Federal Health Official, Crowd Trade Concerns on UM Oval
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
June 25, 2002
Big things were said in a laid-back chat session Monday evening on the grass on the University of Montana's Oval. What was scheduled as a town meeting with a national health expert, turned into an intimate back-and forth discussion about the environmental health woes of Montana. About 30 people attended the gathering, including Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, based in North Carolina. When one member of the talk circle expressed concern that asbestos research is treated by government agencies as an orphan that nobody wants, Olden wholeheartedly agreed. "There is inadequate attention paid at trying to understand what the reach of many different (asbestos) fibers do," said
Olden who is in Missoula this week as keynote speaker at a UM asbestos conference. After hearing reports about countless diseases caused by asbestos poisoning to hundreds of Libby residents, Olden said he is frustrated by the situation. "I don't know how Libby could have happened - it's mind-boggling," he said. "That it could happen in this day and age. I don't know who was asleep at the wheel, and I think every government official should be offended." "We are under-funding asbestos related research and the government is under-funding asbestos related research," Olden said. "I can tell you today that I will go back and we will increase our funding for asbestos-related research."
As director of the national institute, Olden controls a $700 million budget of taxpayer money that is earmarked for research to find out what role environmental factors play in human diseases. He also sits on heavy-hitting health and science advisory boards and gives reports to Congress and the president. Although he has served under three presidents, Olden said his driving philosophy remains the same. "It won't do us any good to develop all this science if we don't get it out to the communities," he said. "What I think about asbestos with Libby is that is an example of a breakdown in the entire communication or response systems, because the science about asbestos had been done in 1964," Olden said. "Back then it was proved that asbestos exposure leads to lung cancer and asbestosis." Libby, he said, points to raw reality that no national disease tracking system is in place, not every state has a cancer registry and there is no hard and fast government review of existing registries.
Because of those gaps, local, state and federal health agencies do not know if disease rates are higher in one part of a county - or country - than another. "We just don't know what the American people are exposed to - or what levels," Olden said. He said he wants to change that statistic by funding research projects that are generated by community need and followed through by local university scientists. When a participant at Monday evening's gathering asked how people can be protected from a known scientific harm when no government guidelines are in place, Olden said, "Easy." "We have to empower the public with information so they can take control of their own communities and their own lives." "There is a lag between the data and applying it to communities," he said. "There is no lack of science, but lack of progress; but that will be speeded up with the demands from the community." "Through funding partnerships between the scientific community and the lay public," he added, "we can generate data to convince local and state government to change policies."