Mass Torts: State of the Art : Mass Torts Lawyer & Attorney : Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease Law Firm : Toxic Torts & Wrongful Death

Tomorrow, February 4, is World Cancer Day and the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) is calling for greater awareness of the contribution of infectious disease to cancer cases around the world. "Cancer can be prevented too" is the theme of the effort. According to the press release the campaign is backed by a new scientific report: Protection Against Cancer Causing Infections which focuses on the nine known infections that can lead to cancer.

There's already a highly effective vaccine against human papillomavirus that prevents cervical cancer, a dreadful disease that took the life of one of my law school classmates within a year of her graduation, though it's still not widely given for a variety of reasons associated with culture and values. There's also a vaccine to protect against hepatitis B virus which causes a staggering number of cases of liver cancer worldwide yet it too is grossly underutilized. For more on World Cancer Day 2010 try these links: UICC World Cancer Campaign, World Health Organization,  European Hospital and this book: Infections Causing Human Cancer 

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A review of the studies of workers exposed to styrene found no evidence of a causal link between styrene exposure and cancer. The literature contains numerous studies of workers with exposures to styrene during its manufacture or use in synthetic rubber or plastics production. Though a couple of studies have found an increase in either non-Hodgkins lymphoma or esophageal cancer many others did not and no dose response was seen in the outliers. The authors conclude that the available epidemiologic literature does not support a causal inference for styrene and any form of cancer.

The paper, published in the October issue of Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine is titled “Epidemiologic Studies of Styrene and Cancer: A Review of the Literature” and was authored by Boffetta P, Adami HO, Cole P, Trichopoulos D and Mandel JS.

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US EPA has been working on a risk assessment of trichloroethylene (TCE) for some time now. Here’s a link to the EPA Issue Papers through 2005. Now a comprehensive review of the issues has been published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology. The article is entitled “Trichloroethylene risk assessment: A review and commentary” and it provides an excellent overview of the developing molecular biological and molecular epidemiological approach to causal attribution and risk; one we’re sure to see increasingly in asbestos, benzene and other mass tort litigation.

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There are some interesting articles in the scientific literature about a war of which you've likely never heard. It's the one going on inside your body. A war pitting microbe against microbe. A conflict in which chemical warfare, the secretion of toxins, may well result in collateral damage - with the collateral damagee being you and the damage being cancer. More about that in the coming days but for now, here's an article about colon cancer risk and some of the bacteria working night and day to keep you from developing it. Here's the link.

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Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), the new head of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions promised on Monday to probe deeply into any potential links between cell phone use and cancer. This issue has been extensively studied, particularly in Scandinavian countries where cell phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Ericson are headquartered. Each study to date has found no statistically significant association between cell phone use and cancer, including brain cancer.

However, there are still some who attribute brain cancer to cell phones on the theory that radio waves, a form of radiation, damage brain cells. The debate comes on the heels of the 1980's and 1990's controversy regarding the potential adverse health effects of electromagnetic fields EMFs emanating from power lines. While studies cleared EMFs they implicated population mixing likely via some sub-clinical infection as a cause of cancer in children. More on population mixing to come.

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Helicobacter pylori has been identified as a causative agent in cancers that are often the subject of mass tort cases such as lymphoma, stomach and colon cancer.  Though the route of transmission of helicobacter pylori is unknown it's believed that the infection is acquired early in life through drinking water.   

Here's a paper that will be presented at a conference on water and public health to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this November by the American Public Health Association that discusses how helicobacter pylori might catch a ride on amoebas to infect our water supply.  Or if you want to worry about bladder cancer from exposure to arsenic in the water supply then you might find this link of interest.  The full program can be found here.

Two other papers you might find of interest on this cancer-causing agent via the public water supply can be found here and here.

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