mesothelioma blog

The New York Times looks at the types of cancer and how much the National Cancer Institute spends on each. Of course, much NCI funding is for general cancer research or non-specific research, but if you look at the dollars per case, there is a good deal of variance. The Times found the NCI spent $2,596 per breast cancer case and only $1,318 per prostate cancer case. Both of these types have high survival rates, and the funding per death was over $10K for each, while the funding for lung cancer (which kills more people than any other type of cancer) was only $1,630/death. It’s well known that breast cancer raises more money in private charity fund-raising in proportion to its incidence compared to other types of cancer.

The Miniing Safety and Health Administration finally lowered the limit for exposure to 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter. That’s a 95% reduction from the previous 2 fibers per cc limit. The new regulation goes into effect in late April.

Here is the “final rule” as published by the MSHA (22 pages, PDF). MSHA’s sister Labor Department agency, OSHA, has had a 0.1 fibers/cc limit for over a decade. This is the limit for most workers for a long time, but miners were for some reason stuck with more explicitly dirty air. This is an example of government failure - where the science, and even most of the work world, are ahead of the mining industry.