Posted on February 13, 2014 

FIoH

Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, Linda Reinstein, Dr. Laura Welch, Dr. Julietta Rodriguez-Guzman, Dr. Aubrey Miller, Dr. David Weissman. Back row: Dr. Robert Smith, Dr. Richard Lemen and Dr. Harri Vainio.

Thanks to your support, I am excited to share the news from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) International Helsinki Conference on Monitoring and Surveillance of Asbestos-Related Diseases in person!

The FIOH conference attendees, with the exclusion of Bruce Bishop, Willcox & Savage, P.C., Dr. Evgeny Kovalevskiy, Research Institute of Occupational Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (SRIOH), and Thomas Hesterberg, Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health LLC (CTEH), overwhelmingly voted to adopt “The Helsinki Declaration on Management and Elimination of Asbestos-Related Diseases.” Read details in the February 13, 2014 press release:  “Only a total ban of asbestos will end asbestos related deaths.”  A summary of the Helsinki Criteria Update will be submitted to Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health to be published in the spring of 2014.

The goal of the conference, as described on the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health website, was to highlight problem areas in the management of surveillance of asbestos-exposed individuals, as well as to discuss sources of new exposures to asbestos.  The conference brought together nearly 150 occupational health and safety experts and scientists, occupational hygienists, public health managers, decision-makers, and insurance experts for the three-day conference. ADAO was proud to be a part of this distinguished group.

FIOHFinland has long been a leader in addressing the needs of the victims of asbestos exposure. In 1997, the International Expert Meeting on Asbestos, Asbestosis, and Cancer established The Helsinki Criteria, still well-known today, to help doctors diagnose asbestos-related diseases.

As the FIOH website stated, “The scientific programme will consist of keynote lectures, and free oral and poster presentations. In addition there will be workshops associated with the updating the Helsinki Criteria for the diagnosis and attribution of asbestos related diseases (Helsinki Criteria, 1997).”  The list of presenters reads like the who’s who of asbestos experts with some pro-asbestos presenters, as seen on the FIOH agenda.

In unity,

Linda Reinstein

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