Scientist Who Predicted Scale of Asbestos-Disease Epidemic Honored

Professor Julian Peto, who has done influential research defining the environmental factors that affect development of asbestos-related cancer in the workplace, received the Medal of Honor this week from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization.
Peto was the first researcher to predict the scale of the continuing mesothelioma epidemic. He holds a joint appointment at the Institute of Cancer Research in Great Britain and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The dose response models that Peto developed for asbestos-related lung cancer and mesothelioma have been adopted internationally for assessment of occupational and environmental asbestos risk. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung related to asbestos exposure.
Peto began his research on asbestos in 1974 at Oxford University, under Richard Doll who was the first researcher to publish definitive evidence of the carcinogenicity of asbestos 55 years ago.
In the 1990s, Peto and colleagues predicted that asbestos-related cancer would claim a quarter of a million lives in Western Europe in the next 35 years. He predicted that one of every 150 men born from 1945 to 1950 in Western Europe would eventually die of mesothelioma, because of the prevalence of asbestos as insulation and building materials in the workplace in earlier decades.
According to the World Health Organization, about 125 million people are exposed to asbestos at work, and at least 90,000 die of asbsetos-related disease each year.

Green Passports bring economic surety to ship recycling.

Safmarine, a member of the A P Moler-Maersk Group, has benefitted from the fixed ship recycling fees that result from having a Green Passport for Ships survey carried out prior to recycling their vessel, Cotonou.

The company's Health, Safety and Environment Manager commented that, as well as being kinder to the environment than beaching a ship to be broken, the costs of recycling, including the disposal of toxic items in the correct manner, was fixed. This was because the company commisioned a Green Passport, or Inventory of Hazardous Materials, prior to work on recycling the Cotonou commencing.

Traditional beaching methods for ship breaking, where there is no prior knowledge of the amount of contaminants on board, allow the ship breaker to re-open negotiations with the company wishing to have it's vessel broken up at the end of its life. As the vessels is already beached, the ships owners are put at a considerable disadvantage in these negotiations.

He also noted that the process was completely transparent and all of the hazardous materials that were removed from the vessel could be traced in line with legislation that will be brought in to force by the International Maritime Organisation in about 2015.

The way forward with ship recycling for the enlightened owner, then, is to spend a small amount of money to have a Green Passport for your vessels, to ensure that you're not ripped off when you need to recycle them.

Lucion Marine provide definitive, not indicative, Green Passport surveys around the world. For more information go to their website or call +44 (0)191 4618999.