Jordan Zevon, the son of Warren Zevon the late songwriter and singer, recently spoke at a conference organized by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). The conference, Asbestos Awareness Day, was the sixth of its kind and took place in Chicago Illinois. ADAO promotes asbestos awareness and champions the tightening of state and federal regulations concerning the use, safe handling, and disposal of asbestos products in the United States and the world.
Jordan Zevon spoke of his father, perhaps best known to the public for his hit “Werewolves in London”, not only as a legendary musician but also as a dad and a friend. Warren Zevon died of mesothelioma in 2003, after being diagnosed with the disease the previous year. Jordan’s talk recognized that regardless of the who the victim is, mesothelioma is at its core a disease that deeply affects families.
Other speakers at the sixth annual Asbestos Awareness Day included doctors, research scientists, mesothelioma patients, mesothelioma experts, and families that had lost loved ones to the disease. The speakers discussed dealing with the tragic effects of mesothelioma, promising advances in medical science, and the need to completely ban the use of the dangerous substance.
New Zealand, Australia, and many nations throughout the European Union have instated complete bans on the production, import and use of the dangerous substance. Some of these nations have even created laws that require public buildings to pay specialized contractors to remove any asbestos products that could be a threat to the health of their patrons.
The United States introduced a complete ban 1989, but the ban was subsequently overturned in a lawsuit filed against the EPA by the asbestos product producing company Corrosion Proof Fittings. The United States is now among countries such as Russia, Mexico and India in terms of their relatively lenient stance on asbestos.
Many asbestos related diseases are due to exposure which occurs in the workplace either during the production or use of products that contain asbestos. Brake pads, pipe insulation, fireproofing materials, construction additives, thermal board, roofing tiles and many, many more products contain dangerous levels of asbestos fibers. Individuals who work with or near asbestos products put themselves and their families at a greater risk for developing an asbestos related disease.
In recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has worked to increase asbestos awareness and mitigate contamination of the home and workplace.
“The tragedy of occupational cancers resulting from asbestos, benzene and other carcinogens is that it takes so long for science to be translated into protective action,” says WHO Director of Public Health and Environment, Dr. Maria Neira.
“Known and preventable exposures are clearly responsible for hundreds of thousands of excess cancer cases each year. In the interests of protecting our health, we must adopt an approach rooted in primary prevention; that is to make workplaces free from carcinogenic risks.”
