Community Right to Know Campaign
AREA Fund provided a grant to the Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon Division (the Society) for their Community Right to Know Campaign for asbestos. The objective of the campaign is to reduce cancer incidence by educating workers in BC - and the British Columbia population at large - on ways to reduce their exposures to carcinogens including asbestos, radon and cosmetic pesticides. The campaign will not only raise awareness of the hazards of asbestos, it also aims to improve cancer screening by encouraging workers to sign up for WorkSafeBC's new exposure registry. The information obtained through the registry will be kept as a permanent record of a worker’s exposure.
In 2012, the Society launched their social media campaign on asbestos online encouraging people to send a letter to their MP to support a motion to create a registry of buildings that contain asbestos - Motion M-381. Unfortunately, shortly after the campaign was launched, Parliament voted down this motion. In 2013, advertising for the campaign began. The Society worked with both internal and external professionals to ensure the messages are impactful, scientifically accurate, and motivate the target audience to take action. Currently, Society staff and volunteers are visiting city permitting departments and building supply stores in many BC communities to tell them about the campaign, to provide them with posters to display, and to provide them with postcards to handout that warn the public of the hazards of asbestos.
AREA Fund is excited about this campaign, as the Canadian Cancer Society has the ability to reach a broad audience. As there are no cures for asbestos-related diseases, currently prevention is the only "cure" and obviously prevention is so much better than treatment.
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