May 4 Meeting to Air NIOSH's Big Plan for Asbestos Research
Decades of research on the health effects of exposure to asbestos fibers are the basis for a comprehensive research plan NIOSH has developed and will discuss May 4 at a public meeting in Washington, D.C. "Asbestos and Other Mineral Fibers: A Roadmap for Scientific Research," a draft of the plan, is available at
www.cdc.gov/niosh/review/public/099/pdfs/NIOSHAsbestosRoadmap.pdf.
NIOSH's Mineral Fibers Work Group approved the document, which spells out what the agency wants to study and where it believes critical data is lacking. The proposed program involves work with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (a fellow CDC agency), EPA, MSHA, OSHA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and others. The draft's foreword points out that research findings will be useful in creating policies for other mineral fibers, too, both natural and man-made, and suggests it will be valuable to settle the controversies over whether workers' exposures to similarly formed fibers should be limited.
The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Capitol, 550 C Street SW. Anyone wanting to attend and provide oral comments should notify Diane Miller no later than May 1 at 513-533-8450 or [email protected].