Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca<\/p>\n
David Bernstein is a consultant who, after working for the tobacco industry<\/a> for 18 years, switched his services to the asbestos industry. He is the scientist who the asbestos industry most makes use of to promote its deadly misinformation that chrysotile asbestos can be safely used. Every reputable scientific body in the world, as Bernstein himself admits, rejects as worthless his position that chrysotile asbestos poses little threat to health and can be safely used.<\/p>\n In an article, Health Risks of Chrysotile Asbestos<\/a>, just published by Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine<\/em>,\u00a0 Bernstein states the following:<\/p>\n Acknowledgements<\/strong>: D.M.B. has appeared as an expert witness in litigation concerned with alleged health effects of exposure to chrysotile.<\/span><\/p>\n Conflicts of interest<\/strong>: \u201cThere are no conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bernstein\u2019s statement, denying any conflicts of interest, is false.<\/p>\n For more than a decade, Bernstein has been financed by the chrysotile asbestos industry to provide a variety of services to advance its interests, such as writing articles that distort the scientific evidence and deny harm caused by chrysotile asbestos, such as participating in asbestos industry events around the world promoting the asbestos trade, such as speaking to media to promote asbestos use, such as lobbying United Nations agencies to advance the interests of the asbestos industry.<\/p>\n For these activities, asbestos industry companies and lobby groups have paid Bernstein more than a million dollars. Yet in the article, Bernstein falsely states that he has no conflicting interests.<\/p>\n Bernstein\u2019s latest gig on behalf of the asbestos industry took place in Zimbabwe on May 29, 2014, when he was financed to assist the government of Zimbabwe in the launch of an initiative to re-open the asbestos mines and re-start exporting asbestos. In participating in this asbestos promotion event, Bernstein puts forward the same arguments that he puts forward in the article published by Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine.<\/p>\n The Zimbabwe Herald reports<\/a> that: \u201cDr Bernstein, the toxicologist expert from Switzerland who spoke at the launch ceremony, indicated that no evidence has as yet emerged that links chrysotile to lung related diseases. He indicated that the common misconception that has been made is to compare our kind of chrysotile to the blue and brown asbestos types that were mined in South Africa and Europe. Dr Bernstein’s view is that the biggest mistake made was our failure to differentiate our mineral from the rest and calling them by the same name.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\u00a0Bernstein helps to re-launch asbestos trade by Zimbabwe<\/h3>\n
Complaint submitted to scientific journal regarding Bernstein\u2019s false statement on conflicting interests<\/h3>\n