Badges - AFL-CIO

Posted on April 25, 2015

Press Release: “ADAO Sponsors Special Earl Dotter Traveling Photography Exhibit, ‘Badges: A Memorial Tribute to Asbestos Workers.'”

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is honored to speak at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) presentation of “Badges: A Memorial Tribute to Asbestos Workers” photographic exhibit by Earl Dotter and Workers Memorial Day Remembrance on Monday, April 27 at 2:00 PM. This exhibit serves as a tribute to asbestos workers throughout history on the eve of International Workers Memorial Day (April 28) while also remembering the legacy of Dr. Irving J. Selikoff.  Speakers and honored guests include Elizabeth Shuler, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer; Earl Dotter, featured photojournalist; Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director; Dr. Steven Markowitz, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Professor, Queens College/CUNY; Linda Reinstein, ADAO President and Co-Founder; and Dr. David Michaels, Occupational Safety and Health Administration Assistant Secretary (OSHA).

Every year activists, victims, labor, and the medical, scientific, and occupational communities come together around the world to honor Workers Memorial Day.  It is a time for remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, or injured from merely doing their job. This exhibit, first featured at ADAO’s 11th Annual International Asbestos Awareness Conference on April 18, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia, truly connects the faces of asbestos workers to the industry and will feature photo ID badges worn by asbestos workers alongside historic photographs of work sites, product advertisements, vintage photos, and product catalogs from industrial companies that mined, manufactured or used asbestos.

“My goal in creating this exhibit is not just to touch those viewers who are already sympathetic to the overwhelming number of tragedies faced by asbestos victims and their families, but to command the attention of those who might forget them today,” stated Mr. Dotter. “As I prepared this Memorial Tribute to Asbestos Workers, I quickly came to the realization of just how pervasive asbestos exposure was, with carefully documented medical evidence unrelentingly presented by Dr. Irving Selikoff, an asbestos research pioneer and worker health advocate born 100 years ago.  It is to a new generation of the public that this exhibit, with the malfeasance and travail it portrays, is aimed.  I appreciate this opportunity to honor the lives and memory of asbestos exposed workers and thank the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization for its generous sponsorship.”

“On behalf of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), it is an honor to join the AFL-CIO for Earl Dotter’s important ‘Badges, A Memorial Tribute to Asbestos Workers’ exhibit,” stated Linda Reinstein, ADAO President and Co-Founder. “The exhibit does more than just honor workers, but also humanizes the asbestos man-made disaster by putting a face to the companies who knowingly used asbestos at the workplace and the victims who suffered needlessly from it. Without an asbestos ban, workplace exposure will continue. ADAO is grateful for the opportunity to partner with the AFL-CIO, who represents 12.5 million working people, to remember workers negatively impacted by their jobs. These workers paid the ultimate price for doing their job – their life, and today we join in solidarity to strengthen and advance awareness and prevention. For each life lost, a shattered family is left behind.”

ADAO will somberly remember those who suffer or have died from preventable work-related diseases on April 28’s Workers Memorial Day, and hopes that exhibits such as Mr. Dotter’s will drive further awareness and action around the world.  Other important resources for this special day include:

In unity,

Linda

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