Silicosis and Lung Cancer News
Occupational Lung Disease
Fifteen percent of adult asthmatics can trace the beginnings of their asthma back to their jobs. Occupational Asthma is the most common of the occupationally acquired respiratory diseases. Asthmatics, as a group, tend to be more aware of airborne hazards in the workplace than most people due to their immediate reactions. It's estimated that there are over 1 million Americans with occupational asthma.
Even though asthma accounts for the largest number of people with occupational lung disease, there are other diseases caused by exposure to various toxins and irritants. The type of lung disease is dependant on the type of toxin, pollutant, or irritant. There will be more than 65,000 adult Americans with new cases of lung disease related to their jobs this year. This year 25,000 people will die as a result of occupationally acquired lung disease. Occupational Lung Disease is the number one cause of work-related illness in the U.S.
There are 2 basic types of occupational lung disease; those caused by inhalation of various types of dust and those caused by a hypersensitivity to substances encountered at the workplace. Combinations of these two types and certain lung cancers are also triggered by workplace exposures.
Here's a list of some of the major occupational lung diseases and their causes:
Asbestosis is caused by exposure to asbestos dust. Asbestos has been used as an insulating and fire proofing agent. It can still be found in older building in floor and ceiling tiles, around water pipes, furnace linings, air conditioning ducts. According to the American Lung Association, asbestosis has been responsible to 3,922 deaths between the years of 1979 and 1996.
Berylliosis is caused from inhaling the dust or fumes containing beryllium. Beryllium is used to make fluorescent bulbs and in the aerospace industry.
Byssinosis (Brown lung) effects the small airways causing chronic obstruction. The cause of byssinosis is inhalation of dust from hemp, flax, or cotton. This disease is prevalent among textile workers.
Coal Worker's Pneumoconiosis (CWP) (Black lung) is found exclusively in those that work with and around coal. Causes by the inhalation of coal dust, a form of carbon, CWP effects approximately 5% of the 200,000 coal miners in the U.S. Between 1979 and 1996, CWP has killed 14,156 people (American Lung Association).
Silicosis is the oldest known occupational lung disease. It's causes by inhaling silica dust. Silica is used in foundry work, pottery, glass making, and ceramics such as tiles and bricks. Stonemasons, sandblasters, and quarry workers may also be exposed to silica dust.
Even though most occupationally acquired lung diseases are not curable, they're all preventable. NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) and OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) are agencies in the U.S. concerned with worker health and safety. OSHA in particular, is responsible in assuring the safety and health of U.S. workers. OSHA requires companies to provide "safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women." OSHA recently unveiled it's "Worker's Page" that provides workers in the U.S. with resources and a means of electronic complaint filing.
This article from About.com
Federal judge throws out thousands of silicosis diagnoses
Associated Press
07/01/2005 - A federal judge has recommended throwing out all but one of about 10,000 diagnoses of the lung ailment silicosis that were used in lawsuits against industrial companies, ruling that doctors "manufactured" findings of the disease.
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack's scathing 249-page opinion, signed Thursday, finds that the diagnoses are inadmissible in court. The bulk of the cases originate in Mississippi, and Jack sent them back to the state courts along with her report. She threw out diagnoses for the approximately 100 Texas cases that she felt she had jurisdiction over.
A doctor testifying before Jack in December withdrew thousands of his diagnoses, saying he only briefly scanned X-rays to give what he thought was a second opinion on the degenerative disease caused by inhaling quartz dust.
His withdrawal, made during consolidated pretrial proceedings for lawsuits from several states, prompted Jack to order every doctor and "screening company" to back up the diagnoses in the lawsuits. More doctors withdrew their diagnoses, and after hearings in February Jack said she sensed "red flags of fraud" in the way plaintiffs were recruited.
"These diagnoses were driven by neither health nor justice," Jack wrote in her opinion Thursday. "They were manufactured for money."
Jack's ruling also orders sanctions against Houston law firm O'Quinn, Laminack & Pirtle, which brought roughly 2,000 of the suits. Lawyers from the firm did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.
Danny Mulholland, a Mississippi-based defense attorney for Ingersoll-Rand Co. and other companies, said the opinion was "historic" in an age where law firms recruit plaintiffs with billboards and television ads.
"I think the way litigation has been done, and particularly mass tort litigation, changed with the February hearings which culminated in this order," he said. "We'll have to go back in state court and win there, but we expect to, based on what Judge Jack has found."
Jack's order quotes testimony in the hearings, which revealed that silicosis claims filed in Mississippi courts jumped from 40 in 2000 to 7,228 in 2003 — despite Mississippi ranking 43rd in U.S. silicosis cases by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
"This appears to be a phantom epidemic, unnoticed by everyone other than those enmeshed in the legal system," Jack wrote.
One physician said his secretaries interpreted his X-ray readings into diagnoses letters that were rubber-stamped with his signature and sent along without his final read.
He said he had likely erred when shown his own reports containing contradictory diagnoses — one to support an asbestosis claim and the other to support a silicosis claim.
Defense experts in workplace respiratory diseases said it was extremely rare for the same person to have both diseases.
Jack wrote that if nothing else, the cases "illustrate the mess that results when lawyers practice medicine and doctors practice law."
Roy Atwood, another defense attorney, likewise welcomed the order and said it was good news for those who had true injuries.
"We can't even get to the truly injured because of all the morass we've had to fight through," he said.
He said he wouldn't be surprised if plaintiffs who had been walking around believing they were sick turned around and sued their lawyers.
Jack noted that someone who believes they are ill may upset themselves and their families and pay higher health and life insurance premiums after reporting the illness.
In May, an Alabama lawyer confirmed a grand jury in Manhattan was investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the lawsuits.
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