Tuesday's Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) has spent over $165,000 to have government-certified laboratories examine hundreds of consumer products over an 18 month period to determine whether they contain asbestos. The ADAO is a national asbestos victim's organization created in 2004 by asbestos victims and their families, dedicated to raising awareness and educating the public about the dangers of asbestos.

The results of the tests were shocking. According to the ADAO, asbestos was found by at least two of the three labs to be in many consumer products and children's toys, including the CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit, two brands of children's play clay, powdered cleanser, roof sealers, duct tapes, window glazing, spackling paste and small appliances. The fingerprint kit appears to be of the greatest concern. The kit, made in China, is one of several items licensed by CBS after the popular "CSI" television crime series. The kit contains several plastic tools, inks and three types of powders. The lab found the white and the glow powder to contain high levels of two types of asbestos. This can pose a serious risk to children who may breathe in asbestos fibers as they use the kit to dust for fingerprints. While the manufacturer and distributer insist that the kit has been tested and meets all safety standard requirments, it concedes that toy safety agencies do not require asbestos testing. However, in light of the ADAO's finding, CBS Consumer Products has asked its licensee to immediately conduct independing asbestos testing of the product in the U.S. and if the product is determined to be unsafe, CBS has stated it will insist that it be removed from the market.

Some of the products tested for the ADAO contained less than 1% asbestos, which would not be prohibited under the partial asbestos ban recently passed by the Senate. (See Supporters Claim Watered Down Asbestos Bill, posted 11/6/07). But other products, including the CSI fingerprint kit, exceeded that level, coming in at 5% asbestos. The highest level of asbestos (30%) was found to be contained in a roof sealer. According to Dr. Arthur Frank, co-chairman of the ADAO's science advisory board, any amount of asbestos, even 1%, is harmful. Dr. Michael Harbut, an international authority on asbestos-related diseases called the 1% exemption a government-provided "get out of jail free card" for companies profitting from the "asbestos-related deaths of Americans who wrongly believed these types of products are safe."

According to the ADAO, the laboratories also found asbestos in six colors of clay contained in the Art Skills' Clay bucket, Ja-Ru Toy Clay, Scotch High Performance Duct Tape and its All Weather Duct Tape, DAP Crack Shot Spackling Past and Dap's 33 Window Glazing, Gardner Leak Stopper, as well as in hair rollers, hot plates and other small appliances. Several of the manufacturers, including 3M and DAP have responded to the ADAO's findings, and maintain that there is no asbestos contained in their products.

Click here to learn more. For the ADAO press release, click here.

Noted Australian asbestos activist, Bernie Banton, succumbed to mesothelioma yesterday, at the age of 61. Mr. Banton died peacefully in his sleep early Tuesday morning, at his home in Australia, surrounded by his family. Banton had been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in August of this year. Prior to that he battled asbestosis. Both conditions were caused by his previous exposure to asbestos while an employee at a James Hardie plant during the 1960's and 70's.

Mr. Banton will most be remembered as a champion of the rights of asbestos victims. Over the years, Banton became a public figure, synonymous with the fight for compensation for victims of asbestos-related diseases, a battle he waged until his last breath. He won his own individual claim for asbestosis in 2000 and filed an unprecedented and much-publicized second claim against James Hardie after being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma this year. That claim reached a settlement just recently, with Banton giving evidence from his hospital bed. Banton is most noted for his prominent role in forcing James Hardie to establish a second asbestos compensation trust after it was discovered in 2004 that the original Hardie trust was underfunded and would be depleted this year. He has also been recognized for his latest efforts as lobbyist, successfully petitioning for funding for an asbestos research institute and for government subsidization of the mesothelioma drug Alimta. Mr. Banton is survived by his wife Karen, five children and 11 grandchildren.

In a study published in the November issue of The Oncologist, Italian researchers reported that CT screening of persons exposed to asbestos is useful for the detection of early lung cancer. The study, which took place between February 2002 and October 2003, evaluated the feasibility of using low-dose computed tomography (CT) for the early diagnosis of lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma in an asbestos-exposed population. Study participants consisted of 1,045 volunteers already enrolled in a surveillance program for asbestos-exposed workers and former workers, age 40-75, with no prior cancer and no chest CT in the prior two years. The median asbestos exposure time was 30 years, median age 58 years old. Sixty-six percent of participants were smokers with a median of 18.5 pack years; thirty-four percent had never smoked. Participants were given chest x-rays and low-dose CT scans.

The results of the CT scans were compared to routine chest x-rays: 834 non-calcified nodules were detected in 44% of participants on initial CT compared to 43 nodules in 4% of participants by chest x-ray; 9 cases of lung cancer were detected by CT and none by chest x-ray; 8 lung cancers were Stage I and one was Stage IIA, and all were treated with surgery; one person had a thymic carcinoid detected by CT. There were 11 false positive results. No cases of mesothelioma were detected in the study. Based on the study, the researchers concluded that low-dose CT may be at least useful in asbestos workers as in heavy smokers for the early diagnosis of lung cancer, even in high-risk populations with low rates of smoking prevalence. The role of spiral tomography in screening for pleural mesothelioma still remains uncertain.

An article published in Sunday's Duluth News Tribune reported that several environmental groups, joined by attorneys general in Minnesota and Wisconsin have filed documents in federal district court opposing the Northshore Mining Co.'s motion to lower the standard for asbestos-like fibers in the air near the company's Silver Bay taconite plant. The court-ordered standard, set in 1974, requires Northshore, formerly known as the Reserve Mining Co., to keep airborne fibers near the plant along Lake Superior, at or below the average level of fibers in St. Paul air. The St. Paul comparison was developed because no human health standard had been set determining how many taconite dust fibers are safe to breathe.

Last year the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and state courts refused to drop the fiber comparison requirement, prompting Northshore to seek federal court intervention. In support of its position, Northshore claims that the St. Paul comparison is outdated and that the fibers pose no human health risk because the taconite it mines and processes doesn't contain any asbestos. It further contends that dropping the standard won't result in increased airborne fibers but would end an unfair comparison to constantly fluctuating St. Paul fiber levels. Those in favor of keeping the standard argue that Northshore's motion is merely a means to combat efforts to reduce Northshore's "excessive asbestos fiber emissions", citing recent reports from the Minnesota Department of Health showing unusually high levels of mesothelioma lung cancer in Minnesota's Iron Range region. Although scientific data has thus far been inconclusive, some researchers, activists and state officials claim that the amphibole mineral fibers found in taconite dust is close enough to asbestos to cause concern. (See University of Minn. to Study Link Between Taconite Mining and Mesothelioma, posted 8/10/07). A hearing on the matter is scheduled to take place in federal district court in St. Paul on Thursday.

Bernie Banton, well-known for tirelessly championing the cause of Australian asbestos victims, has reached a settlement with his former employer, James Hardie Industries. Banton contracted the lung-scarring disease asbestosis from working in a Hardie asbestos insulation plant in the 1960's and 70's for which he received an $800,000 payout in 2000. Earlier this year, Banton was diagnosed with the deadly asbestos-related disease mesothelioma. He promptly filed a second claim for compensation with the New South Wales Dust Diseases Tribunal, a division of the Supreme Court, accusing Hardie of knowingly exposing its workers to unsafe levels of asbestos dust. The parties reached a confidential settlement on Thursday, just hours before several prominent witnesses were to give evidence on Banton's behalf. The victory is bittersweet, however, as the 61 year old Banton is currently hospitalized, dying from peritoneal (abdominal) mesothelioma.

Banton's claim had been considered a test case as it was the first case against Hardie to seek financial compensation as well as exemplary damages which would punish Hardie for knowingly exposing its workers to potentially fatal levels of asbestos dust. Lawyers for Hardie argued unsuccessfully for the DDT to deny Banton's exemplary damages claim on the ground that while he was entitled to make a fresh claim for economic loss, he could not raise exemplary damages again. According to Judge John O'Meally, Banton was the first plaintiff to return to the tribunal with a second suit. In addition to seeking compensatory and exemplary damages, Banton also sought aggravated damages for the stress he endured during his successful fight to force Hardie to pay billions of dollars to future victims of its asbestos building materials.

Ironically, Banton's settlement will come out of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund, the very trust that Banton was instrumental in helping set up. In 2004 when it was discovered that the original trust the company had set up to compensate asbestos victims was likely to run out of money this year, Banton waged a public battle to establish a new trust which James Hardie finally set up in February 2007. Having been successful in that respect, Banton then turned his attention to lobbying the Australian government to fund a research institute for asbestos diseases at Sydney's Concord Hospital, and to subsidize the mesothlioma drug Alimta. He was successful on both counts.