Allen Stewart, P.C.

Steve McQueen to be Honored with ADAO Memorial Tribute Award

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:46:11 +0000

Legendary actor Steve McQueen, who died in 1980 from mesothelioma, is to be honored with the Warren Zevon “Keep Me in Your Heart” Memorial Tribute Award. The award will be presented March 31, 2012, by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) at its 8th annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference. The award is named for musician Warren Zevon, who lost his battle with mesothelioma in 2003. Zevon’s son Jordan, spokesperson for the ADAO, is honored to pay tribute to McQueen, citing the actor’s unwavering passion, a trait shared by Zevon’s father.

To read more about this story, please visit: Examiner

AML Patient Wins Significant Verdict for Benzene Exposure Case

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:42:49 +0000

On February 10, 2012, a jury awarded a substantial amount to a former petroleum inspector in his suit against former employers Chevron USA, Texaco, and Unocal. The jury found that “extensive benzene exposure” suffered during his employment caused him to develop acute myelogenous leukemia at age 48, leaving him with “substantial medical bills” and unable to continue working in his field. The plaintiff is currently in remission but worries about a relapse.

To read more about this story, please visit: Beaumont Enterprise

Free-Standing Mesothelioma Research Lab Opens in California

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:32:33 +0000

Pacific Meso Center has opened the very first free-standing mesothelioma research lab in Los Angeles, California. This lab is solely dedicated to finding treatment for the deadly cancer affecting the lining of the lungs. The work conducted in the lab will focus on not only providing treatment options, but also providing preventative measures to protect against a diagnosis. Initial projects for the research center include: establishing an international tissue bank, developing intraoperative cryotherapy, identifying a model for drug prevention, and a stromal cell modification project. The center plans to approach the Veteran’s Administration for the creation of a national research and treatment center.

To read more about this story, please visit: The Business Journals

Allen Stewart, P.C. Attorneys Celebrate Win Victim of Benzene-Related Leukemia

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:35:55 +0000

U.S. Supreme Court rejects defendants’ appeal concerning expert testimony on causation

Attorneys at Dallas-based law firm Allen Stewart, P.C. applaud the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting the defendants’ appeal of a 2011 appellate decision that preserves the right of a leukemia victim to show at trial that benzene exposure caused his cancer.

In this case, Allen Stewart, P.C. attorneys represented Brian Milward, a refrigerator technician who developed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (“APL”) caused by years of exposure to benzene used in products manufactured by the defendants. The defendants—The Sherwin-Williams Co., U.S. Steel Corp., Rust-oleum Corp., and The Clorox Company, among others—persuaded the trial court to exclude testimony by the plaintiff’s expert that benzene exposure can cause APL, the particular type of leukemia suffered by Mr. Milward. Judgment was then entered for the defendants.

In March 2011, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision, finding that the expert used a universally accepted method of scientific reasoning when he relied on “the weight of the evidence” to conclude that benzene court cause APL. In a 33-page opinion, the First Circuit also detailed the role of the trial court as “gatekeeper” over the admissibility of scientific testimony versus the jury’s role as fact-finder in questions of causation and other questions of fact. Because the Supreme Court has refused to review the court of appeal’s decision, the case will go back to the trial court for further proceedings.

“We are very pleased with this result,” said Al Stewart, founder of the law firm. “The Milwards are entitled to their day in court, and we will continue to fight until they receive the justice they deserve.”

In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. that trial court judges have a limited “gatekeeping” role over admissibility of expert testimony. In two decades since the Daubert opinion was issued, such challenges have become extremely popular with chemical companies and other industrial defendants and their supporters—organizations such as the Product Liability Advisory Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which filed briefs in this case supporting the defendants’ appeal. When a defendant succeeds in a “Daubert challenge,” it may be able to avoid going to trial entirely. The decision of the First Circuit makes clear, however, that judges cannot exclude expert testimony that is supported by generally accepted methods of scientific reasoning. If the evidence is supported by generally accepted scientific methods, the jury must be allowed to weigh the evidence and draw its own conclusions regarding causation and other fact questions.

“These companies have tried to drive a wedge between reliable scientific knowledge as it is understood by scientists and as it is recognized and understood in the courtroom, distorting science for their own benefit,” said Allen Stewart, P.C. attorney Steve Baughman Jensen, who represented the Milwards on appeal. “The decision of the First Circuit and now the Supreme Court are significant in their defense of valid scientific method.”

Pfizer Gets Ready to Implement EPA Cleanup Plan for American Cyanimid Site

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:21:59 +0000

Pfizer engineers have prepared to implement a plan according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines to clean up the American Cyanimid Superfund Site in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The plan includes constructing protective covers to prevent existing contamination from seeping into bedrock or rising to the surface, expansion of the existing practice of extracting wastewater to the Somerset Raritan Valley Sewerage Authority plant, and constructing protective barriers over other areas of the site to allow Pfizer to create an ecological habitat in some areas of the site with light industrial development in another. The primary concern is the contaminated groundwater beneath the site which contains high levels of metals and volatile organic chemicals such as benzene and xylene from the former manufacturing activities.

To read more about this story, please visit: Somerset Messenger-Gazette

Peritoneal Mesothelioma Victim Wins Substantial Verdict

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:19:35 +0000

A jury in Buffalo, New York has ordered a former employer to pay a substantial amount in damages to Gerald Failing, a resident of Niagara Falls. Failing worked for Durez Plastics in North Tonawanda for 12 years, from 1966 to 1978. The company, now owned by Sumitomo Bakelite North America Inc., manufactures thermoset materials. Failing’s job included dumping raw asbestos and mixing it with other materials, creating a cloud of asbestos fibers in the workplace. Breathing asbestos is known to cause mesothelioma, the deadly disease that Failing has contracted. The jury placed sole responsibility on the company that supplied the asbestos, Hedman Resources Ltd.

To read more about this story, please visit: Plastics News

SUNY Stonybrook Team Works on Cleaning Up Fracking Water

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:17:35 +0000

Perena Gouma, an associate professor at SUNY Stonybrook, has developed a technology which is designed to remove hydrocarbons (like oil) from water by using nanogrids that float and efficiently decompose the hydrocarbons using solar irradiation. Originally intended for cleaning up oil spills, the technology was deemed too expensive for such purposes and has instead been re-engineered towards cleaning up fracking water well enough to be drinkable.

Traditional wastewater treatment is ineffective at removing hydrocarbons like benzene and toluene from fracking water, but the new nanogrid technology is able to reduce benzene contamination alone by a factor of a thousand.

To read more about this story, please visit: Fast CoExist

Wet Method Causes Concern with Demolition of Missouri Elementary School

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:39:47 +0000

Irving Elementary school in Joplin, Missouri was destroyed by a tornado in May of last year. As a result, it has to come down. The problem is that, like most buildings of that era, the school is loaded with asbestos building materials. Asbestos is perfectly safe when bound to a building material, but when the material is crushed, asbestos can contaminate the air and ground. Breathing in asbestos fibers can cause a number of respiratory illnesses and ailments, including a deadly cancer called mesothelioma.

Usually when a building with asbestos materials is demolished, the asbestos is carefully dealt with first, but in a case like this one, where a building is structurally unsound, that method is dangerous and impractical. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has approved using the “wet method” to demolish the building – literally keeping the demolition area wet to prevent dust from rising – but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concerns, and those concerns have caused two delays so far. The school board hopes to demolish the school and two others and rebuild them to open in December 2013.

Civil Engineer Dies of Mesothelioma at Age 84

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:02:10 +0000

Frank Craig Kilpatrick died recently at the age of 84 following a battle with mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Frank, a WWII U.S. Navy veteran, worked a variety of jobs during his lifetime. He retired in 1992 from Barton & Martin Engineers in Philadelphia, where he worked as a surveyor and civil engineer. He willed his body to scientific research. Donations in his honor may be made to the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, 106 S. New Middletown Rd., Media, Pennsylvania 19063, where Frank began his education.

To read more about this story, please visit: Philadelphia Inquirer

Tonawanda Factories Offered e3 Incentives to Clean up Their Act

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:54:47 +0000

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA )has chosen Tonawanda, New York to implement, the new e3 program, which stands for economy, energy, and environment. Companies in the area are offered incentives for companies to develop internal programs designed to clean up the environment. Tonawanda has 53 factories within a two-mile radius that pollute the air with known cancer-causing agents like benzene and formaldehyde. The e3 program will work with the companies that are known polluters to offer preferred financing and expertise from government engineers in exchange for greening up, which could result in a better corporate image and better profits.

To read more about this story, please visit: WNED