A court of appeal in San Francisco has reinstated a lawsuit brought by a widow and her children against Ford Motor Co. along withtwo other possible sources of lethal asbestos dust at a Coast Guard base where her late husband worked.

Gene Lepore used to be a trainer at the Port Hueneme base in Ventura County from 1974 until his retirement in 2000. He often went to a vehicle repair shop where the mechanics used to work on brakes that emitted dust full of asbestos until new rulings came into place in 1986, which ensured protection was used. But it was too late for Lepore who died of mesothelioma in 2010 aged 62.

The suit, which was filed in San Francisco was dismissed in 2012 saying there was no evidence against Ford even though more than a dozen companies had reached settlement with Lepore’s family.

However, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that the witnesses had offered enough evidence to let a jury decide whether Lepore had been exposed to asbestos dust from Ford, and three other defendants given that Lepore had been at the repair center when Ford vehicles were being repaired and having their brakes replaced.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

The Hall of Justice in San Francisco is very old and also houses the county jail. In addition there are court rooms, court offices, the office of the District Attorney and his staff and some police officers.

Until this year, the San Francisco Police Department Southern Station was also there until they moved to a new Public Safety Building in Mission Bay. However for those who remain, the building is none too pleasant to work in. There have been sewage issues recently when pipes burst and covered the floor in raw sewage and in addition the building itself is seismically unsound, coated in lead paint, and full of asbestos.

The elevators often do not work, the building is full of rats and employees agree that the building needs to be demolished even though a political battle is taking place from those who want to replace it and those who think the $240 million it would cost would be better spent elsewhere.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

Following the Valley Fire, the San Francisco Environmental Protection Agency has begun to dispose of the hazardous waste from the affected households.

In Lake County, workers were looking to remove any type of compressed air tanks including aerosols, paint cans, camping stoves and the like as they need to take them all out of the area before a specialist contractor arrives with large trucks to take away the mounds of ash. The reason is that it would be too dangerous to have potential explosive items mixed in with the ash when heavy machinery is operating.

Workers concentrated on the 15 homes nearest to schools in Middletown and they were chosen as the ash is laced with asbestos and needs to be moved before the students return to school.

The EPA is also working with trucks to water down the ash as much as possible to prevent it from becoming airborne.

They hope to finish within a month covering around 70 to 100 homes a day and have 1,280 in total to clean up.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

One of the worst wildfires in the state of California’s history has killed three people and destroyed over 1,000 homes.

In addition the fire is threatening another 3,500 homes to the north of San Francisco although according to Cal Fire the fire is now 70% contained. They went on to say that the public should remain vigilant as to the current conditions and heed any evacuation warnings. They should also be aware that deeply charred trees or poles could still be hazardous.

In addition, when it comes to clearing up after the fires, the public should be aware that chemicals and asbestos could have been released into the air so special precautions should be taken.

The fires injured four firefighters out of over 4,000 in around 100 fire crews who were fighting the blazes using over 350 fire engines and 15 helicopters.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit network is being accused by a national environmental health group of having asbestos in BART cars.

The group has asked BART to carry out a detailed inspection of around 400 of its cars which might contain asbestos following reports that the Washington Metro system has now discovered that hundreds of its cars have asbestos. The cars involved in the Washington metro were manufacturer by Rohr Inc. who made the BART cars at the same time.

There is no safe level of asbestos exposure and its microscopic fibers can enter the lungs and cause fatal cancer years later.

The environmental group says that the employees of BART and those passengers who ride the trains each day have the right to know if they have been put at risk. However, a BART spokeswoman said that 439 of the original cars were rebuilt between 1997 and 2005 and none of them had asbestos in them.

In the case of Washington Metro, 280 of its cars did contain a small amount of asbestos in a sealed part of the mechanics of the cars which they are now replacing.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

According to a recently released study, asbestos fibers have been found in some crayons made in China and in powder for a child’s fingerprint kit which were bought at stores in the Bay area.

Four out of 28 boxes of crayons had asbestos and two of the fingerprint kits.

Environmentalists have said that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos and these products should be nowhere near children.

This is not the first time that asbestos has been found in crayons as a report in 2000 found asbestos in several crayons made by the United States brand, Crayola as well as others. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission checked the crayons and even though they determined there was a low risk of exposure, they asked the manufacturers to come up with a new asbestos free crayon.

This latest study, by the Environmental Working Group study found the asbestos positive crayons and the crime scene kits at Party City, Dollar Tree and Toys R Us stores in Pleasant Hill. In addition, one other positive kit had been bought online through Amazon.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

At the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, the scaffolding has been put in place to restore the 45 foot high stained glass window on the California Street side.

The window features the New Testament and has Christ, four disciples and several angels. The original putty is wearing out which means that the lead strips may fall out followed by the glass. It was created in 1931 by stained glass artist, Charles Jay Connick.

The cathedral has hired a master restorer of stained glass, Ariana Makau who will carefully remove the 330 panels, taken them to her workshop in Oakland and carry out cleaning and reconstructive work.

However it is an expensive job although the actual amount has not been revealed.

To remove the 5,000 pieces of glass takes a lot of work and Makau and her tea have to work with hard hats, hazmat suits and respirators. This is because not only is the glass held together with lead but the window itself is full of asbestos.

The window will be replaced by brown glass and it is hoped the window will be back to its original glory in time for Easter Services 2016.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

Over the last decades, women have more and more been moving into jobs usually associated with men, and several nonprofit health groups including Breast Cancer Action, and Breast Cancer Fund, have joined together to ascertain the health impacts on women in traditionally males roles. They have now issued a report to look at the health impacts of firefighting on women.

The study began as concern increased at the high incidence of pre menopausal breast cancer among women in the San Francisco fire department. As of 2012, 10 out of 117 female San Francisco firefighters between the ages of 40 and 50 had contracted breast cancer, and one had died. That was a breast cancer rate at 8.5% which is nearly six times the national average for women in the same age bracket.

Some workplaces and chemicals which firefighters are traditionally exposed to, such as asbestos, may be more dangerous to women than to men as women have more fat tissue where some chemicals accumulate and they tend to have lower body weight, which can reduce the amount of asbestos exposure that is safe. Moreover, females have a different balance of hormones than men, which can affect how those hormones interact with some chemicals. In short, workplace chemicals and asbestos can impact women differently than men, and in some cases may pose a larger threat.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

In San Francisco there appear to be major problems at the Hall of Justice.

Not only has it suffered several electrical outages recently, but there are longstanding worries about the state of the building and its safety risks.

With the electricity outages, elevators became stuck and police departments had to work using extension cords running from one end of the building to another just to stay operational. Legal work could not be done due to no access to computers and there was no power in the jail facility for inmates.

In addition, ceilings leak and windows have sandbags on them to keep out the rain. Not only that, there is a vermin problem and the building is littered with mousetraps.

Apart from those health and safety hazards there is asbestos visible in the floors and in the walls and some fire exits are blocked which could prove catastrophic in the event of a fire.

Although it is programmed to replace the Hall of Justice, due to the cost, an estimated $1.2 billion, it will not happen overnight. People are being moved out department by department with the police department due to move first.

At the moment around 800 people work in the building, built in 1958, including all areas of law enforcement. It has been deemed unsafe by engineers and public works officials three times since 1992.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.

There was an explosion at the Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N refinery in Torrance, California, during the third week of February and last year the same plant was cited for eight serious violations following state inspections, including violations of asbestos regulations.

However, a review cleared the plant this month of all but two serious violations and 12 general violations and Exxon Mobil says it had now resolved them all.

The blast and subsequent blaze that happened at the gasoline processing unit at the refinery on 18 February injured four workers slightly and prompted schools in the area to keep students and staff indoors as a precaution.

However, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), dust released during an explosion at the refinery showed no serious levels of dangerous materials. Tests were carried out on material that fell on cars and the ground after the blast and the samples contained fiberglass, aluminum, silicon and lower levels of other metals; however, there was no arsenic and no asbestos either.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an asbestos related disease, such as mesothelioma, asbestosis, or lung cancer, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation. You may be entitled to an asbestos payout as part of an individual or class action lawsuit.