President's Message
Breaking news! The Environmental Protection Agency’ (EPA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals’s (SACC) hard-hitting independent report confirmed what many asbestos experts and stakeholders had already concluded: that EPA’s asbestos draft risk evaluation is fundamentally flawed and understates the serious risks of asbestos to public health. ADAO is pleased the SACC Report confirmed our deep concerns about the multiple omissions and exclusions.
ADAO held our 15th Congressional Staff Briefing on August 25. In keeping with ADAO’s tradition of dedicating events to Meso Warriors, this briefing was dedicated to Mike Mattmuller, an amazing husband and father who passed away from Mesothelioma in April of this year. The briefing included a panel of ten experts who discussed a new study on racial disparities in treatment of mesothelioma, an update on the legal case to compel EPA to require industry to submit reports on asbestos under TSCA, the dangerously narrow and incomplete EPA Draft Risk Evaluation for Asbestos, and the need to enact the bicameral bipartisan Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN); among other topics.
Check out ADAO’s 6th virtual conversation with musician and ADAO National Spokesperson, Jordan Zevon. Jordan discussed his musical career, his father Warren Zevon's battle with Mesothelioma, and his experiences as National Spokesperson––and he performed, too! Comedian, actor, writer and filmmaker Judd Apatow also sent in a video to share during Jordan’s talk, in which he shared his deep friendship with Warren and support for Jordan’s work.
Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2020 also marks one year since the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce moved the bicameral Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 (ARBAN) forward to the full committee for markup. We hope that this year’s Mesothelioma Awareness Day will mark further movement for the bill, which has bipartisan support. Join us in telling Congress to move the bill to a U.S. House of Representatives full floor vote by signing our petition today. We are hoping to get 150,000 petition signatures before we send the petition to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer.
Together, we can make a difference.
Linda Reinstein
