An Alabama man filed suit against 91 defendants in Madison County Circuit court, alleging he was exposed to airborne asbestos fibers from his father’s clothing. Howard Sturgeon, the plaintiff, is suffering from mesothelioma.

Elmo Sturgeon, the father of Howard Sturgeon, was employed as a truck driver at various locations across the country.

"Dust created by working with and around asbestos and asbestos-containing products would permeate the person and clothing of the plaintiff’s father," the complaint states. "This dust contained asbestos fiber."
Sturgeon claims that his father would carry the asbestos dust on his clothing home with him where it would become airborne.

"The plaintiff would be repeatedly exposed to this asbestos dust from his father’s person and clothing," the complaint states.

Sturgeon was employed as a communication lineman, railroad worker and communication technician at various locations from 1977 through 2006
He also claims he was exposed to asbestos during non-occupational works like home and automotive repairs, maintenance etc.

Sturgeon was diagnosed with mesothelioma in May 2006. He subsequently understood that his illness was wrongfully caused, the suit claims.

The complaint alleges that defendants failed to advise their employees of hygiene practices designed to reduce or prevent carrying asbestos fibers home. As a result of this, he was exposed to fibers containing asbestos, and developed a disease caused only by asbestos which has disabled and disfigured him, Sturgeon complaints.

He also claims that although he has sought, he was unable to obtain full disclosure of relevant documents and information from the defendants which made him believe that the defendants demolished all documents related to asbestos.

"It was foreseeable to a reasonable person/entity in the respective positions of defendants, that said documents and information constituted evidence, which was material to potential civil litigation-namely asbestos litigation," the complaint states.

"Plaintiff has been caused to suffer damages in the form of impaired ability to recover against defendants and lost or reduced compensation from other potentially liable parties in this litigation," the complaint states.
Sturgeon is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $200,000, plus punitive damages.
"An award of punitive damages is appropriate and necessary in order to punish defendants for their willful, wanton, intentional and/or reckless misconduct and to deter defendants and others from engaging in like misconduct in the future."

The case has been assigned to Dan Stack, the Circuit Judge .

John M. Chick, a former county worker is prepared to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Syracuse later this month. The alleged illegal removal of asbestos from the Cayuga County Board of Elections was said to be supervised by him the last winter.

"The worker has agreed to plead guilty to one court of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Air Act", said his lawyer, Paul Carey, of Syracuse, Tuesday evening.

All other charges against him are to be dropped as part of the agreement, Carey added. Recently he has been arrested following allegations he issued a death threat against Anthony Garropy, the whistle-blower.

"It’s pretty clear.This will terminate the investigation on Mr. Chick and any and all other charges will be dismissed," Carey said. "We are anxious to inform the court what occurred on the day Mr. Chick was ordered to remove the boiler and the pipes, who were the actual supervisors who advised him to remove those pipes and how they instructed him to dispose of that material."

Chick, due back in court Jan. 24 before U.S. Senior District Judge Frederick Scullin for the change of plea hearing.

"I’ve got no comment. Whatever Carey says is my comment," he said.

County Legislator Ann Petrus, who has been serving as the county spokeswoman in the asbestos case, said, "Personally, I would say that if John has a good attorney, I’m sure he helped him work through this decision. Regarding who said what, who was at fault, who told who to do what. I think the EPA and the state are still investigating that and that process will continue on and I can’t even begin to try to figure that out."

Chick for a while and "I know Chick for a while and deep down in our hearts we always have to be sorry when it happens to another human being," Petrus added.

Carey said the plea agreement does not stipulate any expected penalty for the guilty plea, noting that will be decided by the judge.

Carey said his client’s duties during the asbestos removal were that of a carpenter and Chick was placed in a "Catch-22" by his superiors. He had to either follow orders or risk getting fired for insubordination. "Some officials have attempted to use Chick as a ‘scapegoat’ and he is confident the U.S. attorney’s further investigation will bring that all out," Carey added.

"The residents of Cayuga County will be disappointed that the persons that they’ve authorized to run the county have made some serious mistakes," he said.

The problem started last February when Chick and former county worker Anthony J. Garropy removed a defective boiler from the basement of the county board of elections building on Court Street in Auburn. After two months, Garropy said he and five inmates from the county jail loaded the materials on a truck which were later dumped at the city landfill by him and Chick.

Garropy filed a suit against the county in August, saying he was exposed to asbestos and fired for telling the problem to his supervisors. Now around 30 individuals have notices of claim pending against the county, alleging asbestos exposure.

Lawyers are trying to gather evidence for a British man who died of mesothelioma and to file a case against the joinery company for which he worked for many years.

According to the report of The Barking and Dagenham Recorder, solicitors representing the widow of Alan Irwin Davis are searching for former employees of the Manor Joinery Works Ltd. so that they can build a case against the company.

The company which has been departed already, was located in the town of Barking.There they were manufacturing fire doors. Davis worked for Manor Joinery from 1961 to 1973. His job involved cutting the asbestos which was used for the door lining.  In 1973, he left the company and worked for another company named ‘Demar Joinery’. There also he did similar work and died at the age of 74, only months after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an aggressive form of lung cancer and the only known reason for this disease is asbestos exposure

"Davis immediately realized that his condition was connected with his work when he became ill as his main job was to cut up asbestos that gave off dust and fibers which he had to breath in. He was never provided with a dust mask," said Davis’ widow.

"He declined very quickly after being diagnosed with mesothelioma following an X-ray. He was in an awful lot of pain and needed constant morphine. He was discharged from hospital on Christmas Eve, 2004, and died at home a few weeks later. His last months were terrible for both of us," she said.

"We would like to trace any people who used to work with Mr. Davis and has suffered with asbestos-related illnesses to gain further information which could throw valuable light on the working conditions and exposure to asbestos to help Brenda Davis obtain the compensation she so clearly deserves," Davis’ lawyer said.

Les Skramstad, a Libby, Montana resident and former mine worker who focussed attention on asbestos problem has been diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Skramstad has long been an advocate for those who have become sick or died from exposure to asbestos. He has worked for W.R. Grace-owned Zonolite from 1959 until 1962.

Les – whose wife and two oldest children suffer from asbestosis – was one of the first to bring the plight of hundreds of Libbyans to the attention of local and state officials.  In the beginning most didn’t listen to him. Later EPA came to town and confirmed that the entire town was coated with dangerous asbestos particles of the tremolite type. These are more hazardous than the more common chrysotile variety.

Skramstad began working at age 23. "There was an incredible amount of dust, a very unique dust," Skramstad said. "It stuck to everything. It would stand right up on the guy wires; it would cling to whatever it touched. I don’t have an explanation, but my job was to sweep it up, on all seven floors of the mill site."

After sweeping the floor he loaded the dust into wheelbarrows and shoveled it onto a 200-foot-long conveyor belt, which carried the dust away, and deposited it at the base of a mountain near the mine. "I quit on account of the dust, not that I knew it was harmful to me," he said. "But my wife, Norita, she couldn’t keep up with the cleanup."

The EPA confirms that the Zonolite plant dumped approximately 5,000 pounds of tremolite asbestos on the town each day that the mill was in operation.

Les Skramstad was diagnosed with asbestosis in 1996 and similar diagnoses followed for family members as well. It’s then he "decided to sound the bell," as he says.

Most recently, he’s attracted the attention of Senator Max Baucus, who has become the champion of Libby’s mesothelioma victims.

"Les just impressed me so much, and became so inspirational to me that I’ve focused more on Les and Libby by far than any other person or geographic area because of this gross injustice," Baucus said during a telephone interview. "I’m convinced that W.R. Grace knew that it was infecting its employees with asbestos and didn’t tell them."

According to the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, treatment with the chemotherapy agent Alimta with or without the chemotherapy agent Platinol (cisplatin) provides benefit for patients with malignant mesothelioma who have received prior therapies.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer often caused by chronic exposure to asbestos. Majority of patients are not diagnosed until the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. The general symptoms of this disease are shortness of breath, cough, pain, fatigue etc.

Mesothelioma is fairly resistant to most therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Recurrent mesothelioma refers to cancer that has progressed or returned following prior therapies. Treatment strategies that will improve long-term outcomes for patients with recurrent mesothelioma are still being evaluated.

Researchers recently conducted a phase III trial to evaluate treatment including Alimta or Alimta/cisplatin for recurrent mesothelioma. This trial directly compared 187 patients who were treated with either Alimta or Alimta/cisplatin.

* Anticancer responses were achieved in 32.5% of patients treated with Alimta with cisplatin compared with 5.5% for patients treated with Alimta alone.

* Anticancer responses plus disease stabilization was achieved in around 69% of patients treated with Alimta with cisplatin. It was only 47% for those treated with Alimta alone.

* 50% of the patients were alive at 7.6 months among those treated with Alimta with cisplatin whereas 4.1 months for those treated with Alimta alone.

* Side effects were generally rare.

Conclusion of the researchers was that the treatment with Alimta with cisplatin or Alimta alone produces anticancer benefits among patients with recurrent mesothelioma. The combination of Alimta with cisplatin appeared to be more effective than Alimta alone. Anyway, both treatment options may be considered for this challenging disease.