Officials Test Levels of Asbestos at WTC Site

Since the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York collapsed on Sept. 11, there has been a concern about asbestos being released into the air at the site.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting tests to measure the levels of asbestos and other pollutants in dust and air samples at ground zero. Fortunately, in the two months following the attacks, few samples were found to be above federal standards in thousands tested.

However, some workers at ground zero have reported a persistent cough, sore throat and other respiratory problems they claim is a result of prolonged exposure to the smoke and dust. The condition has been dubbed the "World Trade Center cough."

Although the majority of the tests show levels of contaminants including asbestos at low risk to the general public, workers at ground zero could be at a higher risk because of the long hours they spend in the dusty environment. Therefore, workers are encouraged to wear protective gear. Meanwhile, officials continue to monitor the site.

Commercial production of asbestos insulation began in 1879, and until the early 1970s, asbestos was widely used for insulation and fireproofing because its fibers are strong, flexible and do not burn.

However, it was discovered that asbestos is potentially harmful when dust from the manufacture and installation of asbestos-laden materials releases fibers into the air. When inhaled, it can lead to serious health problems including lung cancer and mesothelioma - a cancer of the lining of the chest or abdomen.

Because of the long latency period of asbestos disease, which can span 15 to 30 years, people do not develop it immediately after exposure.

Despite a federal ban on the production of most asbestos products in the early 1970s, installation of these products continued through the late '70s and into the early '80s. Workers in many industries including construction, automotive and shipping have come in contact with asbestos- containing material. Because asbestos fibers are airborne, workers can bring them home on their clothes.

If you have been exposed to airborne asbestos on the job and have been diagnosed with a related illness, you may be able to receive financial compensation by filing a lawsuit against the manufacturers of the asbestos products to which you were exposed. Weitz and Luxenberg, a 51-attorney firm in New York that specializes in asbestos cases, can help you through the procedure.

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What is mesothelioma

"Mesothelioma" is the term used to describe a cancerous tumor that involves the mesothelial cells of an organ. Mesothelial cells are cells that form a protective lining over the lungs, heart and abdominal organs. The most common type of mesothelioma is pleural mesothelioma. The pleura is a thin membrane found between the lungs and the chest cavity. It provides a lubricated surface so that the lungs do not rub and chafe against the chest walls.

What causes it?

Virtually all cases of mesothelioma are related to inhaling of asbestos fibers. There are about 3,000 cases per year (mostly men over the age of 40) and there will be about 300,000 cases before 2030. Mesothelioma usually spreads rapidly through the mesothelial cells to the heart and abdominal organs. The life span is typically 24 months after diagnosis, but it depends on what stage the cancer is detected, the health of the patient and other factors.

Although asbestos exposure causes mesothelioma, it has a latency period after exposure that could last 15 to 50 years. This means that someone who worked in a factory with asbestos 40 years ago could be developing mesothelioma now. Anyone who knows they were exposed to loose asbestos fibers should be tested regularly for mesothelioma.

Diagnosis

The onset of mesothelioma is usually very slow. The first symptom is a constant pain in the chest. This pain is later accompanies by difficulty breathing due to an accumulation of fluid in the chest. Other symptoms include coughing, fever and weight loss. Mesothelioma can be diagnosed by your doctor with a chest CT-scan.

Prognosis (the outcome)

Mesothelioma advances in 4 stages:

Stage I - the tumor is limited to the area of the lining of the lung and usually limited to only one side of the chest.

Stage II - the tumor extends to other organs within the chest cavity, such as the heart or lymph nodes in the chest.

Stage III - the tumor expands to the other side of the chest or it spreads into the abdominal organs. The lymph nodes outside the chest are affected.

Stage IV -the cancer spreads to different parts of the body far outside the chest area (liver, brain, bone, etc...).

Mesothelioma is an extremely deadly disease. The average survival time is about one year from date of diagnosis. About 20% of patients who find their cancer early and treat it aggressively will reach the five-year mark.

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The Asbestos Trust Fund Bill

A bill continues to languish in Congress which was designed to resolve many thousands of asbestos related lawsuits, leaving many waiting for a just resolution as they continue to endure their painfull illness without compensation.

According to a study released in September 2004 by the American Thoracic Society (ATS), asbestos continues to be a hazard for more than a million American workers in the construction industry and those involved in buildings and equipment maintenance. The study also warns of new products that may contain asbestos,These products may include: brake pads, roofing materials, and imported cement pipe and cement sheeting that could expose workers to an increased risk of asbestos related cancer.

Although government researchers are reporting a new rush of asbestos related claims, which is expected to continue over the next 20 years, it was believed when the legislation was first introduced in 2000 that the vast majority of asbestos related cancer claims were over, and the legislation was designed to take care of the thousands of remaining cases which were clogging up the courts.

But for many of the asbestos related cancer victims, the fact that the legislation continues to be held up has meant many patients have been unable to collect damages owed they are certainly entitled to before death takes its toll. The proposed legislation makes available, to the victims of asbestos related disease, a "trust fund" to take care of the needs of those suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases. This legislation would eliminate companies from being sued and unclog courts of tens of thousands of new asbestos claims.

Though a compromise is on the table between the Republican and Democratic Senate leaders on the size of the asbestos fund of $140 billion, there is a lot of dispute and argument that a large number of people with asbestos cancer and other serious asbestos illnesses will be left out. $140 billon dollars, they say, is insufficient to cover the rush of Americans expected to develop asbestos related disease over the next several decades.

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Cancer- The Real Facts

Cancer has a fearsome reputation. Not without reason either. It is a disease that has not yet fully yielded to the skills and intelligence of medical scientists and doctors. And, as if the pain from the disease is not enough, the treatment for cancer, too, inflicts heavy suffering on the body.

Cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled and abnormal cell division. Cancer spreads in the body and destroys tissues when the cancer cells travel through the blood stream or the lymphatic system. The runaway growth of cells is caused by mutations to the DNA in the cells that makes the cells unable to control cell division. This mutation can either be inherited or acquired. The mortality rate in cancer depends on the type of cancer and where it develops.

Among cancers, lung cancer is the biggest killer, causing up to 3 million deaths every year worldwide. It affects the above-50 age group population most and is one of the most common types of cancers that occur in the Western countries. The main risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. Cigarette smoke, especially, contains several carcinogens. It is estimated that 80 per cent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking. The role of passive smoking in causing lung cancer is also being recognized by studies.

Another carcinogen that causes lung cancer is asbestos. This substance, which is widely used because of its fire-resistant qualities, causes a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma cancer. In mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer or asbestos cancer, malignant cells develop in the pleura, the outer lining of the lungs and the chest cavity.

The problem with asbestos cancer is that diagnosis is difficult. For one, the symptoms of mesothelioma cancer occur only 30-50 years after the exposure to asbestos. Second, the symptoms of asbestos lung cancer, such as shortness of breath and chest pain, are similar to those of many other medical conditions.

The incidence of mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer has increased in the last two decades. Still it is considered a relatively rare form of lung cancer, because the incidence rate is only 1 per 1,000,000 people. This could be as high as 7-40 per 1,000,000 in the industrialized nations. By contrast, the incidence of lung cancer is 1,000 per 1,000,000.

The common lung cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. However, the conventional treatment methods have not been very successful in the case of asbestos cancer, yielding only a median survival rate of 6-12 months after the presentation.

Again, surgery does not have much effect on small-cell lung cancer. A treatment method for lung cancer that has become increasingly popular in recent years is radiofrequency ablation. This technique is especially effective in destroying the cancerous cells inside the tumors. These cells are 'cooked' by inserting a small heat probe into the tumor. This technique is also non-toxic and causes very little pain for the patient.

However, there is hope for the cancer-affected. Scientists are developing new techniques of treatment, such as molecular targeted therapies, for lung cancer. Better and more effective therapies can be expected as scientists and researchers coax out more secrets from the human cells.

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The Relevance of Lawyers in Asbestos Cases

Asbestos cases are notorious for having fraudulent claims mixed in with the real ones. For companies to help protect these claims through pre-packaged bankruptcy filings to avoid exposure is counterproductive. Asbestos cases which are filed in Federal Court are all transferred to one judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This federal judge in Philadelphia (Judge Myron Weiner) has approximately 50,000 cases assigned to him. So know you can see how asbestos cases are very specialized and complicated.

Asbestos cases comprised 7,143 of the 33,649 product liability cases commenced in the year ending September 30, 1997, according to statistics compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. However, on that same date only a relatively small number of the asbestos cases -- 439 -- were pending for three years or more.

Mesothelioma is a kind of a cancer which is generally caused if you have been a victim of asbestos. The mesothelial cells shape the cavity of the chest, abdominal and your heart. Mesothelioma is an inflammatory disease that is considered chronic. It has no cure and treatments can only do so much to alleviate the symptoms of the disease. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the chest cavity, lungs or stomach, whose only known cause is asbestos.

Mesothelioma cases and generally difficult to prove and involve big names. It is hence important that you take the help of a lawyer who is experienced and knows how to deal with such cases. Mesothelioma, on the other hand, is a type of cancer that begins from high degree of exposure to asbestos fiber. It affects mesothelium tissues that line several vital organs in the body. Mesothelioma has taken many lives and affected thousands of families. Its time to make these companies pay for their wrongdoing and send a message of intolerance to the underground asbestos industry.

Compensation can include the cost of medical treatment, lost wages, funeral costs, etc. Very often, punitive dam . Compensation could only be claimed if the legitimate fear of contracting an asbestos-related disease was so severe that it had somehow manifested itself as a personal injury, perhaps a psychiatric illness. This could only be argued in exceptional cases and there would be no sure prospect of success.

Lawyers vary widely in their approach. Many asbestos lawyers will offer an initial consultation after which they will be able to evaluate the strength of a case. Lawyers who take

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Smart Marketing - Submit Your Articles To Article Directories

There are a lot of benefits of submitting your own articles to article directories but before we go into the benefits, what actually are article directories?

Article directories are simply database websites that collect, compile, sort the articles to their own categories and make these articles available to the public. The public can then read these articles for free or reprint them based on certain guidelines.

There is countless number of article directories nowadays. Most of them are offering free membership to authors to submit their quality articles.

In short, this should be good news to webmasters too, who are looking for content to share with their mailing lists, as these article directories provide a great one-stop resource to deposit and find articles.

Now, if you are an author, you shouldn't just write articles and keep them to yourself if you want to get tons of readers to read them.

You want to get your articles distributed across the net. One great way to do it is by submitting your articles to various article directories.

Let's see why you should submit your articles to these article directories:

1. You will establish yourself as an expert in your area.

For example, if you are a doctor specializing in cancer treatment, you could write 500-word articles about mesothelioma or breast cancer and how to prevent them. The more you write, the more exposure you'll get and people will look at you as a knowledgeable person in your area.

Some article directories list top contributing authors and when people see your name among the top, indirectly and subconsciously, they'll have a perception that you know what you talk about.

2. You don't have to pay for advertising anymore.

Web publishers and ezine owners are hungry for fresh, quality contents. Simply give them what they want.

Where do these publishers look for articles? Many will find them from article directories.

If you write good articles, these publishers will be more than happy to forward your articles to their mailing lists. With a single article blast, you could potentially reach tens or hundreds of thousands of readers for free.

Article directory owners, at the same time, are also actively marketing their article directories. This means your articles go along with their marketing campaign as well.

3. Your articles can be your viral marketing tools.

There are article directory owners who partner with other webmasters to distribute articles to many other websites. You submit one article to a directory and that same article appears on many other websites at the same time. This technology is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication). If you didn

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How To Be Rejected By The Article Directories

Article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get more sales. You've heard it a million times so you decide to finally just do it. You write an article and submit it to the article directories, eagerly anticipating the flow of traffic. Instead you receive the dreaded rejection letter.

What did you do wrong?

1. Did you proof-read your article before you submitted it?

Popular article directory sites receive hundreds of submissions each day. It's much easier for the owner to click "decline" than to edit your typo-filled or unformatted article. Before submitting, proof the article and proof it again. If grammar and spelling make you sweat, then hire a Copywriter or ask a friend to help you before you click that submit button.

2. Is it an Advertisement or an Article?

Article directory sites are looking for informative, useful content, not press releases or ads. If your submission reads like an ad, it will not be accepted. And, think about it -- even if was approved on a fluke, do you think that website owners will be clamoring to publish your 500 word advertisement? Not a chance.

If your goal is to write and submit a press release, then check out places like prweb.com.

3. Did you read the Submission Guidelines?

Each article directory has a different culture. Glance through the Submission Guidelines before setting up an account to make sure your article will be welcome before you submit it. If an article directory is based around a niche like gardening, then please resist the urge to submit your Mesothelioma articles. There are plenty of article directories that want your articles. It

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