141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

293866
Review of the JPC-SE Position Statement on Asbestos; Summarize some recent analyses related to latency


Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 10:35 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Stanley H. Weiss, MD, FACP, FACE, Department of Preventive Medicine & Community Health / Epidemiology, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School & Rutgers School of Public Health, Newark, NJ
The history of the Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology will be briefly reviewed (www.jpc-se.org). The Position Statement on Asbestos (confer www.jpc-se.org/position.htm for the full statement, its appendices, and much related information) and current epidemiologic science with a focus on chrysotile asbestos risks will be reviewed. The novel collaborative process by which the Statement was developed and endorsed will be outlined (epimonitor.net/Epidemiology_Societies_Cooporate_On_Asbestos_Statement.htm). Ethical issues related to conflict of interest, and discuss the manufacturing of doubt by the asbestos industry will be highlighted. The approach of “doubt science” that was developed by the tobacco industry will be briefly reviewed, as well as some similarities to the asbestos industry use of the specious “anything but chrysotile” argument. Summarize a new evolving understanding of the impact of latency to the interpretation of cohort studies and meta-analyses.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related public policy
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Discuss current epidemiologic knowledge relating to chrysotile asbestos. Explain common limitations to many studies and the implications on published results, particularly from the junk science infiltration into the literature. Describe the purposes of the JPC-SE and the role that organizations such as the APHA and the APHA Epidemiology Section are playing. Summarize a new evolving understanding of the impact of latency to the interpretation of, and limitations to, cohort studies and meta-analyses

Keyword(s): Methodology, Asbestos

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Chair, JPC-SE. Past chair, APHA Epidemiology Section and past vice-chair of the APHA Science Board.
Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization Clinical/Research Area Type of relationship
Stanley H. Weiss, MD Epidemiology subsequent to the issuance of the Position Statement by the JPC-SE, during the past year I have been retained as an expert on tort actions related to asbestos in the US, mainly by plaintiffs

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4104.0: The Nexus between Public Health Evidence and Policy: The International Battle to List Chrysotile Asbestos as Hazardous [Organized by: The Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology (JPC-SE) and the APHA Epidemiology Section, as part of their joint “Future of Epidemiology” series, which has been convened annually at the APHA Annual Meeting since 2007]