WORKED TO DEATH

When my father's blue Chevy station wagon entered the cul-de-sac of my childhood at the end of the day, our kitchen table was already set for supper. Stepping onto the driveway, a powdery veil of pale dust clinging to his work clothes, my father would remind me that a daughter's hug would have to wait."I'm dirty," he'd explain. "Let me change first."Before we sat down to eat, my father would take a quick shower while my mother would shake asbestos dust--the detritus of my father's profession--from his clothes. Ever vigilant, my mother would presoak dad's dirty work clothes in the laundry tub before tossing the bundle in the washing machine.I am an asbestos worker's daughter.And while my father is long retired from his beloved trade, he and many of his best friends from the union hall share a sad truth they seldom speak of: lung abnormalities resulting from years of asbestos exposure."When we found out asbestos was bad, even after it was banned in the '70s, nobody quit," my father explained. "It was a way to make a good living."When it comes to hazardous jobs, be it coal mining, forestry or construction, the opportunity to "make a good living" often upstages the specter of death by occupation.According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 5,703 fatal work injuries were recorded in the U.S. in 2004. As collected by the National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the report shows construction as having the most fatal work injuries of any industry sector with 1,224, followed by transportation and warehousing with 829, and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting with 659.The 2004 report finds that overall, 91 percent of fatal work injuries involved workers in private industry, with 9 percent of cases being federal, state and local government workers; for example, about 105 firefighters die each year in the line of duty.Now, following the West Virginia mine disasters, in which a total of 14 miners died in less than a month, legislators are launching emergency investigations and vowing to enhance state and federal safety measures for the mining industry. Meanwhile, grieving families who have just buried their loved ones will face the grim task of watching their husbands, sons and daughters, fathers and grandfathers head back to work, plying their trade within the inscrutable face of a mine.In the past few weeks, many have spoken eloquently about the culture of miners, of the intergenerational ties that bind a community to an industry that is inherently dangerous yet nonetheless an economic engine carrying legions of families to a better place.Such was the case for my family, where after attending high school in the 1950s, my father and two uncles married, got their union cards and joined the ranks of Chicago's asbestos workers. The three families would add up to 13 children and almost 140 years of marriage and counting. For the next two decades, my father and uncles would spend their days on job sites throughout the city--the Prudential Building, the Art Institute, the Merchandise Mart--swaddling pipes with asbestos, a seemingly miraculous product used for insulation until it was banned in the early 1970s.Thus the insulators would learn that they were no longer "asbestos workers" but "asbestos removers." Recently, my father reluctantly discussed with me this chapter of my family history. The quintessential storyteller, my father is left searching for words when asbestos exposure is the subject."For years, a lot of the guys were getting sick, but even the medical community didn't know enough about asbestos," he said.Asbestos was eventually deemed deadly, and even non-smokers like my father were diagnosed with lung abnormalities such as bilateral thickening of the pleura, scarring and, in the worst cases, mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer.Unlike the West Virginia miners who died recently in the Sago disaster, victims of progressive illnesses such as asbestosis and black lung disease are not counted by the annual national census of fatal occupational injuries, although officials estimate the number of deaths stemming from on-the-job hazardous exposure and injury could be more than 1.3 million per year."We used to all sit down and eat our bag lunches, and there would be asbestos dust blowing all over the place," my father recalled quietly, more betrayed than bitter. "Insulators and miners ... we're no different than doctors or lawyers; it's just a different avenue of life we fell into."I conclude our "interview," and my father is relieved that he can rise from my dining room table, refresh his cup of coffee and resume playing with his rambunctious 5-year-old granddaughter, who is soon swept up in a big hug, just like I was not so many years ago.- - -
DARK AS A DUNGEON
Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine,And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mines.It will form as a habit and seep in your soul,'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal.It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,Where danger is double and pleasures are few,Where the rain never falls and the sun never shinesIt's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.It's a-many a man I have seen in my day,Who lived just to labor his whole life away.Like a fi end with his dope and a drunkard his wine,A man will have lust for the lure of the mines.I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll,My body will blacken and turn into coal.Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home,And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones.The midnight, the morning, or the middle of day,Is the same to the miner who labors away.Where the demons of death often come by surprise,One fall of the slate and you're buried alive.-- Merle Travis, 1946

Alfacell Forms New Thoracic Cancer Advisory Board

BLOOMFIELD, N.J., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alfacell Corporation(Nasdaq: ACEL) today announced the formation of a Thoracic Cancer AdvisoryBoard to support the Company's strategic focus on developing novelribonuclease (RNase) therapies for the treatment of diseases such asmesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The Thoracic Cancer Advisory Board will work in coordination with theCompany's prestigious Scientific Advisory Board, led by Dr. David Sidransky,Director of Head and Neck Cancer Research at Johns Hopkins University, as wellas with the Business Policy Committee, chaired by former U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "We are extremely pleased to have attracted such esteemed colleagues tothe Alfacell Thoracic Cancer Advisory Board," stated Kuslima Shogen, ChiefExecutive Officer of Alfacell. "All are highly-accomplished,internationally-renowned experts in oncology, and are universally recognizedas thought leaders and pioneers in mesothelioma and lung cancer research. Welook forward to collaborating with them closely to advance our shared visionof developing new therapies to treat these insidious diseases." Michele Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman Dr. Carbone is Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at LoyolaUniversity in Chicago, where he is also a tenured Professor at the CancerCenter, Department of Pathology. Previously, Dr. Carbone held scientific andacademic positions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and at theUniversity of Chicago. He is a board certified pathologist, and a pastrecipient of the NIH's prestigious Fogarty Fellowship. During his fellowshipat the NIH, Dr. Carbone obtained his Ph.D. in Human Pathology through acombined research program between the University of Roma and the NIH. He iswell-known for his groundbreaking research that identified the SV40 virus-- previously characterized only as a polio vaccine contaminant -- as a humancarcinogen in mesothelioma, and for discovering that genetic predisposition tomineral fiber carcinogenesis is the cause of a mesothelioma epidemic inTurkey. More recently, Dr. Carbone's work has identified the mechanisms ofasbestos carcinogenesis and co-carcinogenesis with SV40. Dr. Carbone's workin mesothelioma has been acknowledged by the National Cancer Institute (NCI),the American Cancer Society, and other leading research institutions, whichhave awarded him numerous grants in recent years -- including a $9.5M PO-1 in2006 from the NCI to study the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. Dr. Carbone hasauthored nearly 200 publications, including original research articles, books,and book chapters. He is a graduate of the Medical School of Rome, andobtained board certification in Anatomic Pathology from both the University ofRoma and the University of Chicago. Harvey I. Pass, M.D. Dr. Pass is Professor of Surgery and Chief, Division of Thoracic Surgeryand Thoracic Oncology at NYU School of Medicine and Comprehensive CancerCenter. He has studied pleural mesothelioma since 1988 when he was the Headof Thoracic Oncology and Senior Investigator of the Surgery Branch of theNational Cancer Institute in Bethesda and then Head of Thoracic Oncology atthe Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit (one of the 37 NCI designatedComprehensive Cancer Centers). Dr. Pass combines cytoreductive surgery, eitherEPP or pleurectomy, with innovative or standard adjuvant therapies includingnovel antiangiogenesis inhibitors postoperatively or chemotherapycombinations. His Thoracic Oncology laboratory is pursuing the study ofproteins (proteomics) and gene expression profiles in mesothelioma to developnew early detection strategies, as well as designing alternate innovativetreatments which use novel proteins as targets for mesothelioma. Dr. Pass isa graduate of Duke University Medical School. Raja M. Flores, M.D. Dr. Flores is a board-certified thoracic surgeon and Assistant Member atMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York; an Assistant AttendingSurgeon at Memorial Hospital, New York and an Assistant Professor ofCardiothoracic Surgery, Weill College, Cornell University, New York.Previously, Dr. Flores was a recipient of prestigious fellowships at HarvardMedical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he received theThoracic Oncology Clinical Research Fellowship for IntraoperativeChemotherapy, Mesothelioma and Lung Cancer. Dr. Flores is well-known forhaving compiled one of the largest mesothelioma patient databases to researchareas of failure, and to determine how to improve treatments. His other areasof expertise include minimally invasive thoracic surgery (thoracoscopy); VATSlobectomy; lung cancer screening; tracheobronchial resection; extrapleuralpneumonectomy for mesothelioma; intraoperative chemotherapy; lymph-nodemapping; esophageal cancer, and Belsey repair. Dr. Flores is also a frequentlecturer and presenter on the diagnosis, treatment and management ofmesothelioma and lung cancer. He is a graduate of the Albert Einstein Collegeof Medicine in New York. About Alfacell Corporation Alfacell Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on thediscovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for cancer,using its proprietary RNase technology platform. ONCONASE(R) (ranpirnase),Alfacell's lead investigational drug candidate, is currently being evaluatedin several studies, including a Phase IIIb registration study for malignantmesothelioma (MM) and a Phase I / II trial in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer(NSCLC). For more information, please visit http://www.alfacell.com. This press release includes statements that may constitute"forward-looking" statements, usually containing the words "believe,""estimate," "project," "expect" or similar expressions. Forward-lookingstatements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results todiffer materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that wouldcause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to,uncertainties involved in transitioning from concept to product, uncertaintiesinvolving the ability of the Company to finance research and developmentactivities, potential challenges to or violations of patents, uncertaintiesregarding the outcome of clinical trials, the Company's ability to securenecessary approvals from regulatory agencies, dependence upon third-partyvendors, and other risks discussed in the Company's periodic filings with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. By making these forward-lookingstatements, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these statementsfor revisions or changes after the date of this release.Please provide any information you think may be helpful to mesothelioma victimd and their families