According to a recent study, guidelines issued by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) as to the levels of asbestos which were acceptable at work were often ignored in the first 10 years of this century.

A team of work related toxicologists checked the OHSA databases and showed that on thousands of job sites, the concentration of asbestos was over the allowed levels across the whole country. Although concentrations of asbestos have declined over the last 30 years, the study found that in some industries the levels of airborne fibers were still over the Permitted Exposure Limit up to as late as 2011. This was especially the case for the worst offenders which were shipbuilding, chemical, manufacturing, auto repair, petroleum, rubber and construction industries.

These findings go some way to explaining why the National Cancer Institute has said they anticipate around 55,000 new cases of mesothelioma in men over the next 40 years even though the use of asbestos has supposedly declined rapidly over the past 35 years.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

More and more plaintiffs suffering from asbestos related diseases, or their families, have been flocking to California since 2000 where they think the jury verdicts will be much larger and the laws are more favorable to their cases.

However, to prevent their cases being thrown out of court they have to have one or more defendants in the lawsuit who are based in California. The courts have now ruled that if it can be proved that the California defendant really has nothing to do with the case then the case cannot be heard in California. The ruling was issued in the case of David v. Medtronic, Inc., when the only connection to the state was a local physician and the 36 plaintiffs lived out of state and named Medtronic and Wyeth companies, none of which were in state either. The court dismissed the claim and the dismissal was upheld on appeal.

Although this was not an asbestos case, David will have a major impact on asbestos litigation, in which individual cases frequently have many defendants, with only a few being subject to jurisdiction in California. The David decision takes away from plaintiffs a means to have cases tried in California which are not connected with the state.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

On Wednesday May 6, Tower Cancer Research Foundation’s (TCRF) will be hosting a Tower of Hope Gala at which over $2 million in research grants will be awarded including a $1 million Discovery Fund grant to create an innovative mesothelioma study in Southern California.

TCRF was founded in 1996 and is primarily focused on Southern California. The Foundation provides grants for innovative research, patient support and community education to promote more effective treatments for cancer and has raised over $25 million in the last ten years.

The Discovery Fund provides scientists with the funding up front for their research and therefore encourages them to develop higher risk projects as often leading edge ideas do not often have preliminary data and hence do not qualify for the usual grants. The very first recipient of the grant will be the Cedars Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, who will create a research team, which will collaborate across disciplines to investigate how mesothelioma begins, how it grows, and how to halt its progression.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

A couple from Washington Parish in New Orleans has lodged a lawsuit claiming that several corporations are responsible for the mesothelioma being suffered by the husband.

Paul and Dorothy Poche filed the suit against Eagle Inc., Anco Insulations Inc., The McCarty Corporation and Taylor-Seidenbach Inc.

In the lawsuit, Paul Poche claims that he was exposed to several products which contained asbestos when he was working in Norco, Louisiana for Shell Oil between 1952 and 1983. He says that his job included fitting pipes and tearing out insulation, which meant that he inhaled large quantities of asbestos fibers during that time.
Poche went on to claim that he is now suffering from asbestos related malignant mesothelioma, and mental anguish associated with it and accuses the companies of negligence, stating that they should have known about the health hazards they were exposing him to.

Poche highlighted that they did not provide warnings about the dangers and risks posed by asbestos and the need for safety equipment.

It is not known how much they are seeking in damages which include physical pain, mental anguish, medical expenses, physical impairment, and partial and total disability from mesothelioma.

A court of appeal in California has stated that it is necessary to hold an expedited trial in an asbestos personal injury case, overturning a decision by a lower court which rejected an earlier trial date.

Gerald and Judith Boyd has asked for an expedited trial date under the Code of Civil Procedure which gives preference for trials for those over 70 years old who are in poor health and a delayed trial would prejudice them.

Gerald Boyd, aged 71, developed mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos and his physician said that in his professional opinion, Boyd is unlikely to survive past the end of March 2015. He is currently feeling well, with good energy and his weight is stable but the Judge ruled that just because he was not debilitated at the moment that did not mean his life expectancy was lengthened. He has a terminal diagnosis and he is in stage III of mesothelioma but there is no knowing when he will progress to stage IV, the final stage.

Even though three of the 15 defendants opposed the request, Justice Stuart R. Pollak said that the trial would be held before March.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Roger Worthington of the Worthington & Caron, P.C. has donated $100,000 to The Pacific Mesothelioma Center (PMC) at the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (PHLBI) to support its ongoing stem cell research program. Last year he made a similar donation which kicked the research off as he says there is a need to invest to find a long term cure for the disease.

The PMC is dedicated to finding a cure for mesothelioma, a potentially life threatening cancer affecting the lining of the chest.  Worthington hopes that with his donation, the Federal Government will recognize the possible merits of stem cell research for all Americans, especially veterans who have the disease. Thousands of veterans have already been diagnosed with mesothelioma and tens of thousands more are at risk as they were exposed to asbestos during their military service.

Mr. Worthington’s donation will help fund critical clinical studies affiliated with the new Comprehensive Meso Center at the West Los Angeles (WLA) Veterans’ Administration which will not only offer essential patient services to meet the needs of Veterans with mesothelioma in Southern California but will also sponsor clinical trials on those with the disease.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Researchers at the University of Piemonte Orientale in Italy and the Karolinska Institute may have made a breakthrough in the treatment of mesothelioma.

Malignant mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos and is very difficult to treat with the average survival rate for mesothelioma being between 9 and 17 months.  The basic standard is to use chemotherapy in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma but only 40% of patients respond to this and it does not normally extend life by more than a few months.

Now the researchers have found that by targeting an estrogen receptor may help to make the cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy.

The results of the research on mice have been promising in that firstly the mesothelioma cells did not replicate nor grow so quickly and then when combined with chemotherapy there were significant tumor inhibiting effects and increasing death of the mesothelioma cells. In addition the healthy cells appear to have been protected from the damaging effects of the chemotherapy which usually accounts for most serious side effects in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.