The mesothelioma-caused death of a Scotsman has spurred his widow to take up the fight against asbestos, which triggered the rare and deadly cancer that killed her husband.

Jim Duff passed away at the age of 62 from asbestos exposure that occurred 30 years prior to his death, when he worked in the civil service at RAF Pitreavie, a British air force base, according to the Daily Record. Now, Duff’s widow, Rhona, is joining a campaign to raise awareness of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. Continue reading →

A Japanese district court has ruled that the government was negligent in taking precautions to protect workers, and must compensate victims of asbestos-related diseases.

The Osaka District Court has ordered the Japanese government to pay 430 million yen, or $4.6 million, to 29 plaintiffs suffering from asbestosis and asbestos-related cancer. The ruling is the first to hold the central government responsible for asbestos-related diseases, charging that the state should have taken stronger precautions to protect workers. Presiding Judge Yoshihiro Konishi said the state was aware of the health risk before 1960, when it enacted a law to protect workers from lung disease and was negligent by not requiring private industry to take steps to safeguard workers health.

Japan has lagged significantly behind the developed world in addressing its asbestos issues. The growing problem of asbestos-related diseases was largely ignored until 2005, when farm machinery maker Kubota Corporation admitted that since 1978, 79 of its workers had died from asbestos-related diseases.

Asbestos imports into Japan peaked in 1974 with 352,316 tons brought into the country. It is estimated that well over 6,060 Japanese have died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer, from 1995 to 2003. Yet a recent article published by researchers at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Okayama Rosai Hospital points out only about 10% of malignant mesothelioma cases are actually claimed and compensated.

In 2005, the head of an Environment Ministry panel studying the asbestos issue resigned after disclosing that he previously had served as an adviser to the Japan Asbestos Association. In 1972, the government required all factories dealing with asbestos to be equipped with exhausters, but did not fully ban asbestos, including its production and import, until 2004.

We applaud the Osaka district court’s decision. This is just the first step in ensuring justice for the Japanese victims of asbestos-related disease.

On May 5, the California State Assembly Labor & Employment Committee passed AB 2774.  The legislative proposal was in response to a Federal OSHA letter to the Division of Occupational Safety & Health [Cal/OSHA] and a letter to the Occupational Safety & Health Appeals Board [OSH Appeals Board] criticizing the California program for not meeting federal standards.

Jeremy Smith, representing the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO, and Fran Schreiberg, representing the National Lawyers Guild Labor & Employment Committee, testified urging passage of the bill.  In addition to the California Labor Fed letter and Guild letter, on short notice, several unions submitted letters in support including CWA UPTE and USW.

Letters of support were also sent by the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, Worksafe and KazanLaw.

Proponents argued that the bill helps Cal/OSHA more effectively prosecute employers who gain an economic advantage from not protecting employee safety and health.  It would level the playing field for legitimate law-abiding businesses.

Bill opponents, including the California Chamber of Commerce and the Associated General Contractors, argued against the bill’s definition of “serious physical harm” and in favor of the current approach which keeps the level of serious citations and penalties low.

The bill will next be heard by the full Assembly.  It must pass the Assembly by Friday, June 4.

Current California statutes do not define “serious physical harm.”  The OSH Appeals Board, which hears appeals by employers who are cited by Cal/OSHA, has equated “serious physical harm” and “serious physical injury,” ignoring guidelines from Federal OSHA.  Because the OSH Appeals Board uses a more restrictive definition, far fewer violations are characterized as “serious.”

California’s rate of serious citations is today the lowest in the country.  Federal OSHA reported in November 2009 that Cal/OSHA issued as serious only 19% of its citations.  In contrast, Federal OSHA cited as serious 77% of its citations and the average for other state plans was 43%.

In January, 2010, Federal OSHA informed Cal/OSHA and the OSH Appeals Board that the California state plan was likely not as effective as the Federal OSHA program with respect to the definition of “serious physical harm.”  In a subsequent public forum, the OSH Appeals Board said it would not issue a regulation defining “serious physical harm.”  It further stated that even if the Department of Industrial Relations [DIR], the parent agency for Cal/OSHA, were to issue such a regulation to meet Federal OSHA concerns, it was not obliged to follow that regulation.

Congress, when it passed the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, permitted states to have their own safety and health programs as long as those programs were “as effective as” the Federal plan.  California had a state safety and health program beginning in the early 1900s.  California made statutory changes to assure it could continue to have its own regulations and enforcement program after the federal OSH Act became law.  About half of the states have their own OSH programs (referred to as “state-plan states”).

For Cal/OSHA to continue to be “as effective as” the federal program, it must address Federal OSHA’s criticism.  Endorsement of AB 2774 will be a first step towards addressing this problem.  We need this legislation to force the OSH Appeals Board to use the proper definition of “serious physical harm.”

Click here for a model letter of support to urge members of the legislature to pass AB 2774.  Click here for a fact sheet about the bill.

Leigh has joined our Firm after an almost-20-year career as a trial lawyer, most recently as a partner at Howrey LLP, one of the country’s outstanding corporate and commercial firms. She has had a brilliant career trying cases all over the country and will focus her efforts with us as trial counsel, devoting her time to representing our mesothelioma clients.

She brings great enthusiasm, outstanding skills, and boundless energy to our practice and we all look forward to great things in the years ahead.

OAKLAND – On April 28, 2010, worker health and safety advocates around the world observe Workers’ Memorial Day.

President Obama stated in his April 15 remarks addressing the victims of the Massey mine explosion, “We owe them action. We owe them accountability. We owe them an assurance that when they go to work every day, when they enter that dark mine, they are not alone. They ought to know that behind them there is a company that’s doing what it takes to protect them, and a government that is looking out for their safety.”

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis noted, “Some argue that workplace health and safety inspections, enforcement, and regulations are ‘inconvenient and intrusive.’” My reply: No paycheck is worth a life, and no quest for profit should ever be allowed to circumvent our law. So wherever workers are in danger, the Department of Labor will act decisively.”

“California may once have stood at the vanguard of programs protecting workers, but overall the current administration has significantly weakened workplace protection. Something needs to be done,” noted Fran Schreiberg, pro bono attorney for Kazan McClain Satterley & Greenwood. “Profits should not be at the expense of workers’ lives and health.”

More than 80 years ago, a feisty old woman named Mary Harris “Mother” Jones rallied and raised hell on behalf of miners killed in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Her motto then is what we still believe today: Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.

“We need reform now so that at next year’s event, we will have fewer tragedies and more successes to share,” said Worksafe Executive Director Gail Bateson. With the passage of the health care reform bill, the next challenge for the U.S. will be the most neglected problem in public health – protecting the health and safety of workers, whose work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths amount to $290 billion a year and cost countless families their loved ones. “Improving the way we protect our workers is long past due. It is shameful that workers still face high rates of death and serious injury on the job when employers know how to prevent injuries, but fail to do so.”

In Oakland, participants at Worksafe’s Workers’ Memorial Day event are remembering and honoring the loss of California’s workers over the last year with a moment of silence. About 6,300 workers die each year in California: 400-500 from fatal injuries and the remainder from occupational disease, according to the latest federal statistics.

This year’s World Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job is all too relevant. In April alone the nation has witnessed three major incidents in the energy sector – coal, oil extraction, and refining – resulting in 35 workers killed, several severely injured, and 11 reported missing and presumed dead. The April 5th explosion in a West Virginia mine operated by Massey Energy was the worst US mining disaster since 1970.

These deaths – and the deaths of so many others in the workplace – are preventable. We need improved health and safety. Not only is it important to remember the dead, but also critical to unite around solutions to prevent the further loss of lives.

To improve worker health and safety, Oakland-based non-profit Worksafe is launching its 2011 Health and Safety Legislative Reform Agenda for California and building a worker health and safety movement in California.

Worksafe is a California-based organization dedicated to eliminating all types of workplace hazards. It advocates for protective worker health and safety laws and effective remedies for injured workers. It watchdogs government agencies to ensure they enforce these laws. Worksafe engages in campaigns in coalition with unions, workers, community, environmental and legal organizations, and scientists to eliminate hazards and toxic chemicals from the workplace. To protect the most vulnerable of California workers, Worksafe engages in impact litigation and provides legal training, technical assistance, and advocacy support to legal services programs who serve low wage and immigrant workers.

Workers Memorial Day 2010

Friedrich Nietzsche once cynically wrote, “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.” For victims of mesothelioma and their families, the dismal prognosis of this disease and the search for answers often takes them beyond the bounds of conventional medicine. All too often, they find themselves victimized again. Motivated by greed, we’ve seen unscrupulous lawyers as well as pharmaceutical companies resort to misinformation and downright fraud. Too often the media falls into the same trap, relying solely on press releases from pharmaceutical companies for information.

A recent article in a British paper with the headline “Asbestos Cancer Destroyer” stated:

Scientists have safely tested a potential vaccine they hope can beat a deadly cancer linked to asbestos. The development has been described as the most significant breakthrough in the battle against Clydeside’s death dust ticking timebomb. Research leader Dr. Joachim Aerts said: “We hope it will be possible to increase survival in patients with mesothelioma and to eventually vaccinate people who have been in contact with asbestos.” The news has been greeted with enthusiasm in Clydebank where thousands of workers were exposed to asbestos in places such as John Brown’s shipyard and Turner & Newall’s Dalmuir asbestos factory. The town is the worst affected area in the UK for mesothelioma deaths. The cancer is extremely difficult to treat and often proves fatal in a very short time-scale. Bob Dickie, of Clydebank Asbestos Group, which has more than 1,400 members, said: “If this becomes a reality, it would be a tremendous step forward in the treatment of mesothelioma. If these experiments prove to be successful then it would be wonderful for people who suffer from this terrible disease.” Ten patients with advanced mesothelioma were given the new treatment – being called a vaccine – and all showed signs of recovery.

It sounds promising. Even hopeful, perhaps. But the truth is much less promising. for the real information is found in the February 18, 2010 article titled Consolidative Dendritic Cell-Based Immunotherapy Elicits Cytotoxicity Against Malignant Mesothelioma published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, which is much more circumspect. The median survival of those participating in this study was 19 months (range, 11-34 months), with only one patient currently alive. Hardly an “Asbestos Cancer Destroyer.” The potential vaccine, which infuses a patient’s own dendritic cells with antigens from the patient’s tumor, was able to induce a T-cell response against mesothelioma tumors. Three patients showed partial responses after receiving immunotherapy, one had stable disease, and six patients had no response. While the ten person study has demonstrated that this therapy is capable of inducing an immunological response to tumor cells in a small percentage of patients, a potential vaccine is at best years away.

Research is important, and ongoing efforts to find ways to treat and someday cure mesothelioma are to be applauded and supported. Indeed, that’s why we devote our own time and money to the effort. But over-promoting very preliminary results can only create false hopes and lead to disappointment amongst current patients and their families.