[Ed. We recently inquired from members of the Joint
Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology what response or
impact the Committee’s recent statement on asbestos was causing.
Following is a special article prepared by Kathleen Ruff, a
Canadian asbestos activist, who provides an assessment of the
early impact the unprecedented joint statement is having.]
Special Article by Kathleen Ruff
The Position Statement on Asbestos of the Joint
Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology (JPC-SE) has had
an immediate and significant impact in quite extraordinary ways.
Not only has the Position Statement received acclaim from
scientific bodies around the world; it has also influenced public
policy discourse in key decision-making contexts.
Good Timing
The Position Statement was released at a moment
when the asbestos industry has launched initiatives, in two
pivotal contexts, aimed at denying the scientific evidence on harm
to health caused by chrysotile asbestos to ensure the survival of
the global asbestos trade for future decades. In both cases, the
Position Statement is playing an important role in articulating
the independent scientific evidence and exposing the unscrupulous
tactics that the asbestos industry continues to employ in pursuing
its financial interests, regardless of the harm to human health
that will ensue.
Impact of the JPC-SE Position Statement in Quebec
On June 29, 2012, the asbestos industry succeeded
in obtaining a $58 million loan from
the Quebec government to open an
underground asbestos mine (the Jeffrey mine) at Asbestos, Quebec,
in Canada. The asbestos industry and the Quebec government stated
that the millions of tons of asbestos that the mine intends to
export to Asia and elsewhere will pose no threat to health. They
claimed that scientific evidence shows that exposure to high
levels of chrysotile asbestos (1 f/cc) causes no harm to human
health and that, by financing the asbestos mine, Quebec will be a
world leader in promoting “safe use”
of
chrysotile asbestos.
The government’s decision to provide financial
support to open the asbestos mine was strongly criticized in the
Quebec media by health authorities, other Quebec political
parties, and civil society organizations. The JPC-SE Position
Statement on Asbestos, released a few weeks after the Quebec
government’s decision, was widely cited in the media, with links
being provided to the JPC-SE website, as evidence that the
decision to finance the asbestos mine was indefensible on
scientific grounds.
The Statement has thus had wide public impact in a
critical public health debate in Quebec that has global
repercussions. An election has since been called in Quebec for
September 4, 2012, and the asbestos question has become a major
political issue.
All three opposition parties have told the Quebec
public that the scientific evidence regarding harms caused by
chrysotile asbestos is irrefutable and must be respected. They
have called for an end to asbestos mining and for the government
instead to provide assistance to the mining area to promote other
economic initiatives.
The current
Quebec government thus is now completely isolated and is the only
party that continues to support the asbestos industry.
The Position Statement on Asbestos of the JPC-SE
has played an important role in this public and political debate
by clearly and firmly putting forward the scientific evidence and
providing a warning regarding the dangerous tactics of the
asbestos industry in denying the scientific evidence.
Further evidence of the impact of the JPC-SE
Position Statement was seen when the JPC-SE was invited by the
Union for the International Control of Cancer (UICC) to present
the Position Statement at the UICC’s World Cancer Congress, held
in Montreal, August 27 – 30, 2012. In its recommendations, the
Position Statement specifically urges
public health
organizations and agencies to adopt a position calling for a ban
on the mining, use, and export of all forms of asbestos. At the
close of its World Cancer Congress, the UICC adopted its own
Position Statement on Asbestos, calling, for the first time, for a
global ban on the mining, use and trade of asbestos. The UICC
Position Statement notes that it “draws heavily from Position
Statement on Asbestos from the Joint Policy Committee of the
Societies of Epidemiology (JPC-SE).”
Impact of the JPC-SE Position Statement in Brazil
In Brazil, another key struggle between reputable
health experts and the propaganda of the asbestos industry is
currently being waged. Once again, the JPC-SE Position Statement
on Asbestos is playing a significant role in defending the
integrity of science and exposing the irresponsible tactics of the
asbestos industry and scientists funded by industry lobby
organizations.
The asbestos industry is arguing in front of the
Supreme Court of Brazil that a ban on asbestos, legislated by the
state of São Paulo, is unconstitutional. The consequences of this
case are extremely serious since the asbestos industry is
endeavoring to remove the democratic right of governments to
protect the health of their citizens in their attempts to ban
asbestos.
Scientists who have been financed by the asbestos
industry for decades to deny the overwhelming evidence of harm
caused by asbestos have appeared as witnesses for the asbestos
industry.
The JPC-SE Position Statement on Asbestos was
translated into Portuguese and submitted to the Supreme Court of
Brazil in order to expose the deception of the asbestos industry’s
claims, and to put forward the overwhelming, reputable scientific
evidence that chrysotile asbestos poses a threat to health, and
that the use of chrysotile asbestos should be banned globally.
It is shocking that, in 2012, more than a century
after factory inspectors in Europe documented that workers exposed
to asbestos were contracting lung diseases, the asbestos industry,
and scientists in the pocket of the industry, continue to deny the
scientific evidence of harm caused by all forms of asbestos. It is
tragic that, after so many hundreds of thousands of deaths from
asbestos-related diseases, governments, such as the governments of
Quebec, Canada, and Brazil, continue to give political and
financial support to enable this deadly industry to continue.
In the face of this betrayal of both science and
health by an immoral alliance of industry and government, the
Position Statement on Asbestos of the JPC-SE is playing a critical
role in defending the integrity of science, and in protecting
human life by preventing asbestos-related morbidity and premature
mortality
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