DOCTOR-PATIENT ALLIANCE FOR RESPONSIBLE ASBESTOS-CANCER POLICY

11818 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA  90025

        Tel:  (310) 622-4960
Fax: (310) 231-2131
www.drpatientalliance.com

 

 

 

February 17, 2006


The Honorable Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510


Re:       SB 852; Thanks for Helping Asbestos Cancer Patients


Dear Senator Durbin:
On behalf of the Doctor Patient Alliance for Reasonable Asbestos Policy, we want to thank you for your help in defeating SB 852 on the budget point of order.  We support the effort to provide swift and fair compensation to patients suffering from serious asbestos diseases, such as mesothelioma.  However, the asbestos trust fund bill, as drafted, contained too many fatal flaws.


We hope that if another bill comes up for consideration, you will continue to champion the rights of seriously impaired asbestos patients.  We do not know for certain if there is an "asbestos litigation crisis" in this country.  We are, however, absolutely convinced that there is an asbestos health epidemic in this country.  Any future legislation must address the long neglected imperative to resolve the public health crisis by creating a medical research and treatment program for asbestos cancer.  Mesothelioma is an orphan disease.  It remains under-funded by the NIH compared to other cancers.  Billions of dollars have been consumed by litigation transaction costs.  We believe mesothelioma can be treated like other chronic diseases if all stakeholders -- manufacturers, the government, insurance, lawyers, drug companies and patients -- would invest in research. Imagine how much longer mesothelioma patients would be surviving today if we embarked on an aggressive medical research program when the government first regulated asbestos back in the early 1970s.


We are standing by to offer our medical expertise on how best to fashion a conservative but promising medical research program that will result in meaningful treatments that will extend the survival of mesothelioma patients.  Thanks again for your courage, compassion and fiscal responsibility.


Respectfully,

Robert Cameron, M.D.
UCLA Medical School
Los Angeles, California
Phone: (310).794-7333
rcameron@mednet.ucla.edu

Harvey I. Pass, M.D.
NYU School of Medicine and
Comprehensive Cancer Center
Phone: (212) 263-7417
harvey.pass@med.nyu.edu

Bret Williams, M.D.
Hillsborough,North Carolina
Phone: (919) 732-4656
will118w@pol.net