Posted on October 18, 2016
On behalf of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) I’m thrilled to announce that Dr. Arthur Frank, ADAO Science Advisory Board Co-Chair, is the 2016 recipient of the Ramazzini Award from the Collegium Ramazzini (CR).
Arthur Frank
The Ramazzini Award is bestowed on “scientists deemed by the Collegium to have made outstanding contributions to furthering the aims of Bernardino Ramazzini in safeguarding public health” by the Mayor of Carpi during the annual Ramazzini Days. CR is an international leader in occupational and environmental health research and advocacy. Co-founded by Dr. Irving Selikoff in 1982, the academy has a strong focus on asbestos awareness and prevention.
According to the announcement of his award, “Dr. Frank was chosen for his distinguished record of occupational health and safety research as well as his advocacy and service in the promotion of better occupational safety and health in developing countries and in the international fight to ban the use of asbestos.”
Dr. Frank is a physician board certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine and currently is co-chair of ADAO’s Science Advisory Board as well as a Professor of Public Health and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia and 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 U.S. and has carried out research and has been a governmental advisor internationally. His research interests have been in the areas of occupational cancers and occupational lung diseases, as well as agricultural safety and health. For 37 years he held a commission in the US Public Health Service (active and inactive) and served on active duty both at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
In a statement about the award, CR President Philip Landrigan writes: “Dr. Frank exemplifies the model of Bernardino Ramazzini in combining scientific achievement with public service and advocacy. He not only accomplished this on his own but also by inspiring and training many young scientists entering this field.”
Dr. Frank has been the proud recipient of a number of awards during his decades of asbestos work, but he said the proudest moment of his career was being the first-ever recipient of Association for Prevention Teaching and Research’s (APTR) “Educator of the Year” national award for preventive medicine in 1987.
“Although coming from the small field of occupational medicine, not a more traditional area, I felt good about the recognition of my colleagues,” Frank shared.
Among Dr. Frank’s biggest fans is his own son, Matthew. “I could not be more proud of my father. He has spent a lifetime doing his best to prevent workers and their families from being exposed to the harmful effects of asbestos and other carcinogens.”
“My father often jokes that I care for his failures,” said Matthew, who works as an oncologist after following in his dad’s medical footsteps. “This is an important reminder that the best way to treat cancer are often to prevent its occurrence in the first place.”
“This award validates what I have been doing for four decades, and in some small way, has brought the truth to light about asbestos,” Frank said. “Increased awareness has led to more than 55 countries now totally banning asbestos use, and I hope this recognition I can turn into additional education to stop its use elsewhere.”
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Frank on this distinguished accomplishment!
Linda