Document 10q5meKJQ9Y2z0aoXNEZzEpLK

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1974 Sept 19 DOC NMA087 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Cancer Found in Asbestos Workers Kin Cancer Found in Asbestos Workers Kin By JANE E. BRODY New York Times Current file Sep 19 1974 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times 1851 - 2002 Pg Cancer Found in Asbestos Workers Kin By JANE E BRODY The 933 men who produced asbestos insulation at a Pater- son N. J. plant in the nineteenforties came home each day from the dusty factory covered with asbestos fibers Today some 30 years later many wives children and other persons who were in contact with these men at home are oped a rare usually fatal form of cancer called mesothelioma the only known cause of which is exposure to asbestos The new study being con ducted under a grant from the National Institute of Environ mental Health Sciences adds a new dimension to the already established dangers of asbestos a ubiquitous mineral not only about the adequacy of regulations designed to protect asbestos workers but also about the hazards the general public may face from exposure to the persistent fibers of as- bestos Asbestos fibers can be found virtually everywhere - in air as a result of the erosion of brake linings air conditioning beginning to show the effects with some 3,000 uses Thou- systems floor tiles and other of their peripheral and often sands of workers have suc sources in commercial bever brief exposure to this insidious cumbed to asbestos can jages that have been passed mineral cers and lung disease includ through asbestos filters in A study by Mount Sinai Medi cal Center has shown a high incidence of lung abnormalities among the workers relatives and four persons who were ex posed as children have devel ing many who worked at water supplies that are carried Paterson factory through asbestos pipes - Now evidence is mounting The danger of asbestos to that far less than the intense exposure of the work environ Continued on Page 27 Column 1 ment is necessary to produse asbestos disease The new evidence raises questions Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission Cancer Found in Relatives of Asbestos Workers 30 Years After Contact Contiued Continued From Page 1 Col. 7 Paterson workers Thus far shift at the UNARCO plant for The new spate of mesothelio- Dr. Sellkoff is also worried suggests that the consump 210 family contacts examined year in the mid 1940's and ma cases is among several re about the nearly three millionition of small amounts of asbes- those examined who work with it was under the direction Dr. took him a hot meal every cent developments regarding Americans who worked in tos fibers can result in a wide their lungs to directly Another to | British described by Roman scientists A. Anderson nearly 40 per evening waiting outside the asbestos that have caused ridden shipyards spectrum of cancerous tumors cent were found on rays to plant for her father pick it alarm among the Mount Sinai World War II Cases of meso finding that could be of signi- as early as the first century but it was not until have the kinds of abnormalities patient was in investigators and stimulated la thelioma have recently begun ficance to the residents Min of commaosbnes directly exposed to asbestos for bor leaders and others to chal appear among these people nesota who for the last 18 . studies in the 1920's that any tos workers In some cases just months when she was lenge the adequacy of current The other developments years have been drinking water attempt was made to protect where ray abnormalities four years old and in the third protections against the time- are causing concern include from Lake Superior that is con- [ workers from its effects were found in the family the case the patient's father had bomb effects of this persistent British medical report taminated with epidemic safely a asbestos from ren In the years since workers worker had been at the UNAR- worked at the plant for a year mineral ing that the levels of asbestos wastes of mining compa- exposed to asbestos have been CO plant for only a few days This patient's sister a nonsmo- Dr. Sellkoff fears an eventual that Federal regulations say . , shown to face a greatly in thrIene ptehresolnasstwhtohreweeremocnhtihlsd jkaegre odfie3d9of lung cancer at the since he says wmheastothweelioamrae wfoarkcetrscacuasne lung diinsheaalsee mpaeyalAsUnihtaesd SatlaltoewsedCotuhrte ofLaAkpe- creased risk of developing lung at the time their relatives A fourth person the daughter seeing today reflects the size of cancer years later Superior dumping to continue cancer mesothelioma cancers worked in the Paterson plant of the man who developed the the work force in the 1930's Another British study because the today More Government could of of the gastrointestinal tract were found to have mesothelio- asbestos material made by UN and 1940's when asbestos pro- that rats can develop mesothe demonstrate that Minne- and asbestosis a scarring of ma ARCO died in 1965 of mesothe duction was tenth what it lioma after as little as one sotans had suffered ill effects the lungs These effects gen One of the three died of the lioma the same disease that is than one mil of inhaling asbestos fibers from drinking the asbestos- " erally do not show up until HedirsefaasethienrJhuande awtortkheedagtehe l4a4t.e etaorolkiehrer father's life 14 years;wlioornkepderdsiornecstlhyavweithatasobneesttoisme IliAshnedd Caanapdriealnimsintaurdyy aclsoonttahienfiinbegr filwlaedteariror breathing two or three and sometimes even four - decades after the first exposure to asbestos A Decade Study : For two decades Dr. Irving J. Selikoff director of Mount Sinai's Laboratory of Environ- mental Sciences has been studying the effects of asbes- tos on the men who worked at the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company UNARCO as it is commonly called in Paterson The factory was in operation . from 1941 to 1954 These men came home each day covered with the whitish fl- hers of asbestos -- on their clothes in their hair in their lunch pails Sometimes they brought home samples of the - fireproof product they made for their children to play with According to Dr. William Ni- cholson of the Mount Sinai team asbestos fibers can still + be found in the attic dust of the homes of workers who left the : plant as many A year ago as 30 years the Mount Sinai Sinai Sinai team began a study of the fate of those who lived with the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission