ADAO 14th Annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference
“Where Knowledge and Action Unite”
April 13 – 15, 2018
Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel

2018 Conference Info | Know Before You Go | Registration | Marriott Reservations | Events | Agenda | RSVP for Events | Newseum Tour and Causal Dinner | “Meet the Artists” Reception and Awards Dinner | Brunch | Honorees | Speakers | Speaker Information | Tributes | Sponsors | Media | 2017 Livestream Videos

2005 – 2017 Conference Infographic | 2005 – 2017 Conferences Honorees & Keynote Speakers

Posted on February 11, 2018

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is proud to present a new weekly series Meet the Speakers and Honorees,” which will highlight esteemed participants of our highly anticipated 14th Annual International Asbestos Awareness & Prevention Conference! The ADAO conference, which will take place on April 13-15, 2018 in Washington, D.C., combines 30 expert opinions, victims’ stories, and new technological advancements from 9 countries across the globe into one united voice raising awareness about asbestos. ADAO is the only U.S. nonprofit that organizes annual conferences dedicated solely to preventing asbestos exposure and eliminating asbestos-caused diseases. Register Here Today! http://bit.ly/2018ADAOAAPC 

Session IV Speakers: Marcia Cristina Kamei López Aliaga; Sheri Benson; Fernanda Giannasi; Daniel Pineda González; Eric Jonckheere; Sinem Delal Kankotan; Sarah McOnie; Barry Robson

Session IV Moderator: Dr. Barry Castleman

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Marcia Cristina Kamei López Aliaga has been working for 18 years as a federal Labour Prosecutor at the Labour Public Ministry.  She got proficiency  in collective conflicts looking to promote social justice for Brazilian workers. Currently, she is the manager of the National Program on Banning of Asbestos, a strategical project from the Federal Labour Prosecution Office, created in 2012 in order to promote the phase-out until the total banning of the industrial uses of asbestos in Brazil and to protect the health of thousands of workers and former workers whom have been exposed to asbestos without any information. In 2014 Brazil was the third major  asbestos producer worldwide and the fourth greatest consumer in global scale. Since 2012, the National Program on Banning of Asbestos has filed several class actions against the Brazilian leading enterprise – Eternit, aiming to eliminate asbestos  and to compensate victims and  their families due to damages to workers’ health. At the same time the National Program stablished agreements with other enterprises, looking for the same goals. Thus, in early 2017 the Brazilian scenario has changed substantially; only two companies were still using asbestos as a raw material, besides the mining activities. In late November 2017, finally, the Supreme Constitutional Court declared asbestos uses in Brazil unconstitutional. For the majority of the justices’ votes asbestos was considered a serious risk for the health and was declared banned in whole country following more than 70 nations around the world.

Sheri Benson, Canadian Member of Parliament, has brought people together for 25 years to tackle some of the most pressing issues in Saskatoon. As CEO for the local United Way, Sheri worked with community, labour and business groups to launch Saskatoon’s first-ever Plan to End Homelessness. Its Housing First Program is living proof that, with solid leadership, we can tackle poverty and save money at the same time. Sheri also implemented the organization’s ground-breaking Aboriginal Engagement Strategy. Shortly after being elected to Canada’s House of Commons in 2015 as a member of the New Democratic Party caucus, Sheri introduced a bill calling for a complete ban on asbestos in Canada. The government has since taken action, and Sheri continues to monitor Canada’s progress on protecting its citizens from asbestos exposure closely. As a proud mother and grandmother, Sheri is dedicated to building a safer, more equitable and better world—one we can be proud to leave to the next generation.

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.

Fernanda Giannasi is a Civil and Safety Engineer and ex-Labor Inspector for the Ministry of Labor and Employment for 30 years, currently retired and acting as an expert advisor for the Labour Prosecutors (Federal Labour Public Ministry) as well the asbestos victims’ solicitors. She is the coordinator of the Virtual Citizen Ban Asbestos Network for Latin America, founder of the Brazilian Association of People Exposed to Asbestos (ABREA) and Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini. She serves as an expert witness in judicial cases related to asbestos, nuclear and other toxic chemicals as Mercury, POP´s (Persistent Organic Pollutants). She also led thousands of workers who have filed lawsuits against the asbestos industry. In charge of a Federal Labor Inspector, she staunchly defended the public interest on workers’ safety and health and was pressured by the asbestos lobby in Brazil and Canada, and endured all kind of pressures, harassments including death threats, offensive campaigns and criminal charges by her detractors. Despite of these, she has been awarded in Brazil as the Egineer of 2012 and internationally in Canada (Ray Sentes Award), USA by the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE), and Japan by the Tajiri Muneaki Memorial Fund. She was awarded by both the State of São Paulo Appeal Court and the High/Supreme Labour Court with the Judiciary Order of Merit. She is well known internationally and highly respected for her proficient and perseverant campaigning to save lives from asbestos. Fernanda Giannasi is the personification of the fight against asbestos in Brazil. Not for nothing is she called ‘The Brockovich of Brazil’. The last November, all her efforts to ban asbestos in Brazil as well the fight for Justice for the asbestos victims and their families were granted with the important decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court (STF) that declared asbestos banned in whole country. Recently she was indicated by the O GLOBO, one of the most important daily newspapers in the country to be one of the finalists of the Prize “FAZ DIFERENÇA” in 2017 (Make the difference) in the category of Economy and was awarded in South Korea with the 2017 Rachel LEE Jung-Lim Award.

Daniel Pineda González Physicist, Master of Science in Geophysics, Specialist in innovation, new technologies and city management. Expert in digital marketing, and management of social networks. Together with his wife Ana Cecilia Niño RIPE, he was co-creator of the Colombia Sin Asbesto movement of which he is current leader, president of the Ana Cecilia Niño Foundation, coordinator of the national network of caregivers of patients with mesothelioma and the Latin America Without Asbestos campaign. Lecturer, has received awards for his work in the fight against asbestos such as “National Award for Digital Social Mobilization” of the Ministry of Technology and Communications of Colombia, he was one of the 10 outstanding young leaders of the year 2017 highlighted by the International Junior Chamber organization . His favorite job: Driver of his daughter Ana Sofia.

Eric Jonckheere, is a Belgian airline pilot. Asbestos is part of his everyday environment since 1937. His grand-father Paul was a key player in keeping the Eternit factories open during WW2. Pierre, his father, worked at Eternit as an engineer. He grew up in Kapelle, north of Brussels, was paradise until the passing of Pierre due to mesothelioma in 1987. He was 59. Then his mother, Francoise, and brothers, Pierre-Paul and Stephane, suffered from the same cancer, respectively in 2000, 2003 and 2010. He became an anti-asbestos activist when he realized many families couldn’t speak up. The entire village suffers from extensive environmental exposure but the local politicians and union leaders are at the mercy of the plants owners.  Since their victory in the Brussels court, they have moved the case-law and the knowledge of the dangers of asbestos to the general public. As president of ABEVA, it’s important to share experiences across borders. 

Sinem Delal Kankotan was born in the town of Tunceli, Turkey and lived there until moving to Istanbul in 1993. She studied Labour Economics and Industrial Relations at the Dokuz Eylül University and worked at various jobs. She first heard about ADAO and Linda via the 19th Annual World Congress in İstanbul and upon meeting, realized her and Linda were like-minded individuals. With encouragement from the ADAO family and her own passion for social justice, she has never stopped working on the asbestos issue. She hopes to follow this passion and enter into a Master’s program in social policies very soon. In her free time, she loves traveling, spending time with her sister, putting smiles on people’s faces, as well as pursue her interest in social policies.

Sarah McOnie, director and founder of McOnie, has more than 25 years of experience in communications. She established McOnie following several years working with industrial and technical engineering businesses. Born out of a desire to make complex but clever products appealing and simple to grasp, the agency has concentrated on working with companies that create and develop innovative, well- engineered and in some cases, lifesaving products. Many of the agency’s clients provide products or services that keep people safe and healthy at work and consequently McOnie is recognized globally as an expert in this field. Sarah has built strategic partnerships with experts, aligned agencies, key industry bodies and international networks such as the IPRN (International PR Network) so that, in today’s mile-a-minute world, the agency can deliver the right type of communication, globally, that resonates with the right audience.

Barry Robson, the President of ADFA, became a Union delegate of the Waterside Workers Federation in 1970 and was elected as Senior Vice President of that Union in 1988. In 1995 he was elected Assistant Branch Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, a position he held until retirement from the workforce in 2003. From 1991 to 1995 he was a Councilor on Blacktown City Council. He became a delegate to ADFA in 1996 and was appointed President in 2002 and elected President in 2003, a position he holds today. He has been appointed to the following, Asbestos Research Institute in 2004, Federal Government Asbestos in Telstra Infrastructure in 2013 and Federal Asbestos Safely and Eradication Agency (ASEA) in 2013. Barry has been awarded three Life Memberships, Maritime Union of Australia, St Marys Baseball Club and Blacktown Mt Druitt Cardiac Support Group.

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Check back next week for the seventh and final installment of “Meet the Speakers and Honorees” featuring our 2018 Sunday Unity and Remembrance Brunch speakers and performers.

In Unity,

Linda

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The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO),  a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, does not make legal referrals.