Kathleen Ruff on Asbestos at McGill: one year later

Kathleen Ruff, Senior advisor to the Rideau Institute and anti-asbestos activist, was interviewed by the McGill Tribune regarding the university’s 2012 decision to not seek an external review of contested research conducted by a McGill professor.

The CBC reported a year ago, that John Corbett McDonald, a former professor of oncology at McGill, was hired by the asbestos industry to conduct research on the health effects of asbestos. McDonald co-wrote a paper in 1998, claiming that workers’ exposure to asbestos had a protective effect, with a certain amount of exposure. The story covers the impact that decision has had on the school, and the asbestos debate, a year later.

“According to the anti-asbestos lobby, McDonald’s research is still used today by asbestos companies to advocate for the use of asbestos in developing countries like Brazil and India, where asbestos continues to be used in construction. It is the anti-asbestos lobby’s mission to discontinue the use of asbestos around the world.

‘McGill’s research done by McDonald still is one of the most important weapons used by the asbestos industry around the world to defeat efforts by health professionals to ban asbestos,’ Ruff said.”

Kathleen Ruff is calling for McGill to retract the 1998 paper written by McDonald. The full article is available online.