{"id":1628,"date":"2012-10-23T01:39:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightoncanada.ca\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2012-10-23T01:39:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T05:39:07","slug":"mcgill-asbestos-report-is-a-whitewash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/?p=1628","title":{"rendered":"McGill Asbestos Report is a Whitewash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe report released by McGill University, dismissing allegations of improper asbestos industry influence over the research and conduct of Prof. JC McDonald, is a whitewash,\u201d says a leading anti-asbestos campaigner, Kathleen Ruff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe report is biased, misleading and inaccurate,\u201d said Ruff. It excludes critical information, which was submitted to McGill, such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

* Asbestos industry minutes<\/span><\/a><\/span> show that Prof. McDonald collaborated with Johns Manville and asbestos industry leaders to suppress crucial medical evidence, which documented that asbestos was causing far more harm to workers\u2019 health than the industry claimed and that stronger occupational safety protections were needed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*Together with the asbestos industry, Prof. McDonald lobbied the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), to prevent the adoption of stricter asbestos exposure standards that would cost the industry millions of dollars, but would save lives. The asbestos industry and Prof. McDonald argued that exposure to high levels of asbestos caused no harm to health and should continue to be allowed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to McGill\u2019s claim, McDonald told the US regulatory agency OSHA that he received NO industry funds and instead identified himself solely as Chair of McGill\u2019s Dept. of Epidemiology. He denied any connection with the asbestos industry. This was categorically untrue. He was, in fact, receiving large amounts of funding from and working closely with Quebec asbestos mining companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

When directly challenged by a reporter on his denial of any connection with the industry, Prof. McDonald admitted that \u201cJohns-Manville, together with other asbestos companies, helps support the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health\u201d, which funded McDonald\u2019s research. \u201cIt is a very indirect relationship,\u201d McDonald said.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was deceptive since the Institute, like the Tobacco Institute, was an industry front organization, created, financed and controlled by asbestos companies. The chairman of Johns-Manville was the Institute\u2019s chairman; the Institute\u2019s other board members were asbestos industry executives.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Prof. McDonald used his research to argue at a World Trade Organization tribunal that countries should not have the right to ban chrysotile asbestos (which represented 100% of the global asbestos trade), as it was virtually harmless.<\/span><\/p>\n

McGill\u2019s report claims that McDonald\u2019s research \u201cgenerated the information that led to the near complete disappearance of the asbestos industry in the developed world and the universal recognition of the toxicity of the product.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is absolutely false,\u201d stated David Egilman, Clinical Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, Brown University. \u201cProf. McDonald is known around the world for denying harm caused by chrysotile asbestos and for promoting its use.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe toxicity of chrysotile asbestos continues to be denied in India, Russia and other countries, thanks to industry-funded studies, such as Prof. McDonald\u2019s, claiming it is virtually innocuous,\u201d said Dr. Colin Soskolne of the University of Alberta, Edmonton.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Eidelman has implied to media that the World Health Organization (WHO) endorses Prof. McDonald\u2019s research findings. \u201cThis is misleading,\u201d said Dr Arthur Frank, Professor of Public Health, Drexel University, and a world-respected expert on asbestos. \u201cThe WHO has categorically rejected McDonald\u2019s conclusions that chrysotile asbestos is virtually innocuous except at excessively high exposure levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlong with other scientists linked to the asbestos industry and who also promote use of asbestos, Prof. McDonald has unsuccessfully lobbied the WHO to drop its opposition to chrysotile asbestos use,” notes Dr Kapil Khatter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April 2012, Dean Eidelman said he asked McGill\u2019s research integrity officer, Dr Abraham Fuks, for advice because McGill \u201cdoes not currently have all required records and data in hand to assess definitively in regard to research integrity\u201d. Six months later, the primary data on which McDonald\u2019s research is founded, is still missing.<\/span><\/p>\n

McGill was requested to carry out an independent, transparent, thorough investigation. Instead, it has carried out an internal review that is biased, self-serving and without transparency. McGill refused to disclose the terms of reference of the review, rejected concerns that the review process was flawed and excluded crucial damning information.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a public relations operation, not a credible investigation, and it brings dishonour on McGill\u201d said Ruff. \u201cWhat is needed is an outside, independent and transparent investigation. If McGill is confident about the quality of McDonald\u2019s research, an independent panel will be helpful to them. However it is clear that they can\u2019t handle the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe report released by McGill University, dismissing allegations of improper asbestos industry influence over the research and conduct of Prof. JC McDonald, is a whitewash,\u201d says a leading anti-asbestos campaigner, Kathleen Ruff. \u201cThe report is biased, misleading and inaccurate,\u201d said Ruff. It excludes critical information, which was submitted to McGill, such as: * Asbestos industry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[169,147,173,170,156,172,171,38,174],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asbestos","category-uncategorized","tag-asbestos-exposure-standards","tag-asbestos-lobby","tag-institute-of-occupational-and-environmental-health","tag-johns-manville","tag-mcgill-university","tag-osha","tag-prof-john-mcdonald","tag-world-health-organization","tag-world-trade-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1642,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightoncanada.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}