Best and Worst of 2007, Indoor Environment Connections

[Guest guest]

http://www.ieconnections.com/archive/dec_07/dec_07.htm#article1

Carl Grimes, President, Healthy Habitats LLC, Denver, Colo.

WORST – You will never guess who is at the top of my list for Worst

of 2007.

No, it's not the IICRC. They are a distant " honorable mention. " The

top of my Worst list is ACOEM [American College of Occupational and

Environmental Health]. They continue their defense, despite

increasing protest, of their questionable Oct. 27, 2002, " Adverse

Human Health Effects Associated with Molds in the Indoor

Environment. " .....

Although I consider these issues quite important, they are " small

potatoes " compared to the medical harm being reported from the

misuse of the ACOEM paper.

BEST – The Best of 2007 includes those who took the risk, often at

great cost, of breaking their silence. Those who deliberately and

publicly spoke out against what they saw as wrong.

At the top is Sharon Kramer, private citizen, who is definitely not

afraid to speak out. She was the subject of an interview in this

paper last November, revealing her discoveries about the shenanigans

of ACOEM's mold position statement. She was the inspiration behind

the Wall Street Journal front page story two months later. Ms.

Kramer has been forced to defend herself in a related libel suit,

despite the anti-SLAPP legislation in California. Yet she persists

in increasingly powerful ways. She is one of the authors of the

explosive expose published in the November 7 issue of the

International Journal of Occupational Environmental Health, titled

American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM):

A Professional Association in Service to Industry. A free download

is available at: http://www.ijoeh.com/pfds/IJOEH_1304_LaDou02.pdf.

Jay Portnoy, M.D., member of the American College of Allergy, Asthma

and Immunology for demanding that ACOEM publicly withdraw his

support and signature from the ACOEM statement. Mr. Portnoy, as the

newly elected president of ACAAI, also declared the mission of the

coming year to the indoor environment. His first step was to

organize the one-day pre-conference workshop Healthy Indoor

Environments in Dallas last month.

Bill Moyers qualifies for his 2002 exposé of deliberate chemical-

industry coverups in his PBS series, Trade Secrets.

http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/.

Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science, merits a " Best " for his

November 23 editorial, " Toxic Dilemmas. " What is most astonishing is

his connection of the ubiquity of fire-retardant chemicals in

society (and inside people) to the activities of the tobacco

industry! Remember Sharon Kramer's history of the authors of the

ACOEM mold statement? The world is truly small and circular. Some

keep going in circles and others expose them.

Finally, all those working behind the scenes and in their own

locales who are fighting to make a difference against insurance

denials of claims and legal arguments by the defense.

Although " silent " to the industry, they are the true backbone.