24th August 2009
Early detection of cancer by studying the protein mesothelin
Oxford - Scientists at the University of Oxford, according to information have a more sensitive test for asbestos mesothelioma develops. This form of cancer occurs long after asbestos exposure. The life expectancy of patients is usually short. The new test analyzes the values of a protein that is closely associated with cancer in the fluids around the lungs. Details of the study were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Affected mainly artisans
Mesothelioma tumors are deadly on the surface of the lung. Although relatively rare, they are treated because of their position and their limited response to chemotherapy difficult. The disease also occurs in people who have never come into contact with asbestos. The inhalation of asbestos dust appears to be an important risk factor. Most importantly, always craftsmen such as carpenters, plumbers and electricians involved. Since it can take decades to a disease outbreak, experts expect according to the BBC that the number of cases in the UK with around 2,200 in 2013 will reach record levels. Laws prohibit the industrialized countries the occupational exposure to asbestos. In developing countries there are no such restrictions.
The scientists focused on ways to determine the cause of mesothelioma, pleural effusions. It is the accumulation of fluid in the pleural space between the pleura and pleura. Currently one of the pleural fluid cytology is performed, a laboratory test for cancerous cells examined.
Early detection through examination of the protein mesothelin
The team from the University of Oxford, however, considers this test is not very sensitive. Members of the team worked with the pleural fluid samples from more than 200 patients who were referred to a specialist clinic. They examined the levels of mesothelin protein that is released in most patients with mesothelioma in large quantities in the pleural fluid. It was found that the protein levels were so high in cancer patients almost six times as secondary lung cancer and ten times as high as in those with early disease. The scientist Helen Davies said that this was an opportunity to show how the beginning of mesothelioma can be detected in easily. Since most patients, only approximately twelve months to live, every day is precious.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
Even as we dispose of old asbestos is installed new
Ulla Brauer
The search for clues to the toxic fiber has old Inge Meier led the way to Canada and China. Furthermore, the author tells in the interview and also explains what consumers should look. Asbestos is actually almost disappeared from the headlines and appeared only now and then again when a public building must be renovated. Why do you make a film about this material? How did you get the theme?
Old Inge Meier with a thermos flask in China
Old Inge Meier: When me an occupational physician awareness about asbestos did, I was skeptical at first. After all, it is a poison from the past, with whom I have nothing more to do.
In what kind of buildings can be found today mainly asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: In all the houses with asbestos roofs and in many public buildings were built between 1960 and 1990. In addition, asbestos in power plants and factories, as a fire protection material was used.
Are all gradually restored?
Old Inge Meier: As an example, in our film serves Erperl the elementary school. It was renovated back in the '80s asbestos, but asbestos was found again now. Asbestos is only taken from the buildings, if rehabilitated must be anyway, with tightly bound asbestos, it is left in the houses.
Asbestosis is not recognized as an occupational disease? Protect the workers who perform such asbestos abatement or adequately reduces the risk still underrated?
Old Inge Meier: Asbestosis is recognized as an occupational disease, but many people who renovate their homes to protect themselves is not.
Asbestos is banned in Germany since 1993. In your document, you indicate that the carcinogenic material once again got here. In what form?
Old Inge Meier: Asbestos comes in thermos flasks and seal rings from China to Germany. These products are used by the Task Force of the Bavarian consumer protection have been found. Experts believe that it is also contained in other products because it is not illegal in China. Due to a special permit, Dow Chemical Stade near Hamburg imported from white asbestos from Canada.
How can that be?
Old Inge Meier: The global trade is not controllable, asbestos is not banned in China. Any attempts to enforce a worldwide ban on trade have failed so far to the Canadians. France has set as asbestos on the list of banned substances in the global World Trade Organization, the Canadians complained successfully.
Who is responsible for ensuring that asbestos gets back to Germany?
Old Inge Meier: There is a European exemption that authorizes the import of asbestos, because there are no appropriate alternatives to chemical factories. In Germany, this exception is granted by the Federal Environment Ministry generous. Especially since the Canadian white asbestos were renamed in chrysotile. Dow Chemical, for example, it threatens to close the plant in Stade, if there is no approval for the asbestos is more, given that modernization would be too expensive.
Are primarily responsible for the asbestos lobby the Canadian government, which largely prohibits asbestos in Canada, but supports the trade. And then there are unscrupulous dealers who even after they should destroy with asbestos-contaminated products, they simply sell.
You have followed the traces of asbestos. Where would you have done the search and what have you found it?
Old Inge Meier: My search for clues began in Germany when I learned that the letter carrier in Hesse had received from their employer for Christmas gift thermos flasks with asbestos. These pitchers am I then followed through Shanghai to the Himalayas, where the asbestos is mined in China. My second track began in the port of Hamburg: A test institute told me that is repeatedly found asbestos in the containers in Hamburg port. The containers come from Canada. This trail led me to Canada in the city of Asbestos and then to Dow Chemical. So I learned of the asbestos-legal import. And another important trace came from Prof. Dr. Andrea Tannapfel from BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil in Bochum. She told me that more and more young women suffer asbestos-related cancer.
Exactly how far we are in a trap?
Old Inge Meier: There are too few controls and no penalties for dealers. And even as we dispose of asbestos-old, is new again blocked.
Are there any alternatives to asbestos - in construction and as insulation for thermos flasks, for example?
Old Inge Meier: Of course there are alternatives, but are more expensive. In thermoses, one can dispense with the glass jug and buy cans of stainless steel without glass bulbs.
"Each of inhaled asbestos fibers can be fatal," it says in your film. However, you have been persuaded for the shooting, working in a Canadian asbestos factory without respirators. Why?
Old Inge Meier: I work for public television. My job is to inform the audience as balanced as possible. The mine manager put me under pressure and always claimed, Canadian white asbestos is safe, I just could not imagine that he is so insidious. As an investigative journalist, I relive it again and again that companies complain, or threaten legal action, because we say something wrong or said they did not have enough opportunities to comment. It's my duty of care to exclude such a thing possible.
It turned out later that their clothes were contaminated with asbestos. What did you do that?
Old Inge Meier: We have dug out the nearest supermarket plastic bags and packed the pants and shoes fixed. Then we have them in Hamburg, where to test and now they are on the hazardous waste. This story has changed our whole movie, actually I'm probably not in the picture, but now I'm part of the film.
What objects of our everyday lives are burdened with asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: thermos bottles and part of the sealing rings from the hardware store. But even in toasters, hair dryers and in the heating can put asbestos. This should be strictly controlled, since these products are indeed all of China. China is the world's largest consumers of asbestos.
How to work with consumers?
Old Inge Meier: Wear a dust mask renovating best, especially in the bathroom because asbestos is sitting behind the tiles. If a flask is broken, sweep only with masks together and give thermos flask with the waste.
Is it possible to somehow defend against further use of asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: The Federal Environment Ministry, to be put under pressure to grant an exemption more. The federal government must act on the Canadians. On suspicion of asbestos, you should immediately return the goods to the dealer.
The search for clues to the toxic fiber has old Inge Meier led the way to Canada and China. Furthermore, the author tells in the interview and also explains what consumers should look. Asbestos is actually almost disappeared from the headlines and appeared only now and then again when a public building must be renovated. Why do you make a film about this material? How did you get the theme?
Old Inge Meier with a thermos flask in China
Old Inge Meier: When me an occupational physician awareness about asbestos did, I was skeptical at first. After all, it is a poison from the past, with whom I have nothing more to do.
In what kind of buildings can be found today mainly asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: In all the houses with asbestos roofs and in many public buildings were built between 1960 and 1990. In addition, asbestos in power plants and factories, as a fire protection material was used.
Are all gradually restored?
Old Inge Meier: As an example, in our film serves Erperl the elementary school. It was renovated back in the '80s asbestos, but asbestos was found again now. Asbestos is only taken from the buildings, if rehabilitated must be anyway, with tightly bound asbestos, it is left in the houses.
Asbestosis is not recognized as an occupational disease? Protect the workers who perform such asbestos abatement or adequately reduces the risk still underrated?
Old Inge Meier: Asbestosis is recognized as an occupational disease, but many people who renovate their homes to protect themselves is not.
Asbestos is banned in Germany since 1993. In your document, you indicate that the carcinogenic material once again got here. In what form?
Old Inge Meier: Asbestos comes in thermos flasks and seal rings from China to Germany. These products are used by the Task Force of the Bavarian consumer protection have been found. Experts believe that it is also contained in other products because it is not illegal in China. Due to a special permit, Dow Chemical Stade near Hamburg imported from white asbestos from Canada.
How can that be?
Old Inge Meier: The global trade is not controllable, asbestos is not banned in China. Any attempts to enforce a worldwide ban on trade have failed so far to the Canadians. France has set as asbestos on the list of banned substances in the global World Trade Organization, the Canadians complained successfully.
Who is responsible for ensuring that asbestos gets back to Germany?
Old Inge Meier: There is a European exemption that authorizes the import of asbestos, because there are no appropriate alternatives to chemical factories. In Germany, this exception is granted by the Federal Environment Ministry generous. Especially since the Canadian white asbestos were renamed in chrysotile. Dow Chemical, for example, it threatens to close the plant in Stade, if there is no approval for the asbestos is more, given that modernization would be too expensive.
Are primarily responsible for the asbestos lobby the Canadian government, which largely prohibits asbestos in Canada, but supports the trade. And then there are unscrupulous dealers who even after they should destroy with asbestos-contaminated products, they simply sell.
You have followed the traces of asbestos. Where would you have done the search and what have you found it?
Old Inge Meier: My search for clues began in Germany when I learned that the letter carrier in Hesse had received from their employer for Christmas gift thermos flasks with asbestos. These pitchers am I then followed through Shanghai to the Himalayas, where the asbestos is mined in China. My second track began in the port of Hamburg: A test institute told me that is repeatedly found asbestos in the containers in Hamburg port. The containers come from Canada. This trail led me to Canada in the city of Asbestos and then to Dow Chemical. So I learned of the asbestos-legal import. And another important trace came from Prof. Dr. Andrea Tannapfel from BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil in Bochum. She told me that more and more young women suffer asbestos-related cancer.
Exactly how far we are in a trap?
Old Inge Meier: There are too few controls and no penalties for dealers. And even as we dispose of asbestos-old, is new again blocked.
Are there any alternatives to asbestos - in construction and as insulation for thermos flasks, for example?
Old Inge Meier: Of course there are alternatives, but are more expensive. In thermoses, one can dispense with the glass jug and buy cans of stainless steel without glass bulbs.
"Each of inhaled asbestos fibers can be fatal," it says in your film. However, you have been persuaded for the shooting, working in a Canadian asbestos factory without respirators. Why?
Old Inge Meier: I work for public television. My job is to inform the audience as balanced as possible. The mine manager put me under pressure and always claimed, Canadian white asbestos is safe, I just could not imagine that he is so insidious. As an investigative journalist, I relive it again and again that companies complain, or threaten legal action, because we say something wrong or said they did not have enough opportunities to comment. It's my duty of care to exclude such a thing possible.
It turned out later that their clothes were contaminated with asbestos. What did you do that?
Old Inge Meier: We have dug out the nearest supermarket plastic bags and packed the pants and shoes fixed. Then we have them in Hamburg, where to test and now they are on the hazardous waste. This story has changed our whole movie, actually I'm probably not in the picture, but now I'm part of the film.
What objects of our everyday lives are burdened with asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: thermos bottles and part of the sealing rings from the hardware store. But even in toasters, hair dryers and in the heating can put asbestos. This should be strictly controlled, since these products are indeed all of China. China is the world's largest consumers of asbestos.
How to work with consumers?
Old Inge Meier: Wear a dust mask renovating best, especially in the bathroom because asbestos is sitting behind the tiles. If a flask is broken, sweep only with masks together and give thermos flask with the waste.
Is it possible to somehow defend against further use of asbestos?
Old Inge Meier: The Federal Environment Ministry, to be put under pressure to grant an exemption more. The federal government must act on the Canadians. On suspicion of asbestos, you should immediately return the goods to the dealer.
Setback in asbestos dispute
The Swedish-Swiss plant engineering company ABB has suffered in the dispute over the compensation of asbestos victims in the United States a major setback. The share accounted for a break double digits. Dormann, ABB's chief still believes in a comparison of "no additional cost."
Zurich - to years of litigation in American asbestos victim compensation in the electrical and engineering group ABB has suffered a surprising setback. A U.S. appeals court rejected a multi-billion dollar settlement proposal, as the Swiss-Swedish company said on Friday in Zurich. ABB's shares tumbled on Friday in the peak by about 13 percent, but was able to reduce their losses in the afternoon to around 3.60 percent.
"Surprised and disappointed": ABB CEO Jurgen Dormann
The case was remanded to a lower court. Previously, two other dishes as well as the overwhelming majority of the approximately 100 000 claimants had approved the proposed settlement. ABB had to settle claims for damages against its U.S. subsidiary Combustion Engineering (CE) 1.2 billion (€ 900 million) made available.
ABB's CEO Jurgen Dormann responded to the Court of Appeals decision "surprised and disappointed". He pointed out that the comparison was rejected only in certain parts and expressed confidence found in "a relatively short time and without significant additional costs" to a solution. The court criticized among other things, that other American ABB subsidiaries, namely, Lummus and Basic, should be protected from asbestos litigation. Dormann estimated the risk of further claims, however, is low.
The CE 1990 bought U.S. subsidiary had built up in the 1970s, the cancer-causing asbestos as insulation material in heating boilers. ABB had put the company in 2003 under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law under bankruptcy protection. The compensation of the victims to be paid out of the CE in assets of 812 million dollars. There are also $ 350 million in cash.
Zurich - to years of litigation in American asbestos victim compensation in the electrical and engineering group ABB has suffered a surprising setback. A U.S. appeals court rejected a multi-billion dollar settlement proposal, as the Swiss-Swedish company said on Friday in Zurich. ABB's shares tumbled on Friday in the peak by about 13 percent, but was able to reduce their losses in the afternoon to around 3.60 percent.
"Surprised and disappointed": ABB CEO Jurgen Dormann
The case was remanded to a lower court. Previously, two other dishes as well as the overwhelming majority of the approximately 100 000 claimants had approved the proposed settlement. ABB had to settle claims for damages against its U.S. subsidiary Combustion Engineering (CE) 1.2 billion (€ 900 million) made available.
ABB's CEO Jurgen Dormann responded to the Court of Appeals decision "surprised and disappointed". He pointed out that the comparison was rejected only in certain parts and expressed confidence found in "a relatively short time and without significant additional costs" to a solution. The court criticized among other things, that other American ABB subsidiaries, namely, Lummus and Basic, should be protected from asbestos litigation. Dormann estimated the risk of further claims, however, is low.
The CE 1990 bought U.S. subsidiary had built up in the 1970s, the cancer-causing asbestos as insulation material in heating boilers. ABB had put the company in 2003 under Chapter 11 of U.S. bankruptcy law under bankruptcy protection. The compensation of the victims to be paid out of the CE in assets of 812 million dollars. There are also $ 350 million in cash.
Friday, 18 November 2011
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