of vehicles stuck in traffic. Some have suggested the existing overpass be restored and used in the new project. City officials seem steadfast in their desire to demolish the bridge, and the project is underway.
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January 24, 2015

Bankrupt Asbestos Producer Sets Aside $375.5 Million for Future Mesothelioma Victims

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

For much of last century, asbestos producers reaped huge profits from making and selling a product they knew to be deadly to workers and consumers. Humans have used asbestos for thousands of years because it is cheap to mine and naturally resistant to heat, fire, caustic chemicals, and electricity. However, it was during the industrial revelation when large-scale use began in virtually every aspect of industry and construction trades.

While the general public was not told of the dangers of asbestos exposure, producers of the toxic material were very much aware of the harm their products were causing. We know this because documents obtained discovery in mesothelioma litigation revealed industry personal were aware of many of the dangers long before the general public.

One reason these companies were willing to take such risks with others’ safety is because it was also known it would take between 20 and 50 years for workers exposed to asbestos to become noticeably ill. Once a worker developed symptoms and sought treatment, they would only have a short time to live on average. These companies were willing to trade future losses for present day profits, and did not tell workers they were doing this.

By now everyone knows about dangers associated with asbestos exposure, and mesothelioma lawyers are filing lawsuits against these companies on a regular basis. The problem is many of these companies are going bankrupt as result of not being able to sell their toxic products anymore. However, there are still thousands of Americans who will be diagnosed with mesothelioma each year who need a way to financially recovery for the wrong done to them.
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January 22, 2015

New Medical Procedure for Mesothelioma Patients

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Not only is mesothelioma extremely deadly, there is often very little doctors can to do help a patient diagnosed with this form of cancer. In fact, some of the most commonly used forms of surgical intervention can actually create more tumors than were originally present.

This phenomenon is known in the medical community as procedure tract metastases (PTM). PTM are a series of small tumors that grow along the path where a surgical incision was made or the tract in which a pleural catheter was placed in a patient with malignant mesothelioma. Essentially, PTMs occur following surgery or catheterization to treat mesothelioma and allow the cancer to spread to other parts of the body by creating a series of small tumors.

According to a recent news article from News 6, British researchers are conducting clinical trials on using radiotherapy to prevent PTMs from forming or spreading cancer. Currently researches in UK and other nationals are recruiting patients for surgical and large bore procedures in malignant pleural mesothelioma and radiotherapy trial (SMART). This multi-center randomized trial hopes to evaluate the efficacy of radiotherapy within 42 days of plural surgery in halting development of PTM tumors. Some patients will be randomly selected to only have radiotherapy if a PTM develops.
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January 20, 2015

Massachusetts Attorney General Sues over Asbestos Removal

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Asbestos removal or “abatement” as the process is called in the industry is an expensive ordeal, which must be performed by trained professionals who are certified to remove the hazardous material. Workers must be provided with proper protective equipment including respirators or ventilators, and care must be taken to prevent asbestos dust from escaping into the environment where it can harm others in the community.

The reason for all these precautions is asbestos fibers can be deadly if inhaled. They become lodged in the lungs or an outer layer organ tissue known as the mesothelium where they metastasize into mesothelioma, lung cancer or other respiratory illness.

According to a recent article from Mass Live, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing an Oxford-based company for improper handling of asbestos in a Sturbridge home.
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January 19, 2015

Asbestos Victims Fight to Ban Toxic Material

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Humans have mined asbestos for thousands of years, because it is a cheap naturally-occurring substance resistant to heat, fire, chemicals and electricity, and can easily be refined into consumer and industrial products. It was heavily used during the industrial revolution and still used until it was largely outlawed in the United States in the 1970s. However, despite the known risks, asbestos is still being using in minute quantities in developed nations and largely used in developing nations.
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January 15, 2015

Wannall v. Honeywell, Inc.: Evidence in Mesothelioma Cases

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Wannall v. Honeywell, Inc., a mesothelioma appeals case from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, involved plaintiff who was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma. Malignant mesothelioma is rare form of cancer most commonly caused by exposure to asbestos.

Soon after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, plaintiff and his wife filed a civil lawsuit. In this lawsuit, plaintiff was seeking damages from several defendants alleged to have manufactured asbestos to which he was exposed. Plaintiff died a short time after this lawsuit. His wife opened a probate estate and assumed plaintiff’s role in her capacity as administrator of his estate. His wife dismissed her personal cause of action and proceeded only on behalf of the estate.
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January 13, 2015

Widow of Mesothelioma Victim Wins $7.7 Million Verdict

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

While the general public did not become aware of the dangers of asbestos until the 1970s at the earliest, the asbestos industry was well aware of the risks associated with their products prior to that.

Through the discovery process in civil mesothelioma lawsuits, we know not only was the asbestos industry aware of the dangers, those involved took affirmative steps to hide this knowledge from the public and even fraudulently marketed some of their asbestos-laden materials as safe alternatives to asbestos.

It is this willful and wanton disregard for the safety of factory workers, construction workers, and consumers of asbestos-containing materials that has led to the award of extremely high verdicts including punitive damages.

According to a recent news article from CNY, the family of a deceased school bus driver from upstate New York was awarded $7.7 million in a mesothelioma lawsuit. In this case, plaintiff was employed as school bus driver from 1957 to 1994. During that period, plaintiff was exposed to asbestos on daily basis while in the bus garage.
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January 12, 2015

Asbestos Removal Process at Old Plymouth Court House

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Much like many old buildings across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Plymouth courthouse was built in the 1800s with asbestos-laden materials. The building has sat vacant for years with boarded-up windows while town officials tried to come up with a plan or a buyer willing to deal with the expensive asbestos abatement process.

According to a recent news article from WATD, officials desire to raze the old building and replace it with a new town hall government complex. The town will also tear down the old Department of Public Works building and Commissioners building, which are in the same vicinity as the courthouse.
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