Asbestos Awareness Week Begins

Asbestos Awareness Week began on April 1, following a weekend conference hosted by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

This week is now officially an awareness week following a United States Senate designation that April 1-7 now marks an annual National Asbestos Awareness Week. The Senate passed S. Res. 462 concerning the designation, stating that “the Senate urges the Surgeon General, as a public health issue, to warn and educate people that asbestos exposure may be hazardous to their health.”

Around ten thousand Americans die every year from asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma and asbestosis, and many thousands more are diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease. Public education about the dangers of asbestos, and the early symptoms of asbestos related diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, may help save lives.

Doug Larkin, Communications Director and Co-founder, and Linda Reinstein, Executive Director and Co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, commented on the US asbestos situation to mark the beginning of the awareness week.

Doug Larkin believes that the country should be doing more to educate the public. “As we start National Asbestos Awareness Week, it is extremely disappointing that the United States Surgeon General continue to ignore the United States Senate’s request for a common sense approach to education and prevention as it pertains to asbestos related diseases. It’s not complicated, education and prevention saves lives.”

Linda Reinstein, whose husband Alan died from mesothelioma in 2006, said “Doctors and scientists agree that asbestos is a carcinogen and there is no safe level of exposure. The ADAO continues to connect with families from all over the world and all walks of life to grieve together, work together and to ultimately make a difference and ban asbestos in the United States.”

The Fourth Annual Asbestos Awareness Day Conference was held on the weekend of March 29-30 at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan and included events that the organizers hoped would help increase public awareness about asbestos and related diseases.

Conference attendees included representatives from the Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Center for Asbestos Related Disease, the United States Environmental Protection Agency the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers, and the Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization was founded by people suffering from the effects of asbestos-related diseases, and their families. The organization provides a united voice to people affected by asbestos, as well as to citizens who are concerned about the presence and use of asbestos in the country.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.