A Canadian federal government plan to transform a significant amount of asbestos mining waste in Quebec into plants and even biofuel crops could put nearby citizens at risk, according to internal documents.

According to the Canadian Press, Ottawa will attempt to use the waste materials in the center of Canada’s asbestos country to see if they could potentially yield plants or even biofuel crops someday.

Additionally, the Natural Resources Canada project in Thetford Mines in Quebec strives to determine whether or not it is worthwhile to extract certain minerals that are buried in the waste sites in the community.

But while these waste products could prove useful in developing plants and biofuels, digging up the materials, which include the dangerous fibers of asbestos, could pose a health risk to the nearby community, according to government documents.

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A Missouri city has reached a settlement with its fire chief who was accused of making firefighters remove asbestos-containing materials from a building.

Hannibal fire chief Tim Carter will remain in his position until the end of the year when he will retire with a full pension as part of the settlement, reports the Quincy Herald Whig.

It is alleged that Carter made firefighters remove material that contained asbestos from the former KHQA-TV studio on Palmyra Road in Hannibal, which had been donated to the fire department in August 2008.

In January 2009, Carter reportedly had the firefighters remove floor tiles and insulation from the building, according to an email the fire chief allegedly sent to then-fire board members James Behymer and Jason Janes on January 22, 2009. Carter later said that the only tiles that firefighters removed were loose, reports the news source.

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November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

Lung Cancer is the nation’s top cancer killer, striking nearly 200,000 Americans each year. Nearly 90% eventually succumb to the disease. When diagnosed early, the survival rate is 90%. A National Lung Screening Trial enrolling 53,000 current or former smokers recently found 20 percent fewer deaths from lung cancer among those screened with spiral CTs than among those given chest X-rays. The difference was considered statistically significant and the study was truncated.

Locally, Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley is doing a study in conjunction with New York’s Cornell University and is offering free low dose CT lung scans. Participants must be 50 or older. While prevention remains key, early diagnosis is vital for saving lives. If you live in Northern California and you are a smoker, an ex-smoker, or have been exposed to asbestos in the past, you may want to take advantage of this study. And for those exposed to asbestos there is an added potential benefit – a CT scan can also detect early signs of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma, which can greatly improve the chances for a good response to treatment. Please call (510) 204-2792.

It is rare to find video footage of current asbestos industry conditions from around the world, which makes these videos posted by IBAS of working conditions in Iran an incredible resource. Depicting conditions in asbestos using factories, these brief videos highlight the dangerous exposure these workers face every day. Visit IBAS to view the videos and read more about Asbestos Reality.

Referred to as the Empire State Building of Pearl Harbor by Ken DeHoff, executive director of the Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, the iconic control tower on Ford Island currently stands as a symbol of rust and neglect.

DeHoff, a Cobra helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, sees the 158-foot-tall riveted-steel tower as a potential gold mine for World War II research, in addition to offering a spectacular panoramic view of the surrounding areas.

On December 7, 1941, one of the first radio broadcasts of the Pearl Harbor attack was made from the tower. According to published reports, at 7:58 a.m., Vice Admiral Patrick Bellinger, the commander of Patrol Wing 2, announced, “Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill!”

“There’s just so much history in aviation right here on Ford Island,” DeHoff told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

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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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