Indirect Exposure to Asbestos Is Still Risky for Sheet Metal Workers
Sheet metal workers rarely handle asbestos directly, but they remain seven times more likely to die from mesothelioma – the rare cancer caused by it – than the general population, a recent study shows. The findings published earlier this year in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reiterated the long-held but increasingly-debated belief that even indirect exposure to toxic asbestos remains a serious threat, long after its use as a building material was reduced dramatically in the U.S. "The most important thing to take from this study is that you didn't have to work with asbestos directly to be in danger," Dr. L...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - March 24, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tim Povtak Tags: Research & Clinical Trials Source Type: news

Senate Bill Aims to Create Online Database of Asbestos Products
Despite the almost 10,000 lives a year claimed by asbestos-related diseases in the U.S., products legally containing asbestos continue to pass through our country’s borders. Legislation introduced this week will make public where these products are ending up. U.S. senators Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sponsored the Reducing Exposure to Asbestos Database (READ) Act to amend the Asbestos Information Act of 1988 by establishing a public database of asbestos-containing products. “The Reducing Exposure to Asbestos Database (READ) Act will modernize the reporting requirements of the Asbestos Inform...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - March 17, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Tags: Legislation, Laws & Litigation Source Type: news

James Hardie Proposes Compensating Asbestos Victims in Installments
Asbestos victims who filed claims against James Hardie Industries, an Australian building materials company, may never live to see their legal compensation if a court approves the manufacturer's plan to pay claimants in installments, and not the traditional lump-sum payments. The reason for the installment plan: Hardie's Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund is headed toward a $184 million cash shortfall in 2017 because of a spike in mesothelioma claims. If the Supreme Court of New South Wales (NSW) grants approval, the installment plan will take effect July 1. Advocates for those affected by mesothelioma are outraged by the...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 22, 2015 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Lorraine Kember Tags: Legislation, Laws & Litigation Source Type: news

Asbestos Found on Rottnest Island Angers Activists, Medical Community
The discovery of asbestos near vacation bungalows on Rottnest Island, an idyllic Western Australian tourist destination, and the local government's claim that the substance is "low risk" has raised red flags among activists, members of the medical community and other lawmakers. Dr. Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Association (WA), said Rottnest Island authorities downplayed the severity of the asbestos health threat. "It's not zero risk, and it's time for the Rottnest Island Authority to have a look at this accommodation and try to make it zero risk," media reports show. President of the Asbestos Diseas...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - December 19, 2014 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Lorraine Kember Tags: Asbestos Exposure & Bans Source Type: news

Australian Government Will Compensate Residents of Mr. Fluffy Homes
In a landmark decision, the Commonwealth of Australia has offered the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) a concessional loan of $1 billion to mitigate the catastrophic aftermath caused by the notorious Mr. Fluffy insulation product that contained deadly asbestos. The Mr. Fluffy insulation company pumped loose-filled asbestos into the roofing spaces of more than 1,000 homes across the ACT during the 1970s. The company marketed the product as "Asbestosfluf" because of its fluffy appearance. A 1980s government-funded cleanup operation failed to completely remove the asbestos product from those homes in Canberra. Officials in...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - November 20, 2014 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Lorraine Kember Tags: Asbestos Exposure & Bans Source Type: news

Deadly Mr. Fluffy Asbestos Products Are Still Affecting Australians
Despite a national cleanup effort two decades ago to eliminate the notorious Mr. Fluffy-brand asbestos products from homes in Australia, new evidence shows more than a thousand of those homes still are toxic. Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government officials recently discovered that homes in Canberra, previously deemed safe after asbestos removal programs in the 1980s, still contained asbestos fibers in the walls, under the houses and inside living spaces. Exposure to asbestos is linked to the development of mesothelioma and other serious and potentially fatal respiratory diseases and cancers. Residents of other hom...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - August 29, 2014 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Lorraine Kember Tags: Asbestos Exposure & Bans Source Type: news

The perovskite lightbulb moment for solar power
Cheap, abundant solar power from Britain's grey skies? Don't mock, this is one dream that could soon be a realityThe worst part of my job as a materials scientist is going to conferences. They are often turgid affairs conducted in the ballrooms of hotels so identical to one another that you can't tell whether you are in Singapore or Manchester. The same speakers are there, for the most part droning on about the same thing they droned on about at the last conference. I should know, I am one of them.But occasionally, just occasionally, someone says something so radically new that it causes you sit up and actually listen. You...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 2, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Mark Miodownik Tags: Energy Solar power Environment Technology Science Materials and mineral engineering The Observer Features Source Type: news

Flood defences: George Osborne tackled yesterday's crisis at the cost of today's | Chris Huhne
The chancellor's flood defence cuts were driven by deficit reduction. But we can't continue learning by drowningThere is no excuse. In 2010 the coalition slashed spending on flood defences when it should have gone up. Even last year's increase in flood defence spending was under duress. The insurers, some of the most enlightened big businesses on this issue, have repeatedly warned about the rising claims and losses from climate change-induced extreme weather.A confidential deal struck last June, ahead of the spending review, increased flood defence spending as a payback for the insurance companies continuing to provide cov...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Chris Huhne Tags: Comment The Guardian George Osborne Flooding Society Public sector cuts Climate change Politics UK news Conservatives Environment Science Comment is free Source Type: news

Rwanda: Hazardous Asbestos Still On Many Houses
[Focus]While asbestos has been labeled by Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) as a hazardous material, even some government institutions are still housed in building which have it in their roofing sheets.
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - September 13, 2013 Category: African Health Source Type: news

Occupational safety beliefs among Latino residential roofing workers - Arcury TA, Summers P, Carrillo L, Grzywacz JG, Quandt SA, Mills TH.
BACKGROUND: This analysis describes beliefs about work safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) among Latino roofing workers, it delineates their perceptions of work environment characteristics that affect work safety and PPE use, and it describes ho...
Source: SafetyLit: All (Unduplicated) - September 8, 2013 Category: Global & Universal Tags: Occupational Issues Source Type: news

Flame retardancy of bitumen: A calorimetry study - Bourbigot S, Cerin O, Duquesne S, Clavel N.
The article investigates the flame retardancy of bitumen for roofing applications using the mass loss calorimeter. Screening of the solid flame retardants, including expandable graphite, boron-based compounds, and silsesquioxanes, shows that they can provi...
Source: SafetyLit: All (Unduplicated) - August 20, 2013 Category: Global & Universal Tags: Burns, Electricity, Explosions, Fire, Scalds Source Type: news

Uganda: Rid Schools of Asbestos Roofs, Govt Told
[New Vision]Parliament has ordered the government to phase out the use of Asbestos sheets as roofing materials in all schools and technical colleges to avert the health and safety hazards associated with its usage.
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - February 20, 2013 Category: African Health Source Type: news

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