We’ve seen some recent attention to a major problem in asbestos litigation concerning the fabrication of evidence by defense experts. In a recent editorial, “Data Sharing, Federal Rule of Evidence 702, and the Lions in the Undergrowth” the editor in chief of the Annals of Occupational Hygiene, Trevor Ogden, discusses the sharing of occupational exposure data, and the very real possibility that published data may be misinterpreted by those with commercial interest.

Ogden explains how Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which encourages expert witnesses to get their testimony material into peer-reviewed journals, has led to the manipulation of scientific research. The notes for the rule contain a checklist for courts to apply to expert evidence, including whether the experts’ “technique or theory has been subject to peer review or publication.” This has resulted in the creation of “vanity” journals whose primary function is to polish up bad science for use in lawsuits. There is no shortage of “scientists” willing to manufacture doubt, if the price is right.

Recently, it was revealed that the Australian branch of publishing giant Elsevier published six journals between 2000 and 2005 that were secretly sponsored by pharmaceutical companies: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Australasian Journal of Bone & Joint [Medicine].

Michael Hansen, CEO of Elsevier’s Health Sciences Division, admitted this breach, and issued the following statement:

“It has recently come to my attention that from 2000 to 2005, our Australia office published a series of sponsored article compilation publications, on behalf of pharmaceutical clients, that were made to look like journals and lacked the proper disclosures. This was an unacceptable practice, and we regret that it took place.”

A multi-million dollar industry has been created to serve industry at the expense of public health and to the detriment of victims’ rights. One would hope these abuses stop, but until they do, we will continue to investigate these abuses as we take depositions of these dishonest experts.

And to its reporter, Roger Parloff, for today’s expose about a new low in lawyer conduct.

Dozens of websites presenting themselves as VA Medical Centers offering government help to our veterans suffering from mesothelioma, but in reality operated by law firms looking for business, have been uncovered and reported on by Mr. Parloff. These sites have no affiliation with the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, but that would not likely have been clear to an elderly or infirm visitor seeking medical aid and information on asbestos-related diseases resulting from his or her military service.

Read the Fortune article and let us know what you think!

The United States Senate has unanimously passed Senate Resolution 427 designating the first week of April 2010 as National Asbestos Awareness Week.The resolution urges the Surgeon General to warn and educate Americans regarding the hazards of asbestos exposure.

The hazards of asbestos are severe. The resolution notes that “the World Health Organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Surgeon General currently state that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos,” and that “asbestos fibers can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other health problems.” There is no known cure for mesothelioma, a fatal disease.

According to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), which praised the passage of the resolution, “more than 10,000 Americans die each year from exposure to asbestos and the number is rising. It is projected that in the next decade asbestos diseases will kill at least 100,000 Americans alone.”

For its part, the ADAO will be running an educational campaign during the asbestos awareness week. “Americans deserve and want to know how to prevent asbestos in their homes or in the workplace,” said CEO and ADAO co-founder Linda Reinstein.

Preventing exposure continues to pose a challenge as the U.S. and Canada are today the only two industrialized nations without asbestos bans. The United States, according to Senate Resolution 427, “continues to consume almost 2,000 metric tons of the fibrous mineral for use in certain products throughout the Nation,” even though “asbestos-related diseases have killed thousands of people in the United States.” The result is that “thousands of workers in the United States face significant asbestos exposure.”

Each of these workers is unnecessarily risking his or her life. The Kazan Law Firm supports “National Asbestos Awareness Week,” and all efforts to educate and raise awareness around this harmful toxic material to one day end exposure to asbestos and the resulting needless deaths.

Asbestos is a killer. The prestigious Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society that examines critical issues in occupational and environmental medicine, re-issued its Call for a Ban on Asbestos a decade after its first call in 1999. The Collegium’s report, Asbestos is Still with Us: Repeat Call for a Universal Ban states that in the last decade as many as over one million workers worldwide have died from asbestos related cancers. The profound tragedy of these deaths caused by asbestos each year is that virtually all of them are preventable. “All countries of the world,” the Collegium argues, “have an obligation to their citizens to join in the international endeavor to ban all forms of asbestos.”

All forms of asbestos are proven human carcinogens; asbestos exposure has been definitively linked to asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma, lung, laryngeal, and ovarian cancers, and may cause gastrointestinal and other cancers—all of which are fatal. Globally, asbestos takes the lives of as many as 140,000 workers annually. This number does not include deaths from environmental exposure which remains a serious problem, especially in the developing world. Most of the world’s people still live in countries where asbestos use continues with little or no provision for worker protection or compensation from work-related exposure.

The scientific community overwhelmingly agrees that there is no safe minimum exposure level for asbestos. The EPA, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization, and the National Toxicology Program are just a few of the organizations that have recognized the definitive carcinogenicity of asbestos. Still, in the United States, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has established a permissible exposure limit that will lead to five deaths from lung cancer and two deaths from asbestosis in every 1,000 workers exposed for a working lifetime. Is even one of these deaths justifiable if it could have been prevented? Why, given the overwhelming evidence and scientific agreement regarding the cost of asbestos use, do the mining and manufacture of asbestos persist?

Safer substitutes for asbestos do exist, but the asbestos industry continues to oppose attempts at a ban. Around the world, the industry’s lobbying power has prevented decisive government action, and well-funded industry science has attempted to hide the clear link between asbestos exposure and fatal disease.

To date, 52 countries have banned the use of asbestos, due largely to the work of an international movement. But even by conservative estimates asbestos may take as many as 10 million lives before it is finally banned worldwide. Each of these deaths could be prevented.

The Kazan Law Firm joins in the call: All countries of the world have an obligation to their citizens to ban all forms of asbestos.

We thank Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) along with Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), and Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) for introducing a resolution that declares the first week of April as “National Asbestos Awareness Week” that seeks to “raise public awareness about the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure.”

Text of the Resolution follows:

Whereas dangerous asbestos fibers are invisible and cannot be smelled or tasted;

Whereas the inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers can cause significant damage;

Whereas asbestos fibers can cause mesothelioma, asbestosis, and other health problems;

Whereas asbestos-related diseases can take 10 to 50 years to present themselves;

Whereas the expected survival time for those diagnosed with mesothelioma is between 6 and 24 months;

Whereas generally, little is known about late-stage treatment of asbestos-related diseases, and there is no cure for such diseases;

Whereas early detection of asbestos-related diseases may give some patients increased treatment options and might improve their prognoses;

Whereas the United States has reduced its consumption of asbestos substantially, yet continues to consume almost 2,000 metric tons of the fibrous mineral for use in certain products throughout the Nation;

Whereas asbestos-related diseases have killed thousands of people in the United States;

Whereas exposure to asbestos continues, but safety and prevention of asbestos exposure already has significantly reduced the incidence of asbestos-related diseases and can further reduce the incidence of such diseases;

Whereas asbestos has been a cause of occupational cancer;

Whereas thousands of workers in the United States face significant asbestos exposure;

Whereas thousands of people in the United States die from asbestos-related diseases every year;

Whereas a significant percentage of all asbestos-related disease victims were exposed to asbestos on naval ships and in shipyards;

Whereas asbestos was used in the construction of a significant number of office buildings and public facilities built before 1975;

Whereas people in the small community of Libby, Montana have asbestos-related diseases at a significantly higher rate than the national average and suffer from mesothelioma at a significantly higher rate than the national average; and

Whereas the establishment of a “National Asbestos Awareness Week” will raise public awareness about the prevalence of asbestos-related diseases and the dangers of asbestos exposure:

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate

(1) designates the first week of April 2009 as “National Asbestos Awareness Week”;

(2) urges the Surgeon General to warn and educate people about the public health issue of asbestos exposure, which may be hazardous to their health; and

(3) respectfully requests that the Secretary of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the Office of the Surgeon General.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) announced its 6th Annual Awareness Conference to be held April 9-11, 2010, in Chicago. Organized in collaboration with the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, the conference is a key part of the global movement to ban the use of asbestos and improve detection and treatment options for asbestos-related diseases.

The conference will feature experts addressing preventing asbestos use, resources for asbestos-related disease victims and their families, and advances in the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related disease. Speakers include Brazilian government official and asbestos issue activist Fernanda Giannasi, as well as Canadian MP Pat Martin. Canada and Brazil are major asbestos exporters, and bringing together these two speakers will facilitate useful dialogue. The conference is an opportunity to build advocacy networks and raise awareness around issues of asbestos and asbestos-related disease.

The ADAO will also honor leaders in the struggle to raise awareness, change policy, and hold asbestos producers accountable to the victims of asbestos-related disease. Additionally, it will honor the memory of those victims during the Unity and Hope Brunch, sponsored and hosted in part by Kazan Law. New this year, the conference will include a private gathering to support patients and their families and caregivers.

Kazan Law is proud to support and sponsor the Global Mission for this year’s conference:

To learn more about the conference and to register for attendance, please visit the ADAO conference webpage.

Last March I wrote about the discovery of these asbestos-contaminated kits for sale on Amazon.com. Subsequent posts described the results of our complaints and the removal of these products from the Amazon.com web site. I also had mentioned the potential class action lawsuit that was then being contemplated. The asbestos contamination of these products was discovered through a consumer testing program sponsored by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and after the bankruptcy of Planet Toys, a class action case was brought against the companies that made and distributed these dangerous products. The suit was handled by counsel working with Public Justice and with the cooperation of ADAO. That case has now been resolved by an order filed in the United States District Court for the Seventh District of New York on February 23, 2010. If you ever bought this product, you should check the CSI litigation web site for information about claims forms and potential for compensation.

In essence, full refunds are available and anyone who still has one of these contaminated kits can send it in at the defendants’ expense for destruction in accordance with the highest standards of industrial hygiene and environmental safety.

Congratulations to ADAO, Public Justice, and the attorneys who handled this case. Sometimes, our legal system works.

Read More [PDF]

Amador Valley High regained its title in the Mock Trial Competition named in honor of our recently deceased partner, Phil Harley. Amador Valley will represent Alameda County at the statewide competition in San Jose next month.

The firm’s financial support helped sponsor students’ participation as they pursued academic achievement and career-building skills. We are delighted that we could help preserve this program during these tight budget times, and are very proud of the students for their accomplishments.

Read the full press release here.