Posted on March 27, 2019
Linda and Doug in 2004
As we at the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) reflect on 15 years of advocacy, education, and community, one of the most meaningful accomplishments we’ve made has been the annual passage of our Asbestos Awareness Resolutions.
What started as just one day of recognition per year has evolved into our Global Asbestos Awareness Week (GAAW), a powerful seven days of global collaboration and action to spread life-saving education about the dangers of asbestos and the steps we can take to protect ourselves from this lethal carcinogen.
Our first resolution was our first big victory in Washington, just months after Doug Larkin and I co-founded ADAO in 2004. U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader at that time, championed our cause, and we were blown away when it passed unanimously in the Senate.
Since then, each and every resolution has similarly been passed unanimously — a bipartisan accomplishment that seems increasingly rare in current times. In 2007, we got bold and expanded our day of recognition to a full week, and the entire Senate continued to support us in this cause.
This year was no different. In early March, Senator Jon Tester of Montana — a steady supporter of our cause and the well-deserved recipient of our 2017 Tribute of Hope award — introduced the 2019 National Asbestos Awareness Week resolution along with more than a dozen fellow senators, including 2020 presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker. It passed by unanimous consent on March 4, 2019.
With so much support behind the resolution, I am more hopeful than ever that this 116th Congress will finally succeed in passing ban asbestos legislation. They have the opportunity before them now, with the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN) of 2019, which would fully ban asbestos with no exemptions in just one year or less.
We’ve been so fortunate over the last 15 years to consistently have such strong champions in Washington who continue to rally their colleagues around these resolutions. As the week has grown, we’ve been proud and grateful to partner with incredible global partners — from researchers, to artists, to communication experts — who have helped spread our messages of awareness and prevention far and wide each year on the first week of April for Global Asbestos Awareness Week (GAAW), and throughout the year.
This year, I’m thrilled to share that we’ll be collaborating with powerful international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). The McOnie Agency, a fantastic UK-based PR firm, will also be partnering with us again this year to spread our message far and wide, translated into six different languages to help propel our global reach. We’ll once more be partnering with internationally famed artist Firdaus Kharas to circulate anti-asbestos PSA videos in six languages throughout the week.
As proud as I am of what we’ve accomplished in 15 years of building GAAW, one part of it gets harder each year. On April 7th, we honor and remember those we have lost to asbestos-caused diseases with our candle lighting tradition. Each year, the list of those we honor on this sad day grows, and with each name added to the list, our hearts grow heavier. But this list of lost loved ones is a constant reminder of why we keep fighting this ever-important fight. For them, and for all of those still battling these preventable illnesses, we will not give up until deadly asbestos is banned worldwide.
Follow the online conversation by using the hashtag #2019GAAW.
In unity and power,
Linda