SV40, ASBESTOS AND MESOTHELIOMA:
HOT POTATO, RED HERRING OR SILVER BULLET?

icDendicepending upon whom we represent, asbestos lawyers either eagerly await or dread any new scientific research on SV40.

Simian virus 40 is a DNA tumor virus of, as its name suggests, monkeys. It is believed, though has not been proven, that SV40 was first introduced to the human population in the late 1950s to early 1960s through polio vaccines. The polio vaccines were prepared in the kidney cells of rhesus monkeys, and apparently many of them were contaminated with SV40 present in those cells.

photo-21On August 29, the National Academy of Sciences published a study entitled 'Human mesothelial …