Mesothelioma Foundation Seeks Pentagon Funding
The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation is leading a charge on the Pentagon budget for money to fund meso research. Their reasoning is simple: according to a Capitol Hill newsletter, “…at least one-third of the people suffering from mesothelioma - a lethal form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure - have either been in the Navy or worked in Navy shipyards across the country.”
More than a dozen senators, aided by an intense grassroots lobby, are pushing for funds to examine asbestos-related cancer. Part of the Department of Defense Budget includes funds for “peer reviewed medical research.” It is this program that the Foundation wants funded. Congress sets the priority for what research priorities are; if falls to the Defense Department to make the grants.
Several senators sent a letter last month to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Defense panel, including Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Patty Murray of Washington, who have been at the forefront to get more money for research and treatment.
The town of Bremerton in Washington State, near the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, has one of the highest incidences of asbestos-related cancer. And hundreds of people have been sickened or killed because of asbestos exposure from a former vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont.
Last year the Congress approved a Department of Defense budget that included $50 million for the peer review program. A steady flow of research funds for mesothelioma may lead to earlier detection methods – and accordingly, a longer period of survival for victims of the disease.
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