Posted on June 10, 2024
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and Co-Petitioners for the Asbestos Part 1; Chrysotile Asbestos: Regulation of Certain Conditions of Use Under the Toxic Substances Control Act Final Rule Petition for Review
American Public Health Association champions the health of all people and all communities; strengthens the profession of public health; shares the latest research and information; promotes best practices; and advocates for public health issues and policies grounded in scientific research. APHA represents more than 24,000 individual members and is the only organization that combines a 150-year perspective, a broad-based member community, and the ability to influence federal policy to improve the public’s health.
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), founded in 2004 by Doug Larkin and Linda Reinstein, stands as the largest independent asbestos victims’ organization in the United States. This non-profit, a 501(c)(3) entity, was born out of personal tragedy and has grown into a powerful source of advocacy for those affected by asbestos. With over 50,000 individuals in its network, ADAO is dedicated to eliminating asbestos-related diseases.
Collegium Ramazzini is an independent, international academy founded in 1982 by Irving J. Selikoff, Cesare Maltoni and other eminent scientists. It is comprised of 180 internationally renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health. The mission of the Collegium Ramazzini is to advance the study of occupational and environmental health issues and to be a bridge between the world of scientific discovery and the social and political centers which must act on the discoveries of science to protect public health.
IAFF Local F-116 (Vandenberg Professional Firefighters)In 1941, Vandenberg Air Force Base was established. Vanderberg is located on the California Coast and is 160 miles north of Los Angeles. Today, it is known as Vandenberg Space Force. Their primary mission is launching space craft for NASA and SpaceX. Vandenberg Firefighters routinely stand by for the launches as well as supporting the surrounding community. Vanderberg also has its own Hot Shot team for wildland urban interface fires. Crews regularly respond to wildfires to assist surrounding jurisdictions.
IAFF Local F-253 (Fort Myer Professional Firefighters)Fort Myer – traces its origin back to around 1864 during the Civil War as a signal company. It is also the site of the first flight on an army post. Fort Myer situated right next to Arlington National Cemetery and Henderson Hall, a US Marine Corps command base. Now called Joint Base Myer – Henderson Hall. Fort McNair is also part of the Joint Base located in Southwest Washington DC and home to National Defense University and Grant Hall with is where Mary Surratt was tried in the Assination of President Lincoln. Today the Base is home to the crimson platoon and the 3rd infantry division and the Tomb Guards. The fire department had been around since 1918, and we service Joint Base Myer – Henderson Hall, Fort McNair, Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon. We also provide aid to Arlington County and Washington DC.
The FealGood Foundation assists all emergency personnel, including but not limited to, firefighters, police officers, nurses, volunteers, sanitation workers, transportation workers and construction workers, within the United States who have been injured, or face serious injury due to action or omission, in the course of their duties or within their everyday lives. The mission of the FGF includes educating elected officials and private entities on the various problems, concerns and issues faced by First Responders in their everyday duties. The FGF is therefore dedicated to advocating for First Responder rights and illuminating, to proper authorities, the serious issues they encounter.
Henry A. Anderson, MD, received his M.D. degree in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; certified in 1977 by the American Board of Preventive Medicine with a sub-specialty in occupational and environmental medicine; became a fellow of the American College of Epidemiology (1983) and elected a Collegium Ramazzini Fellow (1990). His research (1972-1980) began with Dr. Selikoff investigating household and environmental asbestos exposure. He served as Wisconsin Chief Medical Officer and Environmental and Occupational Disease Epidemiologist, establishing mesothelioma and asbestosis surveillance and asbestos exposure studies of school teachers and building maintenance workers (1980-2016). He holds adjunct professorships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Institute for Environmental Studies, Center for Human Studies. Throughout his career he served on many US EPA and HHS committees that addressed asbestos. He works closely with volunteer advocacy organizations.
Brad Black, MD, has been the Medical Director and CEO for the Center for Asbestos and Related Disease (CARD Clinic) in Libby, Montana since 2000. He has been a physician in the Libby medical community since 1977 and became the Lincoln County Health Officer in 1984. Beginning in 1999, he worked closely with Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a Spokane, WA pulmonologist, for 9 years. Since 2000, Dr. Black has had the opportunity to care for thousands of patients and this longitudinal observation of progressive pleural fibrosis has led to a clear characterization of Libby amphibole asbestos disease. CARD continues to provide asbestos health screening and care to a population with significant Libby Amphibole exposure and related diseases. In 2008 he presented at the National Institute of Health/National Cancer Institute about the progressive pleural fibrosis and mesothelioma identified in those exposed to Libby amphibole asbestos. He was instrumental in initiating research on Libby amphibole asbestos health effects. His work has expanded into research leading to an association with pulmonologists and occupational medicine specialists from multiple academic centers around the U.S. In 2010, Dr. Black became an adjunct professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He has collaborated on a number of professional journal publications, and most recently he participated in a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences working group that developed a publication on the non- neoplastic, pleural endpoints. Today, Dr. Black continues his dedicated efforts to providing excellent healthcare, outreach, advocacy and research for asbestos related diseases.
Barry Castleman, ScD is an Environmental Consultant trained in chemical and environmental engineering. He holds a Doctor of Science degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He has been a consultant to numerous agencies of the US government and other governments, international bodies, and environmental groups dealing with a wide range of public health issues. He has testified as an expert in civil litigation in the US on the history of asbestos as a public health problem and the reasons for failure to properly control asbestos hazards. Dr. Castleman has spent the past 40 years working on asbestos as a public health problem.
Raja Flores, MD, is a world-renowned thoracic surgeon known for his technical skill and life-long work on lung and esophageal cancer, mesothelioma and asbestos-related diseases. Dr. Flores has performed live surgery across the globe. His research has produced over 300 publications and he has presented nearly 300 lectures worldwide. Dr. Flores is the Principal Investigator of a 4.8 million dollar RO1 grant to study the effect of asbestos contamination in the town of Libby, Montana. He is currently investigating the health effects of mold exposure on New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) tenants. Dr. Flores is currently an active member of the Manhattan Community Board 11 in East Harlem, New York. He was educated at NYU, Einstein, Columbia, and Harvard. He is Professor and founding Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC.
Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD, is a physician board certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine and currently serves as Professor of Public Health and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia. He is also a Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary) at the Drexel College of Medicine. He also holds a position at Drexel as Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. A life-long academic, Dr. Frank has previously taught at Mount Sinai, the University of Kentucky and in the University of Texas System. He has served many governmental agencies in the US and has carried out research and has been a governmental advisor internationally. Trained in both occupational medicine and internal medicine, Dr. Frank has been interested in the health hazards of asbestos for more than 50 years. He has published a great deal of work on the hazards of asbestos, and clinically cared for asbestos affected patients. He has lectured internationally about the problems of asbestos, and worked in many settings looking at the diseases caused by this material. His research interests have been in the areas of occupational cancers and occupational lung diseases, as well as agricultural safety and health. For thirty-seven years he held a commission in the U S Public Health Service (active and inactive) and served on active duty both at the NIH and at NIOSH. Arthur is the ADAO Science Advisory Board Co-Chair.
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc is a pediatrician and epidemiologist. He is a Professor at Boston College, where he directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good and the Global Observatory on Pollution and Health. For four decades, Dr. Landrigan has undertaken research elucidating connections between the environment and human health and translated this research into disease prevention policies. From 1988-1993 Dr. Landrigan chaired a US National Academy of Sciences Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where he was a Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine from 1985 to 2018, Dr. Landrigan served as Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Dean for Global Health. Dr. Landrigan served on active duty in the US Public Health Service from 1970 to 1985 and in the Medical Corps of the United States Naval Reserve from 1996 to 2005. He retired from the Navy at the rank of Captain. Dr. Landrigan graduated from Boston Latin School (1959), Boston College (1963), Harvard Medical School (1967) and the London School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, University of London (1977). He trained in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and trained in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. For 35 years, Dr. Landrigan has served in leadership roles for the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent, international academy founded in 1982 with the mission to advance knowledge of occupational and environmental health, prevent disease, and save lives.
Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH, is a retired Assistant Surgeon General of the United States and also served as the Acting Director and the Deputy Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health before his retirement. He has been a practicing epidemiologist for more than fifty years, and has taught graduate level courses on environmental and occupational health issues, including asbestos, at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He has also been a regular lecturer to the Current Concepts and Controversies in Asbestos-Related Disease Course sponsored by the Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to serve on the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health for which he served between 2009 – 2019. He has testified on behalf of asbestos victims; Dr. Lemen is a world-renowned author, speaker, and lecturer on this topic.
Steven Markowitz, MD, DrPH, is an occupational medicine physician and epidemiologist, directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at Queens College, City University of New York and is a member of the ADAO Science Advisory Board. He is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. He was educated at Yale University (BA) and Columbia University (MD and DrPH in epidemiology) and trained in internal medicine (Montefiore Medical Center) and occupational medicine (Mt. Sinai School of Medicine). With the United Steelworkers union, Dr. Markowitz directs the largest occupational lung cancer screening program in the United States (Worker Health Protection Program), using low-dose CT scanning to screen nearly 14,000 Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers for early lung cancer since 2000.. Dr. Markowitz served for 12 years as Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and was the Associate Editor of a major textbook, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, 4th Edition. He serves or has served on Federal EPA, NIOSH, NTP, and DOL Committees and Boards.
Jacqueline M. Moline, M.D., M.Sc. is an Occupational Medicine specialist and Professor of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention and Internal Medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. She obtained her medical degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago. She completed residencies in Internal Medicine at Yale University and Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she obtained her Masters of Science degree. She is the former Director of the NIOSH funded New York/New Jersey Education and Research Center in Occupational Safety and Health. After 19 years on the faculty at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, she joined Northwell Health as the founding Chairperson of the Department of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention. Dr. Moline continues to maintain a clinical practice, focusing on patients with occupational exposures such as asbestos. Since 2001, many of Dr. Moline’s endeavors have been centered on the medical evaluation and treatment of World Trade Center (WTC) responders. While at Mount Sinai she directed the WTC health program, which she now runs at Northwell Health in Queens, NY. In 2010, Dr. Moline was the recipient of the Kehoe Award of Merit from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine for significant contributions to research in the field of occupational and environmental medicine and she has received numerous awards for her service to WTC responders.
Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH is a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and serves in numerous leadership positions. She is affiliated with the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, serving as liaison to its Science and Prevention Board. Dr. Monforton is a lecturer in public health at Texas State University where she ensures her students learn about the magnitude of harm caused by asbestos. Dr. Monforton worked in the U.S. Department of Labor (1991-2001) and is a policy expert in occupational health and safety. She provides her expertise on grant-funded research projects and to community organizations who support vulnerable workers. Her book with co-author Jane VonBergen, On the Job: The Untold Story of Worker Centers and The New Fight for Wages, Dignity, and Health was published by the New Press in 2021. In 2019, Dr. Monforton testified on behalf of APHA in support of the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act.
Christine Oliver, MD, MPH, MS is President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. She is an adjunct professor in the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON. Dr. Oliver is a member of the Ontario Task Force on Environmental Health and a consultant to Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). She was formerly an associate clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Division) at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Oliver’s primary specialty is occupational and environmental medicine, with an emphasis on occupational lung disease. Dr. Oliver is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini and has done research and published in the area of occupational lung disease, with a focus on asbestos-related disease. She has lectured frequently on this topic, including more recently the determination of risk for asbestos-related lung cancer. Dr. Oliver has testified before Congress and OSHA on issues related to asbestos and other workplace exposures.
Linda Reinstein is a leading public health advocate and serves as the President & CEO of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). Her journey into advocacy began in 2003 when her husband, Alan, was diagnosed with mesothelioma — a cancer caused by asbestos exposure. In response, she co-founded ADAO in 2004, focusing the organization on increasing awareness about the hazards of asbestos, advocating for a global asbestos ban, and providing support to those affected by asbestos-related diseases. ADAO has grown into the largest independent nonprofit in the U.S. dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure, eliminating asbestos-related diseases, and pushing for regulatory reform. Reinstein has been a vocal presence, frequently testifying before Congress and other governmental agencies, and influencing national and international policies related to asbestos. Reinstein’s work has significantly contributed to asbestos awareness and the protection of public health around the world. She continues to be a key figure in advocating for a global asbestos ban and supporting individuals and families affected by asbestos-related diseases. Currently, she is involved in organizing the 19th Annual ADAO Awareness and Prevention Conference and advancing the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN).
Robert Sussman, JD, is the principal in Sussman and Associates, a firm that offers legal representation on environmental issues to clients in the non-profit and private sectors. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School. Bob served in the Obama Administration as C0-Chair of the Transition Team for EPA and then as Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator from 2009-2013. He served in the Clinton Administration as the EPA Deputy Administrator during 1993-94. At the end of 2007, Bob retired as a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he headed the firm’s environmental practice in DC for 10 years. Bob was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2008. He is currently a Commissioner of the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin and member of the Advisory Board for the University of Indiana O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Bob is a magna cum laude 1969 graduate of Yale College and a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School. Bob has posted numerous blogs on the Brookings Institution Website and elsewhere and published articles in the Environmental Law Reporter and other publications.
Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH, is Director of the NY Mesothelioma Program and Associate Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton and earned highest honors at Harvard Medical School. She served as Chief Resident in Surgery at the MGH and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she completed a Thoracic Oncology Research Fellowship while earning her MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has expertise in surgery for pleural mesothelioma and VATS lobectomy, and research interests in mesothelioma, health care disparities, and lung cancer. She and her team at the NY Mesothelioma Program received the 2020 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Care Team Award. She has presented at numerous national and international meetings, is co-editor of the third edition of Sugarbaker’s Adult Chest Surgery and has published extensively on pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer. She has one son and loves to run.