Notes from EGYPT

39-year-old With Malignant Mestothelioma - Cairo, Egypt

Dear Sir,

My husband was 39 when he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He is one of the ones mentioned in the email sent by Luke Dittrich from Cairo (see below) who lived around the asbestos factory and got mesothelioma through residential exposure. The real tragedy of this factory's existence is that it has been common knowledge for most of my life that asbestos causes cancer and yet they still produce corrugated roofing products which expose people to this carcinogen every day in the most blatant manner. If there is anything to be done to encourage international pressure on such factories, I would appreciate your advice. I am doing all I can from within Egypt - having written an article myself and corresponded with any others who are interested in doing the same.

I have also read about the use of lovastatin to treat mesothelioma. I understand that it is still awaiting testing in mice but of course we are grasping at straws to help my husband who was diagnosed a year and two months ago. He has started to have terrible pain and if there is any hope in any new treatment we want to hear about it.

He has had 9 months of chemotherapy which apparently hasn't done much. If there is any hope in alternative treatments, where can I get more information?

Thank you for the valuable information which your site provides.

Sincerely,

Mariam Shouman

Cairo Asbestos Factory Poisoning Neighbors - Cairo, Egypt

May 21, 1998

Dear Mr. Worthington,

My name is Luke Dittrich and I am an American journalist living and working in Egypt. I am currently researching an article which examines the public health hazards posed by a factory in Cairo which produces asbestos-based products. For over sixty years, this factory has produced asbestos piping and roofing. Many workers at the factory, as well as an inordinate number of persons living in the factory's vicinity, have been diagnosed with mesothelioma.

I am writing to you because I was hoping that you could provide me with some background as to the history and current status of asbestos law in the United States. Your website is a great resource for specific case studies, but I am in need of a more general framework. Is asbestos production completely banned in the US? If somebody contracts mesothelioma, how do you determine who is legally responsible for the illness? In a case similar to the one I have described (where people living near a factory come down with the disease), what sort of settlement could be expected per person? I am interested in this information because it would serve as an interesting comparison to the status of asbestos litigation in Egypt. Currently, though the aforementioned factory is almost certainly causing grievous damage to the surrounding community's health, there have been no successful lawsuits filed against it, and there are as yet no plans to relocate it or shut it down completely.

Thank you very much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Luke Dittrich
l_dittrich@hotmail.com