Despite concerted efforts by advocates for a ban on asbestos, the House’s companion bill to its Senate ban counterpart never made it out of subcommittee. Now that Congress has adjourned and the session is over, the only chance for the bill’s resurrection is a lame duck session by Congress, which neither looks likely nor, even if it happens, expected to get the ban bill back on track.

Advocates hope that when Congress reconvenes in 2009, hopefully with a crushing Democratic majority in the House and a bulletproof, veto-proof majority in the Senate led by a charismatic Democratic president, the legislation will be brought back from the dead.

After more than 19 years of waiting, it’s more than time–it’s a tragedy.

Mesothelioma titan Fred Baron will receive the last chance drug he needs to fight back what is likely terminal multiple myeloma, despite Biogen’s initial reluctance to provide the drug for off label use even with FDA approval, immunity from suit, and the plea of senators, ex-presidents, and tort giants like Mark Lanier.

“Thanks to the persistence and hard work of so many friends, Fred has received Tysabri,” Baron’s wife, Lisa Blue, said in an e-mailed statement. “The Mayo Clinic working with the FDA found a legal basis for this use. We have every expectation of a positive result.” The whole story is here.

Asbestos in particular, and science in general, have long been characterized by corrupt associations between researchers dependent on funding and pharmaceutical companies dependent on positive research outcomes in order to win FDA approval. The funding effect–a statistically bulletproof, demonstrable relationship between the funding source and a positive research outcome–is so well known that all reputable medical journals require funding source disclosure by researchers prior to publication.

Excellent books like “Doubt is their Product” by David Michaels and “Bending Science” by McGarity and Wagner explore this in detail.

Senators Grassley and Kohl have decided to probe more deeply for information about the financial links between researchers and companies that manufacture cardiovascular medical products. Story reported by the NYT.

My asbestos reading list on Amazon.

Under the “Contributions” heading, click on the “Listmania” tab.

Diagnosis/staging
CK5/6 in effusions: no difference between mesothelioma and pulmonary and nonpulmonary adenocarcinoma

Increased 8-isoprostane, a marker of oxidative stress in exhaled breath condensate in subjects with asbestos exposure

Pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma mimicking mesothelioma

Peritoneal mesothelioma
Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Risk factors
Pooled analysis of NAT2 genotypes as risk factors for asbestos-related malignant mesothelioma

Health Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials (III)

Tumor suppression
Functional inactivation of NF2/merlin in human mesothelioma

This article discusses a study that showed the effectiveness of open chest radical pleurectomy decortication  (PD) surgery compared to open chest palliative PD for patients who were not eligible for EPP.

Here’s a discussion about prognostic factors for patients considering surgical treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Fred Baron, founding partner of Dallas’s legendary toxic torts firm Baron & Budd and asbestos/mesothelioma crusader, is dying of multiple myeloma at the Mayo Clinic. Effectively blocking a last ditch effort to get him treatment that might extend his life, big pharma is finally exacting its bloody revenge on a lawyer who led the charge against drug companies by refusing to provide an off label use of a drug that might help. Read the extraordinary story here.

Asbestos has been found in run-down public housing and buildings in remote communities in the Northern Territory, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said last night. Tradespeople working in the communities raised concerns to the Government about the asbestos in August last year. But the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs waited two months to investigate.

Read the whole story here.

This year the Meso Foundation has set up a travel grant program to help patients and a travel partner attend the 5th Annual International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma in Washington, D.C., from June 26-28.