ASBESTOS BILL - CORPORATE BAILOUT PROBLEMS
June 4, 2005 08:03

Specifically:


-- ADAO's Science Advisory Board strongly objects to the outdated and incorrect medical criteria in S. 852 describing the symptoms, diagnosis and severity of asbestos related diseases. ADAO recommends that any piece of legislation should follow the established American Thoracic Society guidelines to diagnose and treat asbestos related diseases.


-- The bill contains inordinate compensation delays and ineligibility for the victims.


-- The bill has inadequate funding for not only research, but education, prevention and outreach.


-- The trust fund faces insolvency long before all present and future victims can access it.

http://www.reuters.com/

People who were exposed to asbestos through a family
member who worked with the material appear to run the
risk of developing the asbestos-related cancer
mesothelioma many years later, a new study suggests.
The study, based on a survey of law firms involved in
asbestos claims, found 32 cases of mesothelioma
diagnosed since 1990 among family members of workers
exposed to asbestos. Wives and daughters were most
often affected, with the lag time between asbestos
exposure and cancer development topping 40 years in
most cases. For the new study, Dr. Albert Miller of
St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center in New York
obtained medical records and other data on asbestos
claimants from 15 U.S. law firms. The findings are
published in the May issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Miller found 32 cases of
mesothelioma diagnosed since 1990 that could be
attributable only to "asbestos brought home by another
resident of the household." While most cases were seen
in the wives or daughters of asbestos-exposed, a few
cases occurred in sons and other relatives.

Direct-to-consumer drug advertising walks a communications tightrope," says Dartmouth linguistics expert Lewis Glinert. "It's a balancing act between disclosing both the risks and the benefits of prescription medications."

Glinert, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures, studies how people use and interpret language, and two of his studies appear in the June issue of the journal Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. Both aim to understand how effectively and efficiently drug ads convey their messages. Glinert says that this line of research was prompted when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called for more empirical research on the effects of direct-to-consumer drug advertising in 2002.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25474