scicar17

Sam Roe and his scientific partner Lee Newman will use the scicar conference to initiate new cooperations between scientists and journalists - and between teams from different countries.
To that end they have identified two topics which they present in two consecutive sessions:

The toxic metal beryllium has been known to cause incurable lung disease in 2-5% of workers exposed in a range of industries from electronics, computers, telecom, aerospace, aircraft manufacture, defense industries, dental alloys, recycling, and others. In the US alone we estimate that possibly as many as 1 million individuals are at risk of “Chronic Beryllium Disease.” US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enacted a new federal rule in May 2017 to try to protect workers from beryllium exposure. Internationally, there have been cases of this disease identified in more than a dozen countries, but in many parts of the world, no one has investigated the problem.
As in the US, investigative journalists have an opportunity to uncover this epidemic in their countries, and to promote better prevention.