The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation is once again issuing the call for all Meso Warriors to gather at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City on Monday, September 26, for Mesothelioma Awareness Day. You are encouraged to bring signs, banners, ribbons or any other items to help draw the attention of the Today Show cast and crew during the show’s morning broadcast. Perhaps the most popular morning show in the country, a highlight of the Today Show is a look at the people who gather outside from throughout the country. This is a great opportunity to bring the message about mesothelioma to millions of TV viewers! (more…)

Earlier this month, in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, The Lancet published a study of cancer risk in New York City firefighters who were first responders to Ground Zero at the World Trade Center (WTC). The study, conducted seven years after the attacks, was both the “first firefighter study on the effects of 9/11 and cancer, but it is also the largest firefighter cancer study ever done,” according to Dr. David J. Prezant, Chief Medical Officer at the NYFD and the lead author of the study. (more…)

In the wake of several new studies that indicate an increased risk of cancer among firefighters and others exposed to toxins at the World Trade Center site during 9/11, there is an outcry to include cancer among the conditions eligible for coverage by the James Zagroda 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. (more…)

Research conducted by the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and published by The Lancet, provides evidence of an increased risk for cancers of all types among firefighters who were first responders on 9/11. The findings were released on Sept. 3, as American began to reflect on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. This particular study focused on rescue workers who responded to the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. (more…)

A study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine reveals that Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS) workers who responded to the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center have suffered significant, persistent declines in lung functions. According to the report, exposure to World Trade Center dust created when the towers collapsed led to “large declines” in lung functions for FDNY rescue workers during the first year, and that “the declines were persistent, without recovery over the next 6 years, leaving a substantial proportion of workers with abnormal lung function.”

The study included 12,781 workers who were present at the WTC site between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 24, 2001, which is 91.6 percent of the workers that were present. The report notes that the event exposed the workers – as well as those living and working in the surrounding area – to a dense cloud of pulverized building materials and chemical byproducts, including pulverized glass and cement, insulation fibers including asbestos, and toxic chemicals.

According to a report in The New York Times that summarizes the study findings, this is the first study to document long-term harm in a large group of firefighters and emergency medical workers who worked at Ground Zero. All of the subjects of the study had had previous lung function tests, providing a baseline for the study.

The study was authored by Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer in the Office of Medical Affairs at the New York City Fire Department. The study was approved by the institutional review board at Montefiore Medical Center.

Results of the study revealed that firefighters, who had heavier exposure to dust by the nature of their work had greater first-year declines than EMS personnel, especially for firefighters who were present in the morning on 9/11, when the dust cloud was most intense after the buildings fell. However, researchers noted they were surprised to see “little or no recovery of average lung function during the 6-year follow-up period.” In fact, they noted continued decline in lung function among the study groups.

Normally, the study notes, “smoke inhalation during firefighting causes relatively mild and reversible respiratory impairment.” Additionally, according to the report, long-term effects of firefighting on pulmonary function also are normally mild.

The average loss of lung function for 9/11 rescue workers is about 10 percent. Most of the loss occurred within the first year after 9/11 exposure, with little or no subsequent recovery.

Thousands of workers injured at Ground Zero have been fighting for compensation from the City of New York. Last month about 10,000 plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement totaling $657.5 million, but a judge rejected the settlement shortly afterward, saying it did not provide enough compensation for the plaintiffs. The matter is now back in negotiations, and a new hearing is set for Monday, according to the Times.

A story published by the New York Times reports thousands of rescue and cleanup workers who were exposed to the toxic air at Ground Zero after the 9/11 tragedy at the World Trade Center have reached a settlement agreement with the city over damage to their health. According to the Times, the city has agreed to pay out up to $657.5 million to about 10,000 plaintiffs in the case.

The settlement agreement has been in the works for about two years, taking place among a great deal of confusion and disagreement about the city’s responsibility for injured workers. The city had claimed it was immune because injuries occurred during a national emergency or civil defense situation. However, injured workers and their families argued they were employed by the city and entitled to compensation as they would be for any injury incurred on the job.

According to the Times report, 95 percent of the plaintiffs in this case must accept the terms of the settlement for it to take effect. Each plaintiff’s case will then be examined individually to determine how much compensation that person will receive, which lawyers estimate could run anywhere from a few thousand dollars to as much as $1 million. Individual compensation will depend on the severity of illness and level of exposure to contaminants at the World Trade Center site.

A variety of health screening and tracking programs were established in the days and months following the September 11 tragedy. Workers and others who simply lived and worked near the disaster site began complaining of a variety of illnesses, especially respiratory problems. There is an official World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, as well as studies conducted by the New York Fire Department and other organizations.

Some health problems presented immediately following exposure to the site, such as respiratory distress, while others are only just showing up in those who worked at the site. It is now known that the Ground Zero site was contaminated with asbestos at levels at least two times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s “safe” level. Because of the long latency period between exposure to asbestos and the development of mesothelioma – an average of between 10 and 50 years – the true effect of asbestos exposure may not be known for years to come.

Some of the plaintiffs involved in the current settlement are not yet ill, but fear they will develop illnesses in the future as a result of their exposure to the toxins like asbestos. According to the Times, the settlement provides a $23.4 million insurance policy to cover possible future claims.

One of the many mesothelioma community members on Facebook posted a question today about a clinical trial being conducted at the Mesothelioma Center, located at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. MyMeso discussed this clinical trial in a July post. The clinical trial is a program of targeted radiation and chemotherapy protocol for pleural mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the lung’s lining almost always caused by asbestos. In response to the Facebook thread, meso survivor and awareness advocate (read: warrior) Debbie Brewer, who many of you know from her story and updates here (thanks Debbie!), mentioned a similar study currently ongoing in Australia.

Debbie provided a link to a story published in November 2009 by ABC News that outlines the work of specialists at Austin Health Centre in Victoria. The treatment, spearheaded by Dr. Malcolm Feigen, a radiation oncologist at the Centre, uses high doses of radiotherapy, concentrated on specific areas of the lining of the lungs to target mesothelioma tumors.

According to the ABC report, 13 patients participated in a pilot program to test this new targeted radiotherapy treatment. Most had some surgery prior to the radiotherapy treatment, and some also had chemotherapy before or after the treatment, although Dr. Feigen believes the patients showed the most benefit primarily as a result of the radiotherapy regimen.

Participants in the U.S. clinical trial at the Mesothelioma Center receive a multi-modality therapy that incorporates surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy in combination.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Feigen about the Australian research, which was broadcast on ABC’s AM morning current affairs program.

A December report by the New York Times revealed that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) has inserted language into the government’s proposed health care legislation that would provide coverage specifically for people exposed to asbestos in Libby, Montana. According to the report, language in the bill would expand Medicare coverage to vicitims of “environmental health hazards.”

According to the Times, the language is even more precise, calling for coverage for “individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration issued by the fedearl government on June 17.” This declaration and date, of course, coincides with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of Libby as a Public Health Emergency area.

The Times quotes Baucus as saying the language is not only intended for the people of Libby, but for anyone in the future whose town is affected by a similar tragedy that affects the health and well-being of its people. He said the legislation would provide a safety net to “help people when they need it most.”

Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed their versions of the health care reform bill last year. It is now up to the 111th Congress as a whole to reconcile the two bills so that they may be presented to President Obama for his signature.

Congressional leaders say they hope to accomplish this by the end of January.

Today, millions of Americans turned their thoughts to where they were and what they were doing on this date eight years ago, when they heard of the terrorist strike on the World Trade Center in New York City. They mourn for loved ones lost in the attacks, and gather their resolve to pull together as a nation as we did in the days following the attacks. But for many, the horror, the fear and the dying continues. For the brave first responders, who arrived while the buildings burned and stayed through their collapse and through the heartbreaking months that followed during cleanup, the disaster has created lingering illness, debilitating respiratory diseases and cancers including mesothelioma.

A CBS News investigative report spoke with individuals and families coping with this second disaster, a disaster that robs them and their loved ones of health and quality of life. Rescue workers, very few wearing any type of special gear, toiled day after day in dusty clouds of toxins including asbestos, jet fuel, mercury, lead and pulverized cement and glass. According to the CBS News report, health officials say such multi-chemical exposure as these workers experienced is “unprecedented.”

A variety of health screening and tracking programs were established in the days and months following 9/11/2001, when workers and even people who simply lived and worked near the disaster site began complaining of a variety of illnesses, particularly respiratory distress. To date, according to the CBS report, about 43,000 people have been physically screened for 9/11-related health issues, 28,000 are participating in the official World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, and an additional 18,000 people in a similar program operated by the New York Fire Department.

Many 9/11 responders are angry, saying they have to wade through mounds of regulations, restrictions and other roadblocks to fight for access to care and compensation. Many who die are not classified as technically having died “in the line of duty,” and their families are denied those benefits.

Physicians say it is difficult to definitively link health conditions to 9/11 exposures because of the wide variety of toxins present on the site, and the varying levels of exposure among workers to amounts and types of chemicals and other substances. Some trouble signs presented immediately, such as respiratory distress, while others, such as immune system cancer multiple myeloma, and colon cancer, are now showing up in responders age 45 and younger.

Some diseases could take even longer to develop. Mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, abdomen and/or heart, is a result of asbestos exposure. It is now known that the 9/11 site was contaminated with asbestos at levels at least two times higher then the EPA’s “safe” level. The latency period for mesothelioma averages between 10 and 50 years, so the effect of this asbestos exposure may not be known for years to come.

How tragic that one of the most tragic days in recent American history should be borne the hardest by those who were bravest, those who dedicated their lives to caring for their fellow man, who rushed into the danger zone while others rushed away. My heart goes out to these brave souls, and I pray that they are not forgotten.

There is a link below to the comprehensive CBS News report about this. There is a wealth of information at this site, including video interviews with 9/11 responders, medical reports about 9/11 health issues, and links to resources and information about World Trade Center responder health programs and studies. I urge you to add a comment at the CBS web site voicing your support for more programs to help these brave folks.

Source: CBS News

I’ve posted about several mesothelioma fund-raising and awareness events during the past month, happening in places like Texas, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. Activities have ranged from bike rides to walks and even a bowl-a-thon. Proceeds from these events have gone toward mesothelioma research, through the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF), or will benefit an individual, like Shanna Kurtz, in her personal battle against mesothelioma.

Today I heard from two people who are looking for ways to help raise awareness of mesothelioma and funds for research. One lives in California and the other in New York. If you know of any events in these areas in the coming weeks, please email us at myMeso – you can just click that green “Contact Us!” button on the home page, or you can email me directly at wendi.lewis@beasleyallen.com.

Also, if you send us information about an event, please include information about where the proceeds will go (either to an individual or an organization) and let us know how people can donate even if they cannot attend the event. Many people in the meso community will still want to help, even if they aren’t able to travel to your area to participate.

I look forward to helping you get the word out about your mesothelioma awareness event!