Document 2Na58qM08Lx7zdKXa1arGqNab

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 Currentfile Sep 19 1974 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times 1851 - 2002 pg 1 Cancer Found in Asbestos Workers Kin By JANE E. BRODY oped a rare usually fatal form not only about the adequacy of The 933 men who of cancer called produced mesothelioma regulations designed to protect asbestos insulation at a Pater- the only known cause of which asbestos workers but also son N. J plant in the nineteenforties came home each day from the dusty factory covered with asbestos fibers Today some 30 years later is exposure to asbestos The new study being con ducted under a grant from the National Institute of Environ mental Health Sciences adds a about the hazards the general public may face from exposure to the persistent fibers of as- bestos Asbestos fibers can be found many wives children and other new dimension to the already virtually everywhere - in air persons who were in contact established dangers of as a result of the erosion of with these men at home are asbestos a ubiquitous mineral brake linings air conditioning beginning to show the effects of their peripheral and often brief exposure to this insidious mineral A study by Mount Sinai Medical Center has shown a high incidence of lung abnormalities among the workers relatives and four persons who were ex posed as children have devel- with some 3,000 uses Thou- systems floor tiles and other sands of workers have suc sources in commercial bever cumbed to asbestos can fages that have been passed cers and lung disease includ through asbestos filters in ing many who worked at the 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 Continued Continued Continued Page Page tena eDtataeareeel 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 those far of of Continued From Page 1 Col. Paterson workers Thus far of shift at the UNARCO plant for The new spate of mesothelio- Dr. Selikoff is also worried rats suggests that the consump 210 family contacts examined a year in the 1940's and cases is among several re about the nearly three millionition millionition of small amounts of asbes- who work with it was under the direction Dr. Hen- she took him a hot meal every developments regarding Americans who worked in as tos fibers can result in a wide A. described by Roman scientistsscientists Anderson nearly 40 per waiting outside asbestos that have caused bestos shipyards during spectrum of cancerous tumors| abnormalites evening as early as the first century hcaevnte wtheerekifnodusnodf oabnnorramaylisties plantAnfootrhheerr fpaattiheenrttowpaisckianvleasrtmigaatmoornsganthdestMiomuunlatteSdinlaai WthoerllidomWaahravIeIreCcaesnetlsyobfegmuenstoo faifcianndcientgothtahte croeusilddebntesooffsMiginni-- but to directly it was not until British their lungs common asbes directly directly exposed to asbestos bor leaders and others to chal appear among these people nesota who for the last 18 studies in the 1920's that any workers In some cases just months when she lenge the adequacy of current The other developments that years have been drinking water altempt was made to protect ray abnormalities four years old and in the protections against the time are causing concern include a from Lake Superior that is con- amet workers from its effects were found in the family the case the patient's father bomb effects of this persistent British medical report indicat taminated with asbestos from ny In the years since workers worker had been at the UNAR- worked at the plant for a mineral ing that the levels of asbestos the wastes of a mining compa- exposed to asbestos have been CO plant for only a few days This patient's sister a nonsmo- Dr. Selikoff fears an eventual that Federal regulations say ; i shown to face a greatly threetIhrnee ptehresolnasstwhtohreweeremocnhtihlsd jkaegre odfie3d9of' lung cancer at episidnceemhiecsays wmheastothweelioamrae wfoarkcetrscacuasneslafuenlgy diinsheaalsee maanyd peaAlsUnhitaesd SatlaltoewsedCotuhrte ofLaAkpe- creased risk of developing lung ren at the time their relatives A fourth person the daughter reflects the size of cancer years later Superior dumping to continue today cancer mesothelioma cancers worked in the Paterson plant of the man who developed the work force in the 1930's Another British study showed because the Government could of the gastrointestinal tract found to have asbestos material made by UN- 1940's when asbestos pro- that rats can develop mesothe not demonstrate that Minne- mesothelio- of and asbestosis a scarring of ima ARCO died in 1965 of mesothe was tenth what it lioma after as little as one day sotans had suffered ill effects the lungs These effects gen One of the three died of the lioma the same disease that today than one mil- of inhaling asbestos fibers from drinking the asbestos- erally do not show up until disease in June at the age 44. her father's life 14 years persons have at one time And a preliminary unpub containing water or breathing took filled ' Her father had worked the late earlier two or three and sometimes worked directly with asbestos lished Canadian study also in the air 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 Environmental 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 fibers of asbestos on their clothes in their hair in their lunch pails Sometimes they brought home samples of the .fireprof .fireproof product they made for their children to play with their According to Dr. William Nicholson of the Mount Sinai team asbestos fibers can still * be found in the attic dust of the homes of workers who left the ; plant many as 30 years ago A year ago the Mount Sinal ;t team began a study of the fate of those who lived with the ReproducedReproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission