May 16, 2008
CALIFORNIA: BRIEFING ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ASBESTOS LEGISLATION
On Monday next week there is to be a briefing in Room 2218 of the Rayburn House Office Building for staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The briefing is to highlight to staff members the critical need for legislation to ban asbestos.
The list of discussants includes Mary Hesdorffer, a nurse practitioner and the Medical Liaison for the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, who specializes in asbestos cancer patients.
Posted by Dianne Sandland at 06:46 AM | Permalink
DOES CHEMO FOR MESO ACTUALLY WORK?
A worrying report from the BBC today that casts doubt over the efficacy of chemotherapy for mesothelioma.
A study in British medical journal, The Lancet, reports on a trial of hundreds of meso patients who experienced no benefit from their course of chemotherapy. A US expert said that a combination of drugs is more effective.
The study involved 409 patients (mostly from the UK) who were treated with the standard steroid medication and radiotherapy treatments. Some participants were also treated with chemotherapy and, apparently, they did live for slightly longer. However, the researchers say that this prolonged life could be misleading, and it did not represent statistical proof. They also said that the quality of life of the chemo patients was not improved.
Kate Law, Cancer Research UK's director of clinical trials, added: "These results showed no real benefit from adding these chemotherapy drugs compared with just treating the symptoms of the disease."
In the same issue of the magazine, Dr Nicholas Vogelzang, from the Nevada Cancer Institute, said that results from other trials using different combinations of chemotherapy drugs had been more positive.
Posted by Dianne Sandland at 06:35 AM | Permalink
May 14, 2008
PACIFIC ISLAND TO DUMP ASBESTOS AT SEA?
Following the 2004 hurricane, Heta, there are reportedly sheets of asbestos lying around on the island of Niue in the South Pacific Ocean. Opposition MP, Terry Coe, says he wants these to be dumped at sea.
Apparently, sheets of asbestos are stacked in containers near the airport, while some houses, occupied and unoccupied still have asbestos roofs that need removing, but the government has not yet come to a decision regarding their removal.
Coe is reported as saying, "The Forum’s coming and the place looks so untidy with all this fibre-lite that’s stored around the villages that’s been taken out. The best idea is the same as the Cooks - is that we take it out to sea and dump it in the sea. We could put in containers and then hull the containers, take them out and just sink them out there."
I'm sorry, but I think untidiness is the least worrying of the issues that need to be addressed.
Radio New Zealand International
Posted by Dianne Sandland at 09:38 AM | Permalink
May 13, 2008
TOM CRUISE AND THE SCIENTOLOGY SHIP
Following recent news on this blog about the asbestos scare on the Church of Scientology ship, Freewinds, there is news today that actor Tom Cruise has been advised to seek medical care.
Cruise is, of course, a leading light in the Scientology movement and has spent many hours about the cruise ship at conferences and meetings. Strangely, given the publicity surrounding the discovery of 'blue' asbestos on board shop, Cruise's spokesman says he has no knowledge of the case.
Posted by Dianne Sandland at 02:33 AM | Permalink
May 11, 2008
AUSTRALIAN BUILDERS - UNCARING OR IGNORANT?
Mackay, in Quensland, Australia, was subjected to flash floods back in February this year and it was declared a disaster area.
Now, as the clean-up operation moves up a gear, asbestos removal expert Jayson Maskell-Drew says he is horrified to discover that Mackay families are being poisoned. Apparently, some builders are ripping down asbestos-laden walls in their rush to rebuild the city. And nobody seems to care.
Mr Maskell-Drew said flood-damaged homes were being repaired without the proper precautions, with sheets of asbestos regularly seen discarded on people's lawns, putting neighbourhoods at risk of contamination. He blames uncaring builders for putting themselves and residents at risk of asbestosis or mesothelioma.
The report on this matter says that when Queensland Asbestos Related Diseases Support Society were told about builders tearing asbestos out of houses and leaving them in the open, their spokeswoman sounded panicked.
Oh dear. Of course, one of the problems is that it will be twenty years or so before the repercussions are felt.
Posted by Dianne Sandland at 08:58 AM | Permalink