Posted on March 30, 2020
Each year, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) dedicates Global Asbestos Awareness Week (GAAW) April 1-7 to increasing awareness of asbestos and preventing exposure by bringing together experts and victims from around the world to share, learn, and take action. To view all 7 days of GAAW content, please click here. We’d also like to thank the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) for sharing it’s No Time to Lose campaign resources on preventing asbestos exposure and to McOnie for their commitment in the international distribution of the GAAW press release. Be sure to follow the conversation on social media with our GAAW hashtag: #2020GAAW.
*COVID-19 INFORMATION AND AWARENESS: To protect your family and stop the spread, learn more about World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and best practices during this outbreak here*
On the sixth day of GAAW, we will be focusing on advancing prevention through digital education. We would also like to highlight Sara’s story: “Someone Pulled the Emergency Brake!”
One of ADAO’s biggest goals is to prevent asbestos-caused diseases by raising awareness about the danger of asbestos. Asbestos-caused diseases are 100% preventable: prevent asbestos exposure, and you prevent disease. This is why accurate and accessible information is so incredibly important.
Unfortunately, we had to postpone our annual International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference that was supposed to be held April 3 – 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. In light of the recent developments in regards to COVID-19, ADAO believes it is best to put the health and safety of our community first. After conversations with medical experts and ADAO board members, we feel this is the best path at this time.
However, we have all seminars and sessions from all 15 former conferences available in our ADAO YouTube library. We have an extensive video collection and we are the only organization that has videotaped all of our asbestos-related annual conferences.
ADAO is the only U.S. non-profit that organizes annual conferences dedicated to preventing and eliminating asbestos-caused diseases. From medical experts to mesothelioma victims, trade union leaders to lawmakers, and activists to loved ones, ADAO’s annual conferences have hosted a total of more than 300 speakers since 2005. This distinguished group – which includes experts from nearly 20 different countries – has gathered every year for the past 15 years to speak about our joint efforts in asbestos education, advocacy and awareness.
All of that is available to learn from and watch in our YouTube library.
You can also see our PSAs, lesson plans, digital advocacy and more on the page.
Last year, to tackle asbestos-related cancer risks during Global Asbestos Awareness Week 2019, IOSH organized an international webinar entitled ‘Preventing asbestos exposure risks’ in partnership with the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) and the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS).
The webinar covered the following topics:
- ‘Global Asbestos Awareness Week’ and ways to limit asbestos exposure risk
- what the ‘Duty’ to manage asbestos is
- assessing and preventing asbestos exposure risks, and principles that apply worldwide
- how you can get involved in the No Time to Lose asbestos campaign and help make a difference.
I joined IOSH Past President Craig Foyle and BOHS’s Faculty for Asbestos Assessment and Management (FAAM) Board Member Jonathan Ford, to present information to help organizations manage asbestos exposure risks. Watch our webinar and download IOSH’s “Eight Steps to Managing Asbestos” to learn more.
Tweet a fact you learned from one of our seminars or from IOSH’s webinar today with the hashtag #2020GAAW.
Special thanks to our ADAO 2020 Silver Sponsors: Early, Lucarelli, Sweeney, & Meisenkothen, LLC and Weitz & Luxenberg PC.
Together, we make change happen.
Linda Reinstein
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