In April 2009, the Asian Asbestos Conference (AAC 2009) was held in Hong Kong. This landmark event accelerated the ban asbestos debate in China, the world’s largest asbestos user. New contacts were made and conduits developed with campaigners working in China on issues relating to occupational and environmental health. As a result of the discussions and demonstrations held in Hon Kong, the Asian Ban Asbestos Network (A-BAN) was formed.

According to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, DOE construction workers have an increased risk of certain cancers. In fact, the most significant finding at Hanford was a very high rate of mesothelioma, a cancer of the protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs.

Before she dies, Dorothy Kuykendall wants her day in court. The 76-year-old from Terre Haute was exposed to asbestos, a toxin that can lead to a deadly cancer called mesothelioma, more than three decades ago when she handled the material regularly as a worker at the city’s Glas-Col Apparatus Co.

World Health Organization continues to condemn the use of toxic chrysotile asbestos and the mining of the lethal substance while Quebec actively mines the cancer causing product.

Canadian provinces continue to allow LAB Chrysotile to mine asbestos materials known to cause fatal cancers, such as mesothelioma.

The family of a man who died of asbestos exposure from his work on a Navy ship won reinstatement of their claims against the makers of the vessel’s steam valves and pumps, in a California appeals court.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) today announced its support for the Surgeon General`s statement acknowledging the dangers of asbestos and thanks the U.S. Senate for continued efforts to encourage a warning. The discovery of the April 1, 2009 acting U.S. Surgeon General statement is greatly appreciated by ADAO, who has always encouraged an official warning about asbestos dangers, as recommended by a U.S. Senate Resolution establishing the first week of April as “National Asbestos Awareness Week.”

The study showed that Hanford workers were 11 times more likely to develop mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure, than the general population. They were three times more likely to develop multiple myeloma, a cancer found in white blood cells.

Two Vermont companies could face a combined total of nearly $30,000 in fines for allegedly demolishing buildings in Essex Junction last year without properly checking for asbestos or notifying the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Naturally-occurring asbestos has been carried downstream of Swift Creek and along the banks of the Sumas River, according to samples recently collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The asbestos comes from a landslide on Sumas Mountain that deposits asbestos-laden sediment into Swift Creek, the focus of previous health and environmental studies.

University of Minnesota health researchers began sending letters Monday to current and former taconite workers on the Iron Range to enlist them in a wide-ranging study of a rare cancer.