Awards for Asbestos Campaigners
The commitment and dedication of asbestos campaigners in Switzerland, the UK and Australia have been acknowledged in recent months by national associations and governments. During the December 2005 meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the work of Fiona Murie, Director of Occupational Health and Safety for the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers, was recognized when she received the international award from the APHA's Occupational Health Section. Commenting on this honor, Fiona said:
“My mission is really to popularise health and safety, to demystify the technical aspects and to promote workers participation in prevention activities. This work includes a number of local campaigns, for example on the 28th of April, International Workers Memorial Day, and the campaign to achieve a global ban on the use of asbestos…
Our job in the field of occupational health is to confront exploitation and to defend the most basic rights of all – that is to leave home for work and to return home to our loved ones safe, sound and with out dignity intact.”
On December 7, 2005, Dr. Nancy Tait, the founder of the UK-based Occupational and Environmental Diseases Association (OEDA), received the Sypol Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Presenting this award, Karen Baxter said:
“Nancy Tait is, in many respects, a unique winner of this award because it has never before gone to someone for an entirely voluntary effort. The illness and death of a partner1 would completely rob most people of their ambition and energy, but with Nancy it galvanised her to fight against occupational disease.”
True to form, Nancy has used the small bursary that accompanied the award to produce thousands of copies of a new leaflet entitled Asbestos in your Home2 to raise awareness of the asbestos hazard causing mesotheliomas amongst do-it-yourself enthusiasts and tradesmen.
On January 26, 2006, Dr. Gregory Deleuil, the medical adviser to the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia (ADSA), was named a Member of the Order of Australia in the honors list published on the occasion of the annual national holiday: Australia Day. Robert Vojakovic, President of the ASDA, praised Greg's “support and courage beyond the call of duty,” saying:
“Dr. Deleuil has achieved recognition and reputation as a Doctor of extraordinary compassion without fear and favour to make a stand for a just cause… Over the last nineteen years Dr. Deleuil has examined and treated more than 18,000 patients who had been exposed to asbestos and indeed he made a huge contribution to the well-being of the Australian community.”
Dr. Deleuil's work is not limited to assisting Australian asbestos victims; forseveral years, he has been working to forge links and raise awareness aboutasbestos hazards overseas. He has lectured at asbestos conferences in Poland, Slovenia and Holland and participated in meetings of asbestos victims' groups in London, Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow. In May 2006 he will be updating the UK Parliament on mesothelioma research being conducted in Western Australia.
February 23, 2006
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1 Nancy's husband Bill died from mesothelioma in 1968. A decade later, she formed the Society for the Prevention of Asbestos and Industrial Diseases (SPAID) which in the 1990s was renamed OEDA. For more information on OEDA see its website: http://www.oeda.demon.co.uk/
2 http://www.oeda.demon.co.uk/housep1e.htm
