Baron and Budd - Mesothelioma Lawyers

Attorney Russell Budd

Asbestos Found in Home Heating and Air Conditioning Equipment

July 21, 2008
HVAC Manufacturers Settle with Mesothelioma Victim,
Announces Baron & Budd

DALLAS, TX (July 21, 2008) The law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C. today announced that an unnamed mesothelioma patient and his family have reached a confidential settlement with several manufacturers of home heating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, including industry leaders Lennox, Trane and Carrier. The plaintiff developed mesothelioma, an extremely painful and fatal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, after working for 40 years as a repairman on residential HVAC units, according to attorney John Langdoc.

“Baron & Budd has been investigating asbestos related injuries for years, and even we were surprised to discover that common residential air conditioners and heaters contained the carcinogen asbestos,” said Langdoc. “We had scientists dismantle and test some of the units—units that had no warnings or notifications that they had asbestos in them—and we were shocked to discover that they contained asbestos parts.”

The plaintiff operated a small HVAC repair business in Telephone, Texas, about a hundred miles northeast of Dallas. Over several decades, he worked at hundreds of local homes, repairing name-brand heating and air conditioning units for families in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. During the course of the lawsuit, Baron & Budd, P.C. discovered that many of these HVAC units contained asbestos parts that released hazardous amounts of asbestos into the air during routine repair work.

According to Langdoc, the evidence that he and his colleagues turned up established that the HVAC manufacturers intentionally added asbestos parts into their equipment and never warned consumers or repairmen that the units had asbestos in them.
“Because these manufacturers have been successful in keeping this secret for so long, HVAC repairmen have been largely unaware of their asbestos exposure and the health risks their work entailed,” said Russell Budd, managing shareholder of Baron & Budd. The case was filed in Oakland, California.

Radiotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma

E Chapman, EG Berenstein, M Diéguez, Z Ortiz

Background

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon disease, but the incidence is increasing and is expected to peak in many developed countries in the next two decades. The management of patients with malignant mesothelioma is controversial. Very few patients are suitable for any potentially curative treatment and the effectiveness of radical therapy with surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in curing patients or prolonging survival is uncertain. The role of radiotherapy is controversial although it has been used as part of multimodal therapy. The present review will try to clarify these uncertainties.

Authors' conclusions

As radiotherapy has never been compared to chemotherapy or surgery or to best supportive care (as part of combination therapy) in a prospective, randomised trial, no data exist supporting one or the other treatment as a better option for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. There is a need for multicentre controlled randomised trials assessing the role of radiotherapy in the radical treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. The studies should be limited to patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, classified by stage, cytology and type of radiotherapy. The type of radiotherapy should be defined in advance and variables of radiotherapy dose definition and delivery should be carefully controlled.

Plain language summary
There is no evidence that radiotherapy could help to cure or to prolong the survival of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma is increasing and is expected to peak in many developed countries in the next two decades. In 80% of the patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma there is a clear history of occupational or domestic exposure to asbestos. Very few patients are suitable for any potentially curative treatment and the effectiveness of radical therapy with surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy in curing patients or prolonging survival is uncertain. The role of radiotherapy is controversial. It has been used as a component of multimodal therapy (plus chemotherapy and/or surgery). To date the reviewers have not found any reports of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that show that radiotherapy is an effective option for malignant pleural mesothelioma. There is a need for multicentre experimental studies assessing the role of radiotherapy in this disease.