Mesothelioma Search Engine To Consolidate Medical and Legal Information

On the one-year anniversary of the launch of their Vioxx Search Engine, Nielsen Technical Services today announced the launch of their Mesothelioma Search Engine.Niche search engines or vertical search engines have increased in popularity, but the time and expense of creating and maintaining a search engine for a highly vertical segment of an available search audience is generally not a good investment financially. When asked about the financial viability of such a site, owner Chris Nielsen said, "We have some interested parties that would like to be associated with us and are exploring those options, but will not compromise our values for the sake of making a buck. The massive amount of money the asbestos and mesothelioma lawyers are spending have resulted in a feeding frenzy which has spawned thousands of sites and millions of pages of fluff, trash, and recycled content. I admit our site is expected to carry ads at some point, but that is not the reason for creating the site."Nielsen was then asked the reason for creating such a site. "I just could not find a central source to go for information where sites were not bidding or competitively optimizing for position and search engine ranking. Search engines are fighting to maintain relevancy but they are having problems. Many 'scraper sites' are only looking to get visitors that will click on ads to reach real content. If you try a search for 'mesothelioma' it should be clear what the problem is."As with their Vioxx medical and legal search engine, Mesothelioma Search Engine will carry no paid search engine results or paid inclusion of sites. The site has a form for visitors to suggest sites. The list of sites included in the index is posted on the site and available for download, a feature not offered by other search engines.The company is indexing selected sites for those looking for more information such as patients, researchers, families, doctors, pharmacists, students, and those in the legal profession. This site is offered as a public service for those looking for information related to medical and legal information on mesothelioma lung cancer, or asbestos lung cancer for which there is no cure and is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers or asbestos dust. About Nielsen Technical ServicesThe company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been providing computer and software services since 1988. The Internet has transformed the company from a hardware services company into Internet consulting and specializes in search engine optimization. The company is a founding member of SEOBy.org

Asbestos-tainted Montana town seeks aid

In one sense, Les Skramstad is almost jealous of his late neighbor in Libby, Mont. At least that man's death from cancerous mesothelioma came quickly, he said. Skramstad is dying of asbestosis, which feels like slow, constant suffocation.
"It's pretty doggone painful," he said.
Also challenging, Skramstad said, is watching Congress struggle with legislation that could provide some compensation for all of those sickened by asbestos poisoning in the town of about 2,500 people.
Asbestos released into the air from the now-closed W.R. Grace and Co. vermiculite mine just down the road is blamed by some health authorities for killing about 200 people and sickening one of every eight residents. Skramstad worked at the mine in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Last year, a federal grand jury indicted Grace and some of its executives, saying the company knew it was poisoning people. Grace denies criminal wrongdoing.
On Feb. 14, the bill creating a $140 billion trust fund for asbestos victims - with the money supplied largely by defendant companies and their insurers - stalled in Congress after some conservative senators feared the cost would eventually be passed on to taxpayers.
The legislation included a provision specifically for Libby residents that would pay those who can prove they have asbestos-related diseases up to $1.1 million each.
As Congress has stopped and started on the bill several times, Skramstad and others who are dying of asbestos poisoning say many in Washington don't understand Libby's plight.
Of the 150 people he worked with four decades ago, only five are alive, Skramstad said.
"It's going to kill us, every one of us," he said. "It's just a matter of time. ... This is a lot more serious than a lot of people realize."
The vermiculite mine provided material for various household products, fireproofing and insulation. It was the best job in town, keeping Libby residents employed for decades. But it also blew tremolite asbestos - a particularly hazardous form of the mineral - all over town.
The long, needlelike asbestos tremolite fibers can easily become embedded in human lungs and cause asbestosis, often fatal, or mesothelioma, a rare, fast-moving cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs.
Montana's two senators, Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Conrad Burns, have worked to convince the Senate about Libby's dire situation. But Baucus, who wrote the legislation, said some lawmakers can't visualize the problem - unlike more publicized tragedies like Hurricane Katrina that play out for television.
"Libby is off the beaten track and it's not as visible to the cameras, but the tragedy is just as bad if not worse because it lingers on for so long," Baucus said.
Some senators, including John Cornyn, R-Texas, object to the benefit because they believe it would be unfair to people elsewhere who may have been exposed to asbestos. That dissent threatens to kill the bill.
Most Libby residents publicly support the legislation but worry about what will happen if the provision is watered down to the point that it seriously diminishes help for those who are sick.
For example, Baucus and Burns have so far been unable to add medical criteria called the "diffusion capacity test," which measures the lungs' efficiency to pass oxygen into the bloodstream and helps diagnose victims of tremolite asbestos disease commonly found in Libby. Doctors there say 40 percent of those who are sick may not be found eligible without the test.
Burns said they have to work with other members to get the best legislation possible.
"I have people in Libby who are going to die before their case even gets to court," he said, adding that any court settlements probably wouldn't be enough.
For now, many residents are struggling with medical bills. Some have filed for bankruptcy because of the financial strain. In September, a health administrator for Grace, which operates under bankruptcy protection, wrote hundreds of Libby residents that they no longer have asbestos-related disease or may not be as sick as they thought.
Tanis Hernandez, outreach coordinator for Libby's Center for Asbestos Related Disease, said many of those who are sick can no longer work, further threatening their finances.
Hernandez, whose job includes helping sickened residents deal with legal problems and counseling dying patients, said the town has lost its innocence. Because Grace was the best employer in town, many people put their faith in the company to take care of them.
"Our trust has been damaged," she said.
What many people don't realize, she added, is that Libby's particular disease is different and requires a different solution.
"It's kind of an invisible disease," she said. "Unless you know someone really well, you might not know how sick they are."
As for Skramstad, his wife and two of his grown children have also been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases, likely a result of the dust he brought home on his clothes and shoes every night. Because the diseases can take years to develop, he fears his other children will be next.
"I am in terror of it every day," he said. "It's a hard cross for me to carry around. I went to work there and I carried that stuff back to my wife and kids."
Skramstad's wife, Norita, said so many people are dying, some town residents are thinking of replacing a growing collection of makeshift crosses with a more permanent memorial.

Mesothelioma Search Engine to Consolidate Medical and Legal Information

On the one-year anniversary of the launch of their Vioxx Search Engine (www.vioxx-search-engine.com), Nielsen Technical Services today announced the launch of their Mesothelioma Search Engine (www.mesothelioma-search-engine.com).Niche search engines or vertical search engines have increased in popularity, but the time and expense of creating and maintaining a search engine for a highly vertical segment of an available search audience is generally not a good investment financially. When asked about the financial viability of such a site, owner Chris Nielsen said, “We have some interested parties that would like to be associated with us and are exploring those options, but will not compromise our values for the sake of making a buck. The massive amount of money the asbestos and mesothelioma lawyers are spending have resulted in a feeding frenzy which has spawned thousands of sites and millions of pages of fluff, trash, and recycled content. I admit our site is expected to carry ads at some point, but that is not the reason for creating the site.”Nielsen was then asked the reason for creating such a site. “I just could not find a central source to go for information where sites were not bidding or competitively optimizing for position and search engine ranking. Search engines are fighting to maintain relevancy but they are having problems. Many ‘scraper sites’ are only looking to get visitors that will click on ads to reach real content. If you try a search for ‘mesothelioma’ it should be clear what the problem is.”As with their Vioxx medical and legal search engine, Mesothelioma Search Engine will carry no paid search engine results or paid inclusion of sites. The site has a form for visitors to suggest sites. The list of sites included in the index is posted on the site and available for download, a feature not offered by other search engines.The company is indexing selected sites for those looking for more information such as patients, researchers, families, doctors, pharmacists, students, and those in the legal profession. This site is offered as a public service for those looking for information related to medical and legal information on mesothelioma lung cancer, or asbestos lung cancer for which there is no cure and is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers or asbestos dust. About Nielsen Technical ServicesThe company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been providing computer and software services since 1988. The Internet has transformed the company from a hardware services company into Internet consulting and specializes in search engine optimization.

Bondex and Georgia Pacific begin defense in asbestos case

Jeff HebrankWhen Georgia-Pacific and Bondex International get their chance to defend themselves in a Madison County asbestos trial next week they'll introduce some unusual evidence.A metacognition specialist is expected to testify that it is highly unlikely that a person can remember the brand name of a product used 40 years ago. And, a pulmonologist will state that in 80 percent of mesothelioma cases involving women, the cause is unknown. In the other cases, cause is attributed to working in a trade. In the court's first asbestos trial this year, 84-year-old plaintiff Anita O'Connell claims the defendants were negligent for injuries she received from asbestos fibers that became airborne while she shook out her husband's and sons' work clothes before washing them between 1966 and 1970. Michael O'Connell, Anita's son, testified that joint compound produced by Georgia Pacific and Bondex was responsible for causing his mother's illness.Michael O'Connell contradicted his mother's testimony when he stated that after a days work, his brothers would come home covered white as snowmen. In a deposition, Anita O'Connell stated that she didn't really think that there was much dust, and even if there was, she didn't think she breathed it.In court, Michael O'Connell stated that he would often see Georgia Pacific and Bondex joint compound in his father's shop. However, he admitted he also saw other products as well. Anita's husband, George O'Connell, owned Bel-Aire plastering in Burbank, Ill. -- an important aspect in the case because plasterers do not use joint compound, drywallers do. But due to the Lipke Rule, it is highly unlikely that presiding Circuit Judge Daniel Stack will let the defendants present evidence that there were many asbestos-containing plastering products that could be responsible for O'Connell's exposure.In the last week, O'Connell's attorney Chris Panatier of Baron & Budd in Texas has called on witnesses who've testitfied that all asbestos is dangerous. He is expected to deliver closing arguments on Monday.Panatier called former U.S. assistant surgeon general deputy director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Richard Lemen, Ph.D., to illustrate the difference between chrysotile asbestos and amphibole asbestos.Lemen also is the co-chair of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization's Science Advisory Board.Pathologist James Robb, M.D., who was an expert witness in a Louisiana case in which a jury awarded $12.8 million to a man who also has outlived the life expectancy of a person diagnosed with mesothelioma, also testified for the plaintiff.During opening statements, Georgia Pacific defense attorney Mark Phillips of Nelson Mullins Riley Scarborough in South Carolina, asserted that short fiber chrysotile asbestos was used in its joint compound and it was purchased from companies like Johns Manville.Phillips told the jurors that chrysotile can be expelled from the body by coughing or sneezing while amphibole asbestos stays in the lungs.Jeff Hebrank of the Burroughs Firm in Edwardsville, lead attorney in the case for both companies, and Phillips, plan to call several experts.Gerald Kerby, M.D., board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary medicine, is expected to testify that short fiber chrysotile does not cause mesothelioma and that no joint compound could have caused the disease. He will also state that the cause of mesothelioma in most women is idiopathic, or unknown. Kerby will testify that if asbestos in joint compound caused mesothelioma, there would be an epidemic in mesothelioma cases due to the amount of people working in the drywall business decades ago.In May 2005, Kerby was a witness for Hebrank and Phillips in a separate asbestos trial in which Georgia Pacific was victorious. Hebrank and Phillips also are expected to call James Rock, Ph.D, who is a certified industrial hygienist from Texas A&M University. Rock is expected to testify that even if Anita O'Connell was exposed to asbestos in joint compound there was not enough to cause her illness.A human memory expert, Charles Weaver, III, Ph.D. from Baylor University, will testify about metamemory and metacognition, the relationship between what individuals know and what they believe they know.Weaver will state that it is unlikely that Michael O'Connell can remember the brand name of a product his father used 40 years ago.The case is expected to go to the jury late Wednesday or early Thursday.