Let me tell you about Sharon Kramer. This is a woman with stones. Singlehandedly, she has formed the rock solid resistance to intentionally deceptive ideas that expensive buildings, owned and supported by capitalism at its very roots and all its nuances, are completely safe for all to occupy. That idea is farcical as actual science shows clearly. Yet it took 11 years of Kramer’s life to have her demands for safe work places, home and schools accepted as part of living in the USA. Seeing the ACOEM piece removed from existence is laudable but there are steps to be taken still to safeguard basic human rights to a safe place to be when inside a building.
Between organizing presentations to the US Congress and all therein who might listen; to creating a mandate for the US Senate HELP committee to hear testimony; to causing several media outlets to write of conflicts of interest in science and medicine in United States public health policies and courts; to sending representatives to New Orleans to provide opinion separate from the CDC analysis of the effect of flooding from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf; to being jailed in California for three days for telling the truth of how false science became policy and remained that way for many years: Kramer has been there for people affected by water-damaged buildings in the US and even some across the globe.
Despite character assassinating attacks from the organized mold legal defense firms and indeed from some in the “mold community” itself, Kramer has never stopped demanding patient and personal rights in the face of what must appear to be a nation-wide scandal of cover-up and deceit. How many people are willing to spend all their family financial resources to fight for the Truth? How many people would refuse to retract five truthful little words “altered his under oath statements” in order to avoid jail time? Sharon Kramer is as close to Joan of Arc as we have seen in the fight for environmental justice. Yet she and her message didn’t burn at the stake. Sharon has won the day that shows removal of false science from policy and courts.
And we all are better for it.
Now that the science clearly shows the neurologic basis for inflammation-caused injury to the central nervous system and genomics shows just how broad the inflammatory consequences of exposure actually are, we must take on Ms. Kramer’s example of unrelenting and forceful responses to those who would carve their initials in her back and ours too. Her resolute decisions will lead us to enhanced education of patients and health care providers alike. The chronic inflammatory response syndrome is real, is identifiable and must be corrected properly to resolve. The mold community must itself remove non-scientific claims and unjustified sales pitches for health care benefits from unproven remedies. What made ACOEM die was absence of any supportive science: such a fate must await profit-taking from human suffering.
-Dr. Shoemaker
|
