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A recent news feature from the Mass Media, which is an independent student run newspaper at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), discusses how asbestos levels at the campus are to be monitored from now on after soil samples taken from the school tested positive for what are being called low levels of asbestos after testing was performed at the end of last year.

lungsOnce the soil samples tested positive for the presence of asbestos, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) was notified, and further monitoring was ordered by the agency.  The soil samples were taken when a large-scale construction project was underway and areas of the soil were newly exposed after existing structures had been demolished. Continue reading

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Mesothelioma is a deadly and painful disease. Not only that, but the vast majority of patients are told they only have a very short period of time left to live after being diagnosed with the disease.  There is no cure for malignant pleural mesothelioma, and the only treatments that are available are generally very invasive, painful, and in the best case scenarios only increase a patient’s prognosis for a matter of months before he or she finally succumbs to the asbestos-related illness.

vermiculiteHowever, despite the many problems with finding a cure or more effective treatment, researchers are working every day on finding a better way to help patients who are dying from malignant pleural mesothelioma and the other types of malignant mesothelioma. There are three types of malignant mesothelioma, and the type depends on where the cancer occurs.  Typically, it is not truly different types of mesothelioma, but rather three separate locations for it. Continue reading

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In January, an appeals court in California upheld the award of $1.6 million in compensatory damages and nearly $4 million in punitive damages in an asbestos injury lawsuit. courthouse

That decision came following an appeal by defendants in Casey v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc. following two jury trials – the first that determined liability and compensatory damages and a second limited re-trial that solely weighed the issue of punitive damages after the first could not reach a consensus.

Defendant had argued on appeal to the three-judge panel of the First Appellate District, Division Four that it was improper for the judge to hold a retrial just on the issue of punitive damages. Meanwhile, plaintiff had cross-appealed the fact that the trial court had reduced the punitive damage award from $20 million to just under $4 million.  Continue reading

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An asbestos tort reform bill has gained traction in Congress with approval from the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Luckily for those afflicted with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, it’s unlikely to gain enough traction to become law.senate

Although the measure has a name that implies “fairness,” it is in actuality anything but fair for victims. The Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2016 was given the green light largely along partisan lines in January. The measure would prohibit class action litigation unless every single member of the class suffered exactly the same injury as the named plaintiff.

Additionally – and pertinent to mesothelioma victims – is that any damage settlement from an asbestos bankruptcy trust (funds set aside by companies bankrupted by asbestos litigation) would need to be made public. Continue reading

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For the improper handling of toxic material resulting in asbestos danger in Massachusetts, four affiliated firms agreed to pay $129,000 in fines. However, half of that cost will be deferred if the affiliates can manage to avoid any further environmental trouble, according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. constructionsite

The settlement stems from a Suffolk Superior Court case filed in July 2014 against Patriots Environmental, an Oxford-based firm with affiliates there and also in Charlton and Worcester.

According to the government’s allegations, Patriots Environmental flouted safety regulations and proper procedures in the removal of asbestos from a residential home in Sturbridge. This is the kind of thing that exposes workers, homeowners, guests and even members of the general public to an unnecessary risk of a potentially fatal disease. Asbestosis and mesothelioma are caused by exposure to asbestos particles in the air, and it is well-established that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.  Continue reading

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According to a recent news article from Mass Live, a large energy firm in Holyoke has received $700,000 in tax incentives to move forward with a planned major expansion. Much of these funds will be used for asbestos abatement.

vermiculiteTown officials, members of a public development corporation, and company representatives met in Worcester to finalize the deal.  The company will not have to pay any property taxes for the next 10 years and that amounts to a savings or around $700,000.   There are also state tax credits included in this figure above and beyond the property tax normally payable to the county. Continue reading

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A recent news feature from the Huffington Post takes a look the additional hurdles faced by military veterans who are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.  There is no question there are many ways soldiers die while bravely serving our country.  We have seen soldiers and sailors killed in firefights with an enemy, killed by a roadside improvised explosive device (IED), or killed in one of many kinds of accidents that happen all the time in what they refer to as the fog of war.

854357_battleship_wisconsin-218x300When a soldier or sailor manages to survive all of these dangerous scenarios and gets older, it would seem that the chance of dying a service-related death is over.  However, with the fact that asbestos was heavily used by the United States military, and the fact that it typically takes between 20 years and 50 years for a patient to be diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, this is not always the case. Continue reading

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Tremelimumab is one of several drugs that are in development as a treatment for malignant mesothelioma.  As discussed in a recent article from FDA News Alert, for patients, a mesothelioma diagnosis is one of the scariest things they can hear.  It is a rare illness and there is no cure.  Essentially, when a patient learns that he or she has mesothelioma, they are generally told that there is little doctors can do and that the prognosis is normally death within a few months to a few years.

surgeonsIt should be said that this does not mean there are no treatment options for malignant mesothelioma. It is that there aren’t many effective ones. At best, doctors have been able to slightly slow the growth of these deadly and aggressive and tumors, but nobody goes into remission like they do with other types of cancer. Continue reading

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According to a recent news feature from LABIOTECH, Sellas Life Sciences Group, based in Switzerland, has just received orphan drug status approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its new drug known as WT1 vaccine.

stethascope1WT1 vaccine is an immunotherapeutic cancer vaccine that is being developed to prevent two different types of cancer that generally affect the lungs and surrounding tissues.  Those cancers are malignant pleural mesothelioma (caused by asbestos exposure in nearly all cases) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).  So far, there have been phase II trails with the drug on both conditions, and there have been what are known as positive top line results during this course of these phase II clinical trials. Continue reading

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A recent news feature from Mass Live discusses a plan for a new Mercedes Dealership to open in Chicopee, Massachusetts.  While the opening of a car dealership would not normally be all that news worthy, this large dealership is expected to constitute a major investment in the region of around $12 million.

decrepit-window-1438561-mThis new dealership is slated to be built on the site of long vacated Plantation Inn, which was once a popular hotel.  The now vacated hotel once regularly had no trouble booking its 187 guest rooms and sits on a considerable amount of land.  Part of the reason for the expensive plan to build the new dealership is because the hotel was built at time when asbestos was used heavily during the construction process. Continue reading

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Boston, MA 02110
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Quincy, MA 02171
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Worcester, MA 01609
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