[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