Bobby Lee Hayes, former Gautier Councilman passed away on Thursday, January 25, at his home in Gautier. He was 81. Jane Hayes, his wife, said that he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma six months back.

Bob was a longtime resident of Gautier, MS. He served as a past Gautier City Councilman for 4 years. This council established the Gautier Mullet Festival which completed its 16th run in October and drew thousands of festival-goers.

Bob was a 21 year veteran of the US Submarine Service having first served his country in WWII, aboard the submarine USS PLAICE SS-390. He completed his Naval career as Chief of the Boat on the USS Entemedor SS 340. Bob continued his career in shipbuilding at Ingalls-Sup Ships, Bender – New Orleans and Electric Boat – Groton, CT. He also helped establish the Tullibee Submarine Memorial in Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Vietnam Memorial Park grounds. Bob also worked as a Teacher’s Assistant for Gautier Elementary School for several years.

Those who knew him say former Gautier Councilman Bobby Lee Hayes lived his life defending the city and its people.

Jane Hayes married her late husband 23 years ago after meeting him at a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church in Gautier.

Jane Hayes said that although she knows he is remembered for his political activities, the work he did that made him so well-known was a sign of his love for people.

"If he felt like someone was right, he’d fight for them," Jane Hayes said.

Former councilman Ken Taylor remembered his role in establishing the Gautier Mullet Festival. "It was his idea, and it’s grown to become a big festival here," Taylor said.

Gautier Mayor Pete Pope, who was serving as sheriff while Hayes served on the council, described him as "proudly patriotic and a very energetic man."

"He was real outspoken on the council," Pope said.

Alice Cox, who met Hayes first in the 1970s as his neighbor in Seacliffe subdivision, described Hayes as someone who always butted heads with other council members, during and after his own term. However, People respected him, despite disagreeing with him because the debates never became ugly or turned into personal attacks.

He was diagnosed with cancer in August. Jane Hayes remember that doctors said Hayes was only expected to live 6 months after that. He underwent two chemotherapy sessions, but each one landed him in the hospital. The second visit required him to receive several blood transfusions.

Jane Hayes expressed her thanks to people from Vancleave Baptist Church who helped make his final weeks comfortable at home.

"He died at home, and that’s where he wanted to be," Jane Hayes said.

James Anderson, a former mold-maker at Owens-Illinois Glass in Alton filed a suit against 13 defendant corporations claiming asbestos exposure  caused his lung cancer.

James Anderson says that he worked at Owens from 1954 to 1993.

The defendants include A.W. Chesterton, John Crane, Goodyear, Owens-Illinois and Strange and Coleman Inc.

Anderson claims the defendants failed to exercise ordinary care and caution for his safety by including asbestos in their products even though it was completely foreseeable that people working with and around asbestos would inhale, ingest or otherwise absorb great amounts of asbestos.

He says that the defendants included asbestos in their products though they were aware of the fact that asbestos fibers would have a highly detrimental effect on the health of people absorbing them. They included asbestos in their products when adequate substitutes were available. They failed to provide any warnings to people working with or around asbestos and to conduct tests on asbestos-containing products in order to determine the hazards to workers, he said.

According to Anderson, the defendants deliberately or with a foolhardy disregard for his safety, included asbestos in their products when they knew or should have known that the asbestos fibers would have a toxic, poisonous and highly noxious effect upon his health. He also claims they failed to provide adequate warning to people working with and around the products of the dangers of inhaling, ingesting or otherwise absorbed fibers in them and failed to provide adequate instruction concerning the safe methods of working with and around asbestos products.

Anderson’s wife Doris also is seeking damages for the impact her husband’s illness has had on her life.

"Defendants thus grievously injured and damaged this plaintiff in those particulars of support, devotion, care, society and consortium which she formerly prior to the injury of James received and now, because of the injury has lost," the complaint states.

Represented by Barry Julian of Alton, the Andersons are seeking at least $250,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive and exemplary damages in excess of $100,000.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Daniel Stack.

According to West Somerset Coroner Michael Rose, Asbestos deaths have increased dramatically in Somerset in recent years. He said this at a hearing into the death of a former Royal Marine from Berrow.

Speaking at the inquest of 72-year-old Victor Deane, he revealed that asbestos-disease mesothelioma was virtually unheard of in the area 20 years ago, but he now deals with around 14 cases a year where it has proved fatal.

During the Taunton hearing, he disclosed that two Somerset sites are often the source of the poisoning and they are the former Royal Ordnance factory at Puriton, and Hinkley Point Power Station.

And although Mr Rose heard that Mr Deane had once been stationed in an asbestos mining town while serving with the Marines in Cyprus in 1955-56, he said he doubted that that had been the cause of Mr Deane’s death. Instead, it was suggested that a later career in oven manufacturing and an incident with a fire extinguisher may have been the cause.

Mr Deane’s best friend Giovanni Pooley recalled how he and Coast Road resident Mr Deane had lived in the Cyprus mining village of Troodos back in the 1950s.

He said: "In the summer, we were covered in white powder blowing from the mine. But I am not aware of any other Marine contracting mesothelioma."

Mr Pooley told that Mr Deane had used a fire extinguisher in 2004 to put out a small electrical fire in his home. He said that fire officers has told his friend the old type of extinguisher he had used was "effective, but lethal".

"The fire brigade were livid when Mr Deane used the same extinguisher again on a second fire", said Mr Pooley, "from that moment on, he started coughing". Mr Deane was diagnosed with mesothelioma two years ago.

In concluding, Mr Rose said the asbestos disease usually manifested itself within 30 years of exposure. For that reason, the coroner said he believed it was unlikely to have stemmed from Mr Deane’s days as a Marine. The coroner himself was a former Royal Navy officer.

Instead, Mr Deane’s time making ovens may have been a factor, perhaps accelerated by the fire extinguisher incidents, he suggested.

Mr Rose said: "In the Navy, it used to be engineers and stokers (who suffered from asbestos) but never anyone else, let alone Royal Marines."

"Your normally enjoy very good health and then suddenly, when it’s diagnosed, there’s usually a period of about 12 months."

"It may be that the fire extinguisher generated the disease. I cannot say when he contracted it."

Mr Rose recorded a verdict that Mr Deane died of an industrial disease.

An asbestos-related wrongful-death lawsuit makes its third turn through the Dallas County courts this year. The suit that blames Atlanta-based building materials manufacturer Georgia-Pacific for the 2003 death of a 41-year-old Dallas man, has already been heard twice in Dallas County.The much-criticized Judge Sally Montgomery has been removed from the case. In late December, the suit was moved into a new court and ordered for retrial.

Two previous verdicts awarded the family of the deceased Timothy Bostic $9.3 million and $13.6 million in separate trials. However, Georgia-Pacific’s successful motion for retrial and recusal means the Bostics will have to try their case yet again, this time in County Court At Law No. 1, under newly elected Democrat Judge D’Metria Benson.

"We are pleased that a new judge will now be handling the case," Georgia-Pacific chief counsel John Childs said in a company press release.

Timothy Bostic died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer which is caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. His family claims that he developed the disease as a result of his working on construction sites as a child with his father in the 1970’s. Mesothelioma has an extremely long incubation period. It can be up to 50 years. Construction work is one of the occupations most heavily linked with exposure to asbestos and the development of mesothelioma.

In 2005, the first verdict was overturned for a procedural error. The second verdict, reached in June 2006, was thrown out and ordered retried after Montgomery was ruled to have acted improperly when a key witness collapsed at the courthouse and later died.

The December mistrial motion was granted by Judge Russell H. Roden, but a new trial date has not yet been set.

Les Skramstad, the former mine worker who focussed attention on asbestos problem, died of an asbestos-related cancer Sunday, at 3AM. He was 70. He was one of the first to bring the plight of hundreds of Libbyans to the attention of local and state officials. A disastrous termination to a glorious life !

“He went to sleep and died very peacefully,” said Bonnie Goldsbury, Les’ niece. “They’ve been in preparation for this for so long, and it’s good the disease didn’t extend itself any more.”

Mr. Skramstad worked at the vermiculite mine from 1959 to 1962, before it was bought by the W.R. Grace Co. of Columbia in 1963. Skramstad had left the company before W.R. Grace bought it, but three years was long enough for him not only to develop the asbestos-related lung disease asbestosis, but also to spread it to his family.

It was earlier this month that Skramstad was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of asbestos-related cancer that usually affects the lining of the lungs. In Skramstad’s case, however, tumors invaded his stomach, and a weekly procedure to drain the cancerous fluid had become a necessary, and painful, rite of survival.

He received a diagnosis of asbestosis in 1996, and he began noticing that 130 of the men he worked with 35 years earlier were dying in a strangely similar manner. He tried without success to alert local and state authorities, and finally sued W.R. Grace. He won the first jury award in Libby against the company. Through his amazing charisma and sincerity, he became a key victims’ advocate for numerous people sickened from exposure to the asbestos particles.

Skramstad’s wife and two oldest children, Laurel and Brent, continue to suffer from the disease, which causes thick layers of scar tissue to develop on the lungs, making it impossible to take an easy breath.

Though Skramstad was able to accept his own diagnosis unwillingly, he could hardly bear the reality when Norita and his children were diagnosed with the same lethal disease.

“They were together forever,” Bonnie Goldsbury said. “Les and Norita were married for over 50 years. When you lose someone you’ve been with for three-quarters of your life, it’s like losing half of yourself.”

“He literally has spent the last, best and healthiest years he had left fighting for everyone else, because the fight was all over for him,” said Gayla Benefield, another important victims’ advocate who suffers from asbestosis and has lost both of her parents and countless family members to the disease. “It’s been over for all of us who were exposed, but Les believed we had to keep up the fight for everybody else.”

According to Benfield, Skramstad’s ability to touch people was his most remarkable quality. Benefield realized the quality long ago, before their lives were consumed by fighting disease and injustice. Benefield and Les were childhood friends, and the Skramstads even named one of their daughters Gayla.

“When you have nothing to lie about and nothing to exaggerate you speak the truth. And that was Les,” she said. “He was just a man. Just a common man. But the impression he’s made all over the world is stupendous.”

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) announced four award winners for their exceptional dedication and contribution to asbestos awareness associated activities. Senator Patty Murray, Pat Martin, Dr. Michael Harbut, Paul and Michelle Zygielbaum are the four winners.

The Tribute to Hope Award will be presented to Senator Patty Murray for her mission to prohibit asbestos and fund research for a cure.

Pat Martin is a Canadian Member of Parliament. He will receive the Tribute to Unity Award for his universal work to unite, enlighten and empower asbestos victims and public health workers.

Dr. Irving Selikoff Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Dr. Michael Harbut. He will be honored with this award for his devoted research into the social and medical impact that asbestos has had on humankind.

The Tribute to Inspiration Award will be presented to Paul and Michelle Zygielbaum for being a bridge to hope for mesothelioma victims and their families as they keep on offer support, contentment, funding and guidance.

The awards will be presented to the honorees on the Third Annual Asbestos Awareness Day Conference scheduled for March 31 and April 1, 2007 with the support of the Drexel University School of Public Health and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS).

“Senator Murray, Dr. Harbut, Pat Martin and Paul and Michelle Zygielbaum are truly inspirational human beings; their commitment, compassion and leadership have illuminated the darkness and brought hope to many whose lives have been so badly affected by these debilitating and fatal illnesses,” said Linda Reinstein, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “Asbestos Awareness Day is a landmark step towards education, prevention and a cure. More than 30 million homes and buildings across the nation contain asbestos – these incurable and often deadly diseases are not going way.”

Details regarding Asbestos Awareness Day will be posted on the ADAO website, www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org.  It is supposed to be an opportunity to recognize accomplishments, honor loved ones and increase awareness regarding dangers of asbestos.

Jackson Memorial High School students have officially renamed the former C-Wing of their school as "the Cancer Wing," concerning the asbestos in that portion of their school. Both students and teachers have expressed continuous anxiety about the presence of asbestos in the school. According to a report in the Asbury Park Press, two incidents raised concern among the staff and students.

First incident was that a teacher found a small piece of asbestos in her classroom after being assured that all asbestos had been removed from the school. This was in the last October.  Secondly, a student fell upon an EPA report lying on a table in the faculty room. This shows that there are many lapses in asbestos removal procedure at the school.

According to officials, there is no reason for worry. "50 air quality tests have shown that the air at the school is free of asbestos fibers", they told. "It’s bordering on comical how many (air) samples have been taken," said Jay Murray, president of Environmental Design Inc. This is the company that conducted the air tests.

Environmental Protection Agency report has cited the school for many violations. Murray says that they amount to minor paperwork concerns.

School board members have guaranteed parents, faculty, and students that they will work together to give attention to the concerns.  However, many students are still scared of coming in contact with asbestos during their daily routines at the school.

"The teachers naturally felt horrible about not being able to speak about what’s going on. The students were in the dark. It created an air of mystery and paranoia," said Tom Ranzweiler, the student who found the EPA reports. Students say that some teachers are unwilling to speak out regarding the issue for the fear of vengeance.

A former Yorkshire railway worker has been compensated after he was exposed to mortal asbestos fibers. He was exposed to asbestos while working as an apprentice plumber for British Rail during 1956 to 1957.

Geoffrey Stead, 65, has been awarded a substantial sum in compensation from British Rail. He had been diagnosed with the lung condition pleural thickening which has left Mr. Stead short of breath. The condition is caused by asbestos exposure. Now he is a site manager for the Blue Dolphin Holiday Park in Filey.

He was only 16 when he was charged with removing asbestos-laden pipes from old boiler houses. He was never given protection from the dust. Working without proper protection from the dust can often lead to malignant lung conditions like mesothelioma and asbestosis.

He said, "When I decided to sue for compensation it was never about the money, it was about getting someone to say they were responsible for making me work in conditions that would damage my health in the future".

"It is not about the money. It is knowing that if the worst does happen I can provide for my family after my death," he said.

Lawyer Helen Tomlin said, "We are pleased to have won compensation for Mr. Stead who was exposed to asbestos through the negligence of his employers. Unfortunately, he is one of many people who have been exposed to asbestos in the past by British Rail to the detriment of their health in the future."

A chance for senators in Washington to serve for a number of Alabama’s veterans. These veterans are suffering from diseases brought on by asbestos exposure during their years in the military.

Asbestos had been widely used in military construction from World War II through the Vietnam War before the dangers were understood. It was commonly used as insulating material on to ships. So navy veterans got the worse of it. Many sailors and workers from the shipyards have suffered terribly from asbestos-related illnesses. And thousands of veterans have died from these illnesses.

Generally it’s useless to go after the companies that supplied the government with this malignant material, because most of those companies are either bankrupt or no longer exist now. Even if there is a company left to sue, many veterans won’t live to see any kind of reparation. The line for asbestos cases is that long at the courthouse.

Some of our U.S. senators are giving this problem the serious attention it deserves.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter is working on a bill that aims to create a national asbestos victims’ compensation fund. The government does not have to pay a penny under this plan. Businesses and insurance companies will contribute into the fund. True victims with asbestos-related illnesses will get paid quickly. They are needless to hire a trial lawyer, nor they have to face the ambiguity in the court system.

This new system is expected to be particularly important for veterans and other victims who currently have limited means for getting their compensation for asbestos-related damages. More than a dozen national veterans’ service organizations, including the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), have advocated a victim compensation fund solution to the current system as a fund will bring certainty for veterans as well as other victims.