Asbestos Related Lung Cancer

Nowadays, there are many diseases and illnesses caused by unhealthy life style. These diseases can also be developed to constant exposure to dangerous substance or chemical. One of the most dangerous diseases is the asbestos lung cancer.

When people hear about lung cancer, most of them think about cancer suffered by smokers. It's not always true, actually. Those who are often exposed to it, are usually workers in mines, mills, factories, or home workers who usually deal with installing, carrying, or removing it. Some workers who are exposed to high concentration of asbestos are workers in automotive repair, boiler making, pipe fitting, construction, or even people who work in laundry to clean clothes containing clothing.

It is a kind of fibrous family of silica compound. It forms fibers and there are 3 types of it: white asbestos (the chrysolite), brown asbestos (the amosite), and blue asbestos (the crocidolite). All three are dangerous and can cause lung disease related to cancer or non-cancer illness. Its effect isn't direct, though. It takes about 20 years of exposure to make it resulted in cancer. During the 20 years people might not feel anything. There are 3 types of lung disease related exposure to asbestos:

Asbestosis: the scarring of the lung process which means the lungs are hurtPleura or the lining of the lung. This is caused by inflammation and the lining tissue will be thicken or hardened, and it happens on the outer part of the lungs.Lung cancer. It's caused from within the lungs or the pleura.

When the disease develops into lung cancer, there are two types of lung cancer: the small cell one (SCLC - small cell) and non small one (NSCLC - non small cell). The SCLS means that the cells are round and small, while the NSCLC means that the cells are bigger. When the cancer has the characteristics of both, it's called the mixed small/large cell cancer. The cancer in the lung will start by the dividing of tissue cell in the lung at abnormal and uncontrollable level. Sometimes the cell may grow in strange condition and become bigger and then form a cluster. The NSCLC is the biggest part of lung cancer diseases, with about 80% of patients suffer from it. Although the cancers are small, they can multiply fast and form a tumor - even large ones. The tumor then can spread to other organs and lymph nodes. Most patients won't realize that they have asbestos lung cancer until it's too late. They don't know about it because they don't feel any pain or symptoms. It's called as asymptomatic or without symptoms. To diagnose asbestos, the doctors require patients to undergo image tests, biopsy, and spit sample.

Asbestos can get worse if the patients have unhealthy habits such as smoking or drinking. Smoking will definitely worsen their condition. When patients start to feel initial symptoms they may cough over and over, have chest pain, suffer from bleeding sputum, have change in sputum's colour and volume, have weight loss, suffer from appetite loss, suffer from headaches and often feel very tired.

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Madison Square Garden Reopens After Asbestos Scare

Players and coaches had long since left the building. They were still digesting the previous warning — an asbestos scare at Madison Square Garden that forced the postponement of a home game Tuesday night.

Like the fire alarm, the asbestos warning appears to have been unwarranted, and the Knicks will soon resume their normal schedule.

Garden officials announced Wednesday evening that the arena had been deemed safe and that all events would go on as scheduled. The Knicks will play the Washington Wizards there Friday night.

In a statement, the Garden said it had received “assurance from the city and environmental experts regarding the safety of the arena.”

The statement said nothing about asbestos, the word that initially set off concerns after some debris fell from the Garden attic during overnight maintenance Monday. Tests conducted by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and by independent contractors concluded that no asbestos had been released into the arena.

Garden officials, exercising what they called “an abundance of caution,” postponed Tuesday night’s game between the Knicks and the Orlando Magic. The teams are working with the N.B.A. to schedule a makeup date.

The decision to reopen the arena was made by Garden officials alone. The city’s oversight effectively ended once testing concluded that there was no asbestos in the arena.

“It’s essentially in their hands,” Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the D.E.P., said earlier in the afternoon. He added, “There’s no health risk.”

Had the Garden remained closed, the Knicks would have been forced to postpone more home games or play them at another site, probably in New Jersey. Garden officials made initial inquiries with the Prudential Center in Newark, but never made firm plans to play there.

On Wednesday, the Knicks seemed more concerned with cleaning up their offense and their record (1-2) than their aging arena. They lost close games to Boston and Portland last week, outcomes that left them with equal doses of frustration and hope. The tough schedule continues Thursday night in Chicago against the talent-rich Bulls.

So Tuesday’s postponement, however inconvenient, was not all bad. It gave three key players — Anthony Randolph (sprained ankle), Ronny Turiaf (sore back) and Danilo Gallinari (sore wrist) — extra time to heal.

It also allowed the Knicks to avoid, for now, a difficult matchup with Orlando’s Dwight Howard, perhaps the league’s most fearsome big man. The running joke was that the Knicks finally found a way to shut down Howard.

“One of my better coaching performances,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said, chuckling. He added: “It was either Dwight Howard or breathing bad material. It’s a tossup.”

D’Antoni said that his young team might be more ready for the challenge by the time the Knicks see the Magic.

Several players came to the training center to work out or shoot on their own. But the unexpected postponement left them with a free night and an empty feeling.

“It was tough,” Amar’e Stoudemire said. “I mean, we definitely was ready to play, was prepared for Orlando, was geared up, ready to go.”

The players were either headed to the Garden or getting ready to leave their homes when they received word that the game had been postponed. Some players said they just relaxed and watched television. Some watched other N.B.A. games. D’Antoni said he watched game film of the Bulls.

“I wanted to play,” said Gallinari, who is eager to break out of a shooting slump. “I wanted to play the game. That was not good news.”

Gallinari was already on his way to Manhattan when he heard about the incident and decided to keep going. He walked around Central Park, visited the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue (to check out the iPad), then headed to SoHo for dinner at an Italian restaurant.

It was a nice way to spend an evening, just not what he had in mind. Like his teammates, Gallinari had never lost a game to 40-year-old fire retardant.

“Only in New York can that happen,” he said.

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E.P.A. ‘Most Wanted’ Fugitive Captured in Dominican Republic

Albania Deleon was convicted in November 2008 in Massachusetts on environmental and other charges related to a fraudulent asbestos training institute she ran there. She fled the state in March 2009, two days before her sentencing.

Carrying a false identity card and having dyed her hair blond, she was arrested Saturday when Dominican agents pulled over her vehicle in Santo Domingo. The State Department had submitted an extradition request to the Dominican Republic after realizing she had left the country.

Ms. Deleon, 40, is the first woman to be listed on the E.P.A.’s two-year-old fugitives list, which includes people wanted for crimes ranging from dumping oil or contaminated soil to importing vehicles that fail to meet United States emissions standards.

She could face substantial jail time after extradition to the United States, given that she was convicted of 28 counts that carried penalties of 5 to 20 years, the E.P.A. said.

The trail of crimes goes back to roughly 2001, when Ms. Deleon began operating Environmental Compliance Training, a certified asbestos-removal training school in Methuen, Mass. Over the next five years, she granted hundreds of certificates to people who had taken no courses.

The authorities estimated that 65 to 80 percent of those who received certificates from the school had not received the necessary training. Many of those were illegal immigrants who could not afford to take four days off from work to obtain their credentials. Environmental Compliance Training became Massachusetts’ largest asbestos training business.

Many of the graduates obtained jobs through a temporary staffing agency that Ms. Deleon also owned, the E.P.A. said, and were sent out to do dangerous asbestos demolition work. She paid them under the table so she would not have to pay taxes or obtain workers’ compensation insurance for them.

She was convicted in federal court in 2008 on charges including fraud, hiring illegal immigrants, making false statements and procuring false payroll tax returns.

The E.P.A. created its most-wanted list, complete with mug shots, to draw more attention to environmental crime, which has been rising as agency regulation has expanded. Sixteen fugitives remain on that list, and five, including Ms. Deleon, are listed as former fugitives with “captured” stamped on their mug shots.

Cynthia Giles, an assistant E.P.A. administrator, declined to say whether the list had led to any tips that aided in Ms. Deleon’s capture.

“Posting defendants on the fugitive Web site creates more visibility, thereby providing an opportunity for the public to provide information about their potential whereabouts and for law enforcement authorities to be aware that these individuals are wanted by the United States,” she said.

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