mesothelioma

The road toward eliminating the threat of asbestos has been long, slow-moving, incredibly frustrating and littered with significant hurdles. Thankfully, advocates like Linda Reinstein, who lost her husband to asbestos-related disease in 2003, refuse to get discouraged. As co-founder and CEO of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), Reinstein works to unite those who’ve been personally impacted by asbestos-related illness, raise awareness about the continuing threat of asbestos, and advocate for policies that reduce exposures among workers, their families and the public.…
Standing in her wedding gown, Courtney Davis held this sign: "Message2Congress: If you had banned asbestos, maybe my dad would have been here to give me away." Her father, Larry W. Davis, 66, died in July 2012 of pleural mesothelioma---a cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Stephanie Harper was a daddy's girl. She told reporter David McCumber, her father was a jack of all trades--repairing vehicles, fixing HVAC--and when he came home at night, "I'd sit on his feet and grab his pants leg." The 37 year-old mother from Texas now suffers from mesothelioma and agonizing pain that goes along with it…
The long-time residents of Iron County, Wisconsin who make up the Iron County Joint Impacts Mining Committee say the open-pit iron mine planned for the Penokee Hills of northern Wisconsin – a range that extends into Michigan where it’s known as the Gogebic Range – will bring much needed good jobs and economic development. Such jobs, the committee told a group of visiting journalists in August, have been lacking since the last Wisconsin iron mines in the area closed in the early and mid-1960s. The jobs the mine would bring are the type needed to keep local communities’ young people from moving…
When Debbie "Muvmuv" Brewer was diagnosed in 2006 with pleural mesothelioma, it was a tough year.  She'd also lost her beloved Dad, Phillip Northmore, who succumbed to his own asbestos-related disease.  After meeting Muvmuv a few weeks ago at the 8th Annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference, I wrote that she named the tumor inside her chest wall "Theo,” and she was hoping that he would remain dormant. Muvmuv, a native of Plymouth UK, was due to undergo a CT scan: “to find out if Theo had moved at all, or if he has been a typical lazy man and sat on the sofa watching TV.  He must be…
[Update below, June 2013] Phillip Northmore worked for the UK's Ministry of Defense in Plymouth, England from 1963 to 1966. His job as a lagger meant he spent his day repairing and applying asbestos insulation around pipes and ductwork in the bowels of buildings. His wife recalled him coming home from work covered in dust. It would take three washings to get his work clothes clean because the water would turn white from the thick dust. Debbie "Muvmuv" Brewer is Phillip Northmore's eldest daughter. She was a pre-schooler when her dad worked as a lagger. Four decades later in 2006, Northmore…
The late Steve McQueen---the King of Cool---will be honored later this year by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) with its "Keep Me in Your Heart" memorial tribute award. McQueen starred in dozens of films including the The Great Escape (1963), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), and Papillon (1973). He died in November 1980 after being diagnosed a year earlier with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. His wife, Barbara Minty McQueen, will accept the award on her late husband's behalf at ADAO's annual conference scheduled for March 30…
[Update 12/15/11 below] It's been 3 1/2 years since Leah Nielsen lost her father from mesothelioma. "I took care of my father as he died an excruciating death. He died too young." This Utah resident wants to protect others from suffering the same kind of horrible death by banning the use and export of asbestos. Pennsylania resident Barbara Mozuch feels the same way: "My mother died on June 18, 2011 from peritoneal mesothelioma, just seven weeks after being diagnosed!! Something needs to be done." Heidi von Palleske of Ontario, Canada explains how asbestos ruined the health and took…