Mesothelioma research is a popular topic in the medical world right now, due to the increasing number of people showing symptoms of the deadly disease. While research is leading doctors to a clearer path on how to treat the disease, there are still many difficulties in diagnosing and treating asbestos-related diseases.

However, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, have made an interesting discovery. A recent study done by the hospital has shown that while women tend to develop mesothelioma earlier than men, they also tend to live longer with the disease after surgery.

Currently there is no cure for mesothelioma, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and the average length of survival time ranges from four to 18 months after the initial diagnosis. There are some cases where a patient will live longer.

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Associated Labor Unions (ALU)
Building and Woodworkers International (BWI)
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)

Manila, Philippines, 19 October 2010 – “Senator Manny Villar as Chair of the Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce will schedule public hearing on Senate Bill No. 89 (SBN-89) banning asbestos when the Senate resumes session on November 8, 2010”, replied Atty. Gladys Garcia from the Senator’s office during the handover of trade union position on the asbestos ban bill 11 October 2010.

Read Full Press Release Here

WorkSafe British Columbia (BC), a government workplace safety agency in the Canadian province, recently compiled documents that show at least 50 workers in the region die annually from asbestos-related diseases.

While the use of asbestos was slowly phased out of Canada by the 1990s, its impact is still being felt in British Columbia, according to the Vancouver news provider The Province.

One man who is dealing with the consequences of suffering asbestos exposure in the workplace is Dirk Jansema.

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A number of prisons in Kansas will need to undergo asbestos abatement after an audit conducted by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) revealed that guards and inmates were possibly exposed to the deadly mineral.

Two prisons are scheduled to have asbestos removed, but dozens of other detention facilities throughout the state may need to have abatement conducted in the future, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“Asbestos-containing materials were found in various buildings at DOC facilities,” Bill Miskell, spokesman for corrections department, told the news source. Asbestos was commonly used as a flame retardant and insulator in older structures.

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This week marks an important milestone in the history of the global ban asbestos network. On September 17, 2000, the landmark Global Asbestos Congress (GAC 2000) began in Osasco, Brazil. For the first time asbestos victims, trade unionists, and occupational and environmental health experts from around the world joined together in an effort to protect the rights of asbestos victims throughout the world. Nearly one hundred international guests and more than three hundred Brazilian delegates attended plenary sessions, workshops, and round-table discussions.

João de Souza, President of Brazilian Association of the Asbestos-Exposed (ABREA), Brazil attended the conference 10 years ago. “The GAC 2000 in Osasco brought us a new dimension in the struggle to ban asbestos. It was no longer a fight for national or local asbestos bans but a planetary struggle uniting citizens, activists, victims, politicians, unionists, students, and common people eager to eliminate the greatest industrial killer of all time. We left the conference stronger and much more confident in our skill to transform an unfair global situation.”

In the ten years since the first Global Asbestos Congress, over 50 countries have banned the deadly mineral. Research continues to develop new and improved treatments for asbestos-related diseases. Yet much work remains to be done. The World Health Organization estimates that today 125 million people are still occupationally exposed to asbestos. Asbestos may take as many as 10 million lives before it is finally banned worldwide. Each of these deaths could be prevented by a global ban on asbestos. The time has come.

An English construction company recently pleaded guilty to asbestos violations after knowingly exposing its employees to the deadly mineral.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), England’s federal health agency, Greswolde Construction did not warn its employees that asbestos was present during a project at Rokeby Primary School in Rugby despite having a survey that showed what areas contained asbestos.

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