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With the unscheduled closing of Boston’s Long Island Homeless Shelter, city officials have been scrambling find a new location to house hundreds of displaced homeless residents and many drug rehabilitation patients.

renovationtime.jpgThe shelter was closed when the bridge connecting Long Island to Quincy became so deteriorated city engineers urged it immediately be closed to prevent a deadly accident. The worst damage requiring the bridge to close was found on the underwater support structures during an extended inspection. With the island effectively cut off from the mainland, there was no way to keep the shelter open, and city officials were forced to close it with little advanced warning or preparation.

The city hopes a new shelter under renovation and remodeling will serve as permanent housing for the over 700 former residents at Long Island. This new shelter is being constructed at what was once a plant where transportation department workers conducted equipment repair and made street and road signs. This plant is filled with asbestos used during its construction. Much of this asbestos was already crumbling down as a result of years of deterioration and insufficient upkeep.
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If you search the internet for “urban explorers” you will see websites dedicated to those who spend their spare time sneaking into abandoned buildings in cities across the United States taking photographs of what sometimes appears to be a window into the past.

3d-illustration-technique--concept-camera-1398481-m.jpgOne of the locations these urban explorers like to frequent is located in Westborough, Massachusetts. Specifically, this location is the long-closed Westborough State Hospital.

The abandoned 90-acre campus holds the crumbling remains of what was once part of the state psychiatric hospital. The old hospital buildings were used for over a hundred years and officially closed in 2010.

According to a recent news article from Wicked Local Westborough, urban explorers have taken photographs of rooms that have not been touched in years. Some of these rooms hold psychiatric equipment not used in decades. There are old rusty hospital gurneys, antique wheelchairs, large rooms filled with bathtubs, and other signs of how mental illness was treating during the early 1900s.
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There is no question that malignant mesothelioma is extremely rare absent exposure to asbestos. Basically, if a doctor makes a diagnosis of mesothelioma, it is presumed in virtually every case the disease was caused by exposure to the toxic fibers. The next issue that comes up is finding out the source of exposure, and doctors will conduct an extensive work history of patients to determine when and where asbestos exposure occurred.

breaker-1413858-m.jpgHowever, according to a recent article from the Madison-St. Claire Record, corporate defendants in mesothelioma injury lawsuits are trying to claim a certain genetic marker, if present in plaintiff, made this person significantly more likely to develop mesothelioma than those without the gene.

It is the BAP1 gene corporate defendants are saying makes a plaintiff much more likely to develop the deadly form of cancer. A researcher from the University of Hawaii believes BAP1 gene can increase the chance a person will develop mesothelioma and can actually cause mesothelioma. While this theory was first presented in 2011, this year is the first time lawyers are seeing it presented as a defense in mesothelioma cases.
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According to a recent report from Fairfield Daily Republic, one asbestos trial is garnering a lot of attention from corporate leaders. This trial involves a former shipyard worker who is dying of cancers caused by his occupational exposure to asbestos.

moneytower.jpgThis trial is expected to take many weeks to complete and is seen by those in the industry as a measuring stick for how juries feel about asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits. What makes this case different than many others is that this California county is well known for returning verdicts in favor of defendants. Plaintiff’s attorneys are hoping, and feel confident, this might not be the case when the jury finally reaches a verdict in this matter. Corporate defense lawyers filled the courtroom to watch opening statements and get a sense for what the jury was thinking.

As for the plaintiff himself, he is 68-years-old and was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in mid-2013. He was a machinist who worked on submarines and ships at a California shipyard before retiring in the early 1990s. During the course of his employment, he was routinely exposed to asbestos dust.
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Many people think mesothelioma is a type of lung cancer. While mesothelioma is a cancer that can occur in the lungs, it is not considered lung cancer. Mesothelioma occurs when a patient inhales asbestos fibers and those fibers become embedded in a layer of protective tissues known as the mesothelium.

Over a period of 20 to 50 years, these fibers can metastasize into malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma can be found in the lungs, chest, abdomen, and other organs where mesothelium is present and can spread to other organs where it is not.

dna-1-1010760-m.jpgWhile it is easy for doctors to distinguish mesothelioma from lung cancer, it is not always so easy to determine whether a patient is suffering from breast cancer or mesothelioma, according to a new study published in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology.

The new study began when a 49-year-old woman presented with a three-centimeter hard lump in the layers of tissue of her right breast. Oncologists performed a biopsy and sent the removed tissue to a laboratory so histology could be performed.
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Residents of Martha’s Vineyard, a town on the Cape south of Boston, have been eagerly awaiting the opening of the library budgeted to cost a quarter of a million dollars at the time bids were awarded. The problem now facing contractors is it is now estimated to cost nearly half a million dollars to complete the project, due to unforeseen delays including discovery of asbestos on the job site, according to a recent news article from MV Times.

law books.jpgWhen contractors had their bid approved and began work, the project was quickly halted when water begin filling the excavation site for the library foundation. The water was coming up from the water table below, and, for some reason, this was not anticipated at the time plans were approved. It cost builders and engineers over $100,000 to fix water table issues before construction could be resumed.

Once the water table issue had been resolved, contractors unearthed an underground storage tank, which had to be painstakingly removed and the resulting vacant hole filled in with suitable material. At this point, there were problems with the fence erected around the project. After tackling these new issues, and at very great expense, contractors then found pipes believed to be insulated with now friable asbestos material.
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Resident’s of Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood are extremely worried about asbestos exposure during demolition of the Casey Overpass, according to a recent news article form the Jamaica Plain News.

bridge-construction-992434-m.jpgThe Casey Overpass is part of Boston’s Arborway, which was part of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s plan in the 1890s to construct a carriageway connecting a series of parks, which have come to be known as the Emerald Isles. While the roadway was originally a great enhancement to the city, modern development and heavy traffic has far surpassed the capacity of the roadway, leading to a need for a massive overhaul of the aging transportation system.

As part of this overhaul, Commonwealth officials proposed demolishing the existing Casey Overpass, which is apart of the Arborway. This has many residents concerned they will be exposed to cancer-causing asbestos dust during the demolition project.
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According to a recent news report from Fox, a local commercial contractor has filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for what they allege amounted to fraudulently hiding the presence of asbestos when soliciting bids for the project.

hazardous-waste---keep-out-167218-m.jpgThe City was looking for a contractor to handle construction of a police station on the site of an old and abandoned public housing project. After the city awarded plaintiff this contract, plaintiff set out to begin demolition of the remaining structure and construction of the new police station.

While working on the job, a subcontractor broke through the ground and discovered pipes running below the job site wrapped in insulation they highly suspected was made from asbestos. The contractor was gravely concerned, and, according to statements, they were dealing with non-contained, friable asbestos, which was being released into the air.
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While it is now common knowledge asbestos can lead to a deadly form of cancer known as mesothelioma, many people do not realize how prevalent asbestos use was during much of the last two centuries and how likely they are to encounter asbestos in the course of their daily lives.

u-s--capitol-building-918333-m.jpgAccording to a recent news report from The Hill, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois Is pushing for national asbestos reporting requirements. Durbin’s new bill, titled The Reducing Exposure to Asbestos Database (READ), would require establishment of a national asbestos registry.

Specifically, READ aims to modernize the seemingly outdated asbestos reporting requirements already in existence though the use of an online database, which is easily searchable by the general public. Durbin’s READ act would also require the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain the new database.
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According to a recent news article from Wicked Local Woburn, city council officials have finally granted approval on a permit request to remove asbestos after much speculation they would not agree to allow the project to move forward.

1327707_old_water_valve.jpgThe reason this permit request faced strong initial opposition was because an asbestos abatement company wanted permission to store asbestos debris at its headquarters within city limits. It was not until petitioners withdrew this specific request that city council members gave the stamp of approval.

Council members were concerned about storing highly dangerous asbestos debris in an area designated as a flood plain. This was after being allowed to put their new headquarters within the limits of a city, which has already spent over $5 million in taxpayer dollars to treat contaminated water.
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Contact Information
Boston Office
1 International Pl Unit 1810
Boston, MA 02110
Phone: (617) 777-7777Fax: (617) 722-9999
Taunton Office
60 Court St
Taunton, MA 02780
By Appointment Only
Quincy Office
308 Victory Rd
Quincy, MA 02171
By Appointment Only

Worcester Office
43 Harvard St
Worcester, MA 01609
By Appointment Only
Disclaimer – The settlements above are only a sample of cases represented by our office. Each case is different and the amount of a potential resolution of your case will vary considerably depending on a substantial amount of factors. Some case results were worked in conjunction with partnering law firms.

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