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On June 14, 2012, at the age of 63, entertainer Donna Summers lost her life to lung cancer. It is has been widely reported that prior to her death, Donna Summers believed that the cancer that eventually took her life was caused by her exposure to asbestos and other toxins contained in the dust generated from the World Trade Center terrorist attack of 9/11. Donna Summers was a resident of New York City in September of 2001, when the World Trade Towers fell, scattering debris and asbestos containing dust plumes throughout ground zero and the rest of the City. Analysis of the dust clouds revealed they contained the following materials: gypsum, cement, calcium carbonate, asbestos, lead, glass fibers and other metal particles.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber that due to it’s cost, light weight, and heart resistant properties, was integrated into many construction materials and insulation products throughout the great majority of the 20th century. The use of the asbestos occurred despite the asbestos industry’s knowledge that the substance was harmful to human health; causing asbestosis, lung cancer, and malignant pleural mesothelioma – an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs that has only one known cause, asbestos exposure. There are thousands of asbestos caused lung cancers that are diagnosed in patients every year in the United States. Many of these patients seek compensation for their health bills and for the benefit of their families in the U.S. Court system, and from bankruptcy trusts were hundreds of millions of dollars have been set aside to compensate asbestos victims. Attorney Michael Mandelbrot, founder of the Asbestos Legal Center in San Francisco, doesn’t see this trend ending soon. “The sad reality is that asbestos is contained in the structures all around us, because the asbestos industry chose to either suppress or ignore information that the use of asbestos posed a danger to the public. As these structures degrade, more and more of the population will be exposed to the fiber, leading to more deaths. It is my firm’s commitment to fight for justice of behalf of those suffering from asbestos caused diseases.”

This week the entertainment world is buzzing about the release of the new comic book movie, the Avengers, featuring a group of heroes from the Marvel Comic books universe working together to overcome long odds to save the world from an inter-dimensional evil genius and his extra-planetary army. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye; it’s a media reboot of the comic book characters that first began to appear in the 1940’s and continued to be promulgated with great popularity into the 1960’s and 1970’s. But there are three characters from the annals of the Avengers universe who won’t be making appearances in the film, but whose significance in the comic books go far beyond the fictional story line; do you remember Asbestos Lady, Asbestos Man, and the Human Torch?

First appearing in Captain America comic in 1947, Asbestos Lady was the super villain alter ego of Virginia Murdoch. Ms. Murdoch wore an asbestos suit that could withstand the heat of fire, allowing her to create large explosions near banks that only she could venture near safely, allowing her of course to rob the bank with little resistance. The hero, Human Torch, eventually captured Asbestos Lady by melting an asphalt road that stuck to her feat, making it impossible for her to run away.

Asbestos Man first appeared as a evil super villain in the Human Torch comic book series in 1963. He was the alter ego of analytical chemist Professor Orson Kasloff.
Kasloff created his asbestos suit specifically to battle the Human Torch, hoping to gain notoriety and respect from the criminal underworld. His arsenal of weapons included and net he would throw at the Human Torch, that would covert heat to explosive charges. His criminal master plot was very similar to Asbestos Lady: he robbed banks after creating infernos surrounding them. In their first encounter Asbestos Man actually defeated the Human Torch, but he was eventually captured when The Human Torch created a fire so large, that all of the oxygen in a bank disappeared, making it impossible for Asbestos Man to breathe.

Asbestos Lady and Asbestos Man capture an age when people were unaware of the significant dangers associated with asbestos exposure, and children would believe the a person of high intelligence would wear asbestos fibers. An age when asbestos was used as stuffing to fill baseball gloves and football helmets. The comics are a lasting reminder of the significant cover-up perpetrated by the asbestos industry, regarding the danger associated with asbestos exposure.

By the time Asbestos Lady first appeared in Marvel Comic books, in 1947, the relationship between asbestos exposure and disease was well documented. In 1932 the U.S. Bureau of Mines and Occupational Health Clinic was ready to release the results of a study revealing that 29% of asbestos industry giant Johns-Manville employees who had been exposed to asbestos had developed asbestosis that was detectable by x-ray. However, upon learning of the report, Johns-Manville used it considerable political power to stop it from being released to the public. This occurred despite the fact the epidemiological papers had been published for over 30 years documenting a relationship between asbestos exposure and disease.
One year before Asbestos Man made his appearance in the Marvel Universe, in 1966, the director of Bendix Corporation, an asbestos product manufacturing company, wrote a memo to Johns-Manville Company stating, “…if you have enjoyed a good life while working with asbestos products why not die from it.”

Tragically, the asbestos industry cover-up and conspiracy to characterize asbestos as safe, that was so effective in popular culture that it claimed the lives of millions of people who died from asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, who had unknowingly exposed themselves and their families to the dangerous mineral fiber, asbestos.

The revelation of the danger of asbestos in the Marvel Universe is reflected in the final appearance of Asbestos Lady in the Human Torch comic book series, wherein it was revealed she had developed cancer as a result from exposure to the asbestos contained in her suit. The story line occurred in 1990. Asbestos Man’s fate Continue reading

Every weekend in San Diego County, California, throngs of United States residents travel south across the border to Mexico, looking for bargains in Tijuana shopping malls. As the weekend ends, the line of cars coming back into the United States extends for miles. In 2005, 50 million people, and 17 million vehicles, traveled from Mexico, across the U.S. Border, into San Ysidro, California. There, U.S. Customs agents are tasked with trying to organize the mass exodus while at the same time protecting America from illicit drugs, human trafficking and terror threats. But recent reports from Mexico highlight a growing concern among public health and consumer safety advocates, that there is one menace that U.S. Customs agents are ill equipped to control. Consumers may be returning home to United States with products purchased in Mexico, that unbeknownst to them, contain a destructive poison indistinguishable to the naked eye, asbestos.

Asbestos is naturally occurring rock fiber that was widely used in the manufacturing of various construction products in the United States until the 1980’s, due to it’s heat repelling and fusing properties. Presently, over 1,800 Mexican businesses incorporate asbestos fibers as a component in their manufacturing processes. In the decade preceding 2010, over 200,000 metric tons of asbestos were consumed by Mexican Manufacturing Industry.

Some consumers mistakenly believe that asbestos is only used in insulation, or as part of heavy construction products. However, in the past non-profit organizations have found asbestos contaminating common consumer products such as children fingerprint dusting kits, in talcum powders, toy clays kits, hair rollers, hot plates, hair dryers and decorative floor tiles. Moreover, asbestos contaminated vermiculite, sometimes used as a packing material for products, is also a public health concern.

In Mexico, asbestos is used to the manufacture asbestos cement pipes, care brakes, cement, roofing and drywall materials.

“Asbestos use is a public health threat to United States consumers traveling abroad to Mexico, but equally important, it is a threat to the citizens of Mexico. It is a travesty that the industrial use of asbestos has not been curtailed in Mexico.”, commented Asbestos Legal Center founder, Michael Mandelbrot, from his office in San Francisco.

When asbestos fibers are inhaled by humans, the microscopic fibers sometimes become lodged in the pleura of the lungs. Thereafter the body owns immune system is activated, trying to destroy the foreign asbestos body. Over time scarring develops at the site where the fiber is lodged. When that scarring becomes chronic, and grows in size, it can result in an obstructive pulmonary disease called asbestosis. Asbestosis patients labor to breathe as a result of the disease, and in sever advanced stages, cannot survive without the use of oxygen supplementation.

Other lung diseases that can develop from exposure to asbestos include lung cancer, and malignant pleural mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an incurable disease that in most cases has an average life span of nine to twelve months. Individuals in California diagnosed with any asbestos related disease have the right to seek compensation for their injuries in the Court system…
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It’s Spring Break season, and the beaches of Mexico are filling up with foreign tourists heading south of the border intent on soaking in the warmth of the sun and splashing in the waves. But not unlike the plot of a familiar co-ed horror movie, there is a danger lurking near the waters of Mexico’s beaches, ready to take tourists’ lives in a gruesome fashion. Only unlike most Spring Break horror movies, the danger is not in the water – it’s on land, it may be in the tourists’ hotel rooms, and it’s deadly. It’s asbestos.

Asbestos is a mineral fiber, used extensively in industrial applications in the United State until the 1980’s, due to it’s heat resistant and bonding properties. Today, close to 2000 companies in Mexico still use raw asbestos in the production of various construction products, including asbestos cement piping, roofing materials, boilers, asbestos insulated wiring, and automotive brakes. According to a January 2012 report, from 2000 to 2010, production factories in Mexico used 213,414 metric tons of asbestos, over 20,000 tons a year. All this, despite the fact that asbestos use was widely curtailed in the United States close to 30 years ago, due to it’s cancer causing risk.

The continued widespread use of asbestos in Mexico is a potentially lethal and hidden danger to tourists, according to noted Mesothelioma plaintiff’s attorney Michael Mandelbrot, founder of the Asbestos Legal Center in San Francisco. “Most individuals traveling abroad are unconcerned when they see construction or remodeling taking place at the hotel where they are staying, or at a site nearby. They don’t think to ask themselves, does the dust being generated from the site contain a poison that is going to give me cancer? And what hotel guest is going to ask the front desk whether air samples are being collected from the remodeling job occurring at the hotel? Tourists traveling abroad in Mexico need to be aware that asbestos is still used in construction products in Mexico, and it’s deadly.”

Asbestos exposure causes serious and fatal disease, such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a disease affecting the lining surrounding the lungs, heart, and abdomen. There is no cure for pleural malignant mesothelioma, and the average life expectancy for a person diagnosed with the disease is nine months. According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. That means that even an exposure that is briefly limited in time, is unsafe. In the United State, asbestos use was curtailed in part in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, as a result of individuals suffering from asbestos related diseases filing lawsuits against companies the used asbestos in the manufacture of their products. Many of those lawsuits alleged that products containing asbestos were unsafe, as the risks associated with using the products outweighed any benefit the product provided. Today asbestos use is not completely banned in the United States.

Individuals traveling abroad should consider changing hotels, if where they are staying is located next to a construction site, especially if the demolition of a pre-existing building is taking place. “Symptoms of diseases caused by exposure to asbestos do no show up until many years after a person is exposed to the fiber. One can never be too careful.”, said Mr. Mandelbrot.
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Traditionally, lawyers representing plaintiffs in mesothelioma personal injury actions have filed both lawsuits, and at some point during litigation, Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust claims as well.

Many companies that manufactured and/or distributed asbestos containing materials have gone bankrupt. During the bankruptcy reorganization process, a large number of those companies set up Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trusts, which provide compensation to individuals who were exposed to material for which the bankrupt trust is responsible.

But a trend has emerged wherein some mesothelioma patients are opting to forgo litigation, and pursue filing bankruptcy claims only. Their reasons are varied:

Many individuals believed previously to becoming ill they would never file a lawsuit if they or loved one were injured. Unfortunately, for some, there is a stigma attached to being a plaintiff in a lawsuit. They have assumed for years that most plaintiffs in lawsuits were simply litigious in a “blame someone else” society, and simply weren’t aware how often people just like themselves were victimized by corporate greed, every day.

For others, they can’t imagine filing a lawsuit simply because they have never wanted to the deal with the stress they believe is associated with litigation. And to be fair, many plaintiffs do feel stress during the lengthy deposition (testimony recording process) associated with a mesothelioma lawsuit. Let’s face it, it’s not fun to be cross examined by a pack of lawyers, after you have told the truth about your occupational history, when you are: extremely exhausted and ill; trying to plan your future medical treatment; and trying figuring out how to provide care for your spouse and your family in the event of your death.

Mesothelioma patients who find themselves in this circumstance should consider that an alternative option for gaining compensation for their injuries does exist, other than filing a third party lawsuit. A person suffering from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos related disease, can decide to file bankruptcy claims alone, to obtain financial compensation for their injuries.

According to a recent study, “over the past 30 years, 56 asbestos personal injury trusts have been set up on behalf of companies that have filed for reorganization. The largest 26 trusts paid $10.9 billion on 2.4 million claims through 2008.” Moreover, in 2011, there were forty other companies with asbestos liabilities that had previously filed for reorganization, who were waiting to emerge from bankruptcy.

The downside for patients filing bankruptcy claims only, is that the financial recovery for mesothelioma patients can be much less than if they pursued full litigation. Most trusts will pay claimants a predetermined percentage of what their claim is worth had it been litigated. According the same study, the median payment percentage offered to claimants by a settlement trust is twenty-five percent. Some trusts have a payment percentage as low as two percent. But the amount of compensation is not insignificant. The study also determined, as a result, that the median amount paid by an Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust per mesothelioma claim is $41,000. Of course, ever case is different.

There are circumstances where a plaintiff will not be able to file a claim with an Asbestos Personal Injury Settlement Trust, as they simply weren’t exposed to products for which any trust is responsible.

But for others, the amount of compensation through the trust system can be substantial, in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It is useful for plaintiffs to know that their attorney’s should be investigating whether or not they qualify to have their claims filed.
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