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FILE NAME Painters and Allied Trades PAINT DATE 1976 May DOC PAINT044 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Article from Painters and Allied Trades Journal MAY MAYMAY 197619761976 LEGAL DEFENDANT'S LEGAL LEGALVLC - cEaXsHeIBspIeTcific- STATE STATE ALL ALL ALL Journal This month a report The Decade of Job Safety IBPAT'S out effort to help NEWS AND FEATURES page Inside Front Cover 4 6 From the General President Job Parley Targets Political Action Panel Contest Winners Named 7 The Decade of Job Safety Special Report 12 IBPAT Gets CETA Pact 19 District 6 Active in Public Sector 31 The GST Reports e DEPARTMENTS page 15 Local District Council News 23 Labor Beat 24 The Sports and Recreation Scene 26 Financial Report DEVOTED TO THE TRADE INTERESTS OF RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL e SIGN e PICTORIAL . COACH e AUTOMOBILE AIRCRAFT MACHINERY RAILWAY EQUIPMENT SHIP AND SCENIC PAINTING DECORATING PAPERHANGING WALL COVERING e DECORATIVE AND s ARCHITECTURAL GLASS WORK GLAZING e CARPET e LINOLEUM @ SOFT TILE * PAINT AND VARNISH MAKING BRUSH MAKERS AND TO THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN GENERAL Any member or subordinate body publishing programs souvenirs or other documents of any description must not designate them as The Official Journal of the Brotherhood or as The Painters and Allied Trades Journal either upon the publication itself on their advertising contract forms or stationery : ROBERT J. PETERSDORF Publisher and Editor S. FRANK RAFTERY General President 1750 New York Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20006 ROBERT J. PETERSDORF General Treasurer 1750 New York Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20006 General Vice Presidents BERNARD SNIEGOWSKI 1st District 1443 Westchester Blvd. Westchester III 60153 A. L. MONROE 2nd District 7909 Bayberry Drive Alexandria Va 22306 JAMES WOLFORD 3rd District 100 Devon Lane Williamsville N.Y. 14221 Washington D.C. 20006 JACK T. COX 4th District 2212 DuPont Dr. Published monthly by the 8 Irvine Calif 92664 www IntIernationanl ternational Brotherhood of Painters and ; www Allied Trades Second Class mail entry VOLUME 90 No. 5 GUY LEBER 5th District . authorized at Washington D.C. MAY 1976 1930 Bishop Lane Louisville Ky 40218 POSTMASTERS ATTENTION Change of address cards on Form 3579 should be sent to THE PAINTERS AND ALLIED TRADES JOURNAL 1750 New York Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20006 The official journal of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades organized March 15 1887 and the only publication issued under its auspices JAMES B. COX 6th District 8800 Blue Ridge Ext No. 10 Kansas City Mo. 64138 Subscription Price 2.00 per year Single copy 20 cents PRINTED ON UNION MADE PAPER PRINTED WITH UNION MADE INK LABOR PRESS ceqtitnitisnn. A B 4 CIOCLC CIOCLC i 3 ASSOCIATION fp PRINTED IN U.S.A. WILLIAM A. DUVAL 7th 1750 New York Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20006 District Report Editors Note Dr. John R. Goldsmith and Dr. Tee Guidotti recently reviewed three sets of statistics concerning the occur- rence of cancer in different trades They found the painters were one of occupations which showed excessively high rates of lung cancer in all three studies Dr. I. J. Selikoff invited Dr. Goldsmith to write of his observations By John R. Goldsmith M.D. California Health Department Berkeley Calif No job safety program can side- step the issues of preventing cancer among workers For industrially caused cancer is not only a personal disaster for victims and their fami- lies but a costly liability to our country as well Its prevention is to everyone's benefit WHAT CAUSES CANCER Cells of the body get used up and replace themselves at different speeds depending on the organ For example the cells of the skin linings of the stomach intestine bladder and lungs replace them- selves very frequently while those of the brain muscle bone and kidneys do not Each cell not only does its own job but contains the blue- print for replacing itself If there is a small mistake in reproducing the blueprint the replacement cell may not function correctly Of course with many types of mistakes the new cell dies or will not reproduce itself Once in a while however the new abnormal cell goes on to pro- duce a tumor or cancer Since the cell blueprintis made up of chemi- cals other chemicals as well as physical agents some of which are used in industry can produce these small causing changes As we know a short exposure to * a potent chemical in large amounts can produce a serious and prompt reaction Such toxic effects don't themselves lead to cancer but may cause coma sickness or interfere with performance Low level re- peated exposures to certain mate- ~ rials are what cause cancer how- ever the exposures are not only to a single agent but to one agent which starts the process and then a second which causes a speed of cell multiplication resulting in can- cer Many people get cancer without exposures to occupations involving chemicals Cancer rates for exam- ple among cigarette smokers are much higher than among nonsmokers especially for cancer of the lung and its airways This is probably due to the chemicals taken into the body from cigarette smoke If we knew just what chemicals were doing this we should try to remove them but we don't have such exact information Thus if a painter gets cancer we can't say with certainty that one job one type of paint or even for sure whether the lifetime of work was the cause More likely than not it was several causes acting together Only when a group of men whose work exposures are similar are compared with the experience of a group without that exposure can we estimate the contribution which working conditions make to __ cancer experience OCCUPATIONAL CANCER STATISTICS We need to look at how cancer is distributed in groups with differ- ent occupations There are two types of information available for this purpose official statistics com- piled for a country or state from information on death certificates or the follow of a working popula- tion in a specific trade to determine THE JOURNAL 7 The Decade of Job Safety what sicknesses they have and what cupations Of these 85 would not some as yet unidentified material they die of Dr. Tee Guidotti and I have re- painters have occurred if the had the same mortality experience as work- We referred above to two types of data but so far have discussed cently reviewed three different sets of official statistics the U.S. Na- ers in other occupations Similarly in the period 1959-62 326 painters only official data The other type and one which is needed for painters tional Center for Health Statistics Department of Health Education were certified to have disability due to respiratory tract cancer at ages is data from the experience accumu- lated over time of a group and Welfare data for 1950 the less than 65 a rate 26 greater British Registrar Decen- nial Report on Social Class and Occupation for 1960 and the U.S. than men in other occupations This represents 72 more men than ex- pected been carried out among asbestos workers uranium miners long Social Security Administration's Occupational Characteristics of Disabled Workers by Disabling Conditions 1959-62 The first two reports are on death the third on men aged 20-64 who received disability The reasons for this excess can include three possibilities If painters smoke cigarettes more heavily than other workers this may be contrib- uting But cigarette smokers don't have excess rates for stomach and shoremen steelworkers carpenters and rubber workers Many of these hazards studies have detected cancer in the workplace which were con trollable and some are now being controlled The participation of retirement The results for painters are shown in Table 1 as ratios of what would be expected for all the persons in- cluded in the particular set For ex- digestive tract cancer Possibly smoking or drinking is reactive or compensatory for other aspects of the work exposure Without further information we can't evaluate this labor unions in such forward- looking work is vital and the Paint- ers Brotherhoodis to be congratu- lated for undertaking thisin its cur- rent program with scientists from ample an average experience would result in a ratio of 1.0 and a ratio of 1.50 represents a 50 excess or- _ perhaps 150 deaths when 100 were expected The ratios underlined are based on large enough numbers so that they are unlikely to be due to chance or random variation Scientists usually consider such ratios to be significant in relation to ordinary question In occupational studies of asbestos insulation workers and uranium miners work exposures greatly magnified cancer risks of cigarette smokers so an interaction with smoking is not unlikely with exposures of painters Smoking alone is not likely to be the explana- tion Finally we may find that all painters show some excess hazard because of common exposures to the Mount Sinai School of Medi cine : The variability in exposuresof painters may make it harder to pin point a particular solvent or pig ment but the study of experiences of painters will clear up many the questions raised above LABORATORY STUDIES OF CANCER HAZARDS Much work has been done to test or expected results To summarize the Table all three . studies indicate that painters have more than the expected number of RATIOS OF OBSERVED TO EXPECTED CANCER DEATHS AND DISABLEMENT FOR PAINTERS IN THREE LARGE STUDIES deaths and disablement from cancer of organs which chemical agents can Site of Cancer ^' U.S. Mortality U.K. Mortality U.S. Disability affect The excesses for cancer All sites 1.37 1.22 1.14 deaths U.S. 1950 are about 37 for all organs and 67 for the respiratory tract Respiratory Tract Digestive Tract 1.67 1.32 1.45 d 1.26 1.10 Putin other terms 871 men died Stomach 1.42 1.19 agre of cancer in 1950 who had been Urinary Tract 1.43 a 1.09 painters according to their death certificates Of these 235 deaths would not have occurred if painters had the same cancer experience as other men Similarly 212 painters died of respiratory tract cancer at a rate 67 greater than men in other oc- Mouth and Throat Leukemia 1.46 1.30 ae __ Lymphoma 1.27 5 * Includes painters paper hangers and glaziers " Includes painters and decorators * Includes painters construction and maintenance ___ means data not available 1.07 0.91 1.16 erent 8 THE JOURNAL chemicals for their cancer risks by using experimental animals This helps a great deal in picking out which agent of a mixture is more likely to be an active cause of cancer However in the case of painters such studies may be only partly effective since combinations of chemicals are usually present at the worksite but are not usually so tested in the laboratory In these exposure trades what has happened to painters may tell us more than what happens to labora- animals as possibly responsible include interactions which might involve sole 1 Job Hazard Hazard a A special panel of the National Research Council is seeking guidance about the kinds of job hazard information workers want and what forms such information should take The Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA has requested the NRC to recommend general content format and target audiences for Information Information Oc- cupational Cancer Information and Alert Program launched by OSHA ments aniline dyes and asbestos But painters are also exposed to many other chemicals most of which have not been tested for their producing properties Painters have more cancer than expected when compared to other workers Measurements of exposure and study of workers within the union are the most useful approaches as part of the Union's Decade of Job Safety and the National Cancer Institute The National Research Council also will conduct a symposium this summer at which cancer experts will recommend the best ways to educate target groups about job cancer Meanwhile George Wash- ington University in Washington D.C. is producing under an OSHA contract a minute film that will be part of a public service television show on job cancer The Research Council has been Data criticized by labor for not naming any union representatives or worker education specialisttso its special panel although the panel reportedly plans to consult with such people during the course of its work The panel held an open meeting recently to solicit suggestions from the public on the kinds of information workers need The tone of the meeting indicated that the group has a long way to go in getting a handle on the struggles workers face in dealing with job hazards A union spokesman pointed out that employers now have no incentive to inform workers about dan- gerous exposures but that when workers do get information they can take action on their own He cited the case of workers in a North Carolina plant who after finding out they were exposed to benzene and what it could do to them start- ed a program of blood testing ry The National Institute for Occu- Medicare Covers Kidney Failure IBPAT members are alerted to the fact that a little known pro- law vision of the Medicare provides Medicare protection for peo- ple under age 65 who suffer from permanent kidney failure About 23,000 persons with this condition are receiving lifesaving services under Medicare but there may be some people with kidney failure under age 65 who are not yet aware of the services Some may be IBPAT members or members of their families If you or someone in your family has permanent kidney failure and is in need of dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant you should know about this important protection and how to apply for pational Safety and Health NIOSH has issued an alert w^/rning that the chemical diamino- diphenylmethane DDM can cause liver disease among workers and has caused cancer among labora- tory animals the Job Health News Service reports An estimated 2,500 workers are exposed to DDM which is used as a chemical intermediate in the pro- duction of rigid polyurethane foams used as thermal insulation Construction workers are exposed to it DDM while applying epoxy coat- You can obtain more information on this Medicare program by contacting your local Social Security office or by writing to the Bureau of Health Insurance Social Security Administration 6401 Security Blvd. Baltimore Md 21235 and request a pamphlet entitled Medicare for People Under 65 With Permanent Kidney ARTA Failure A Oe - ings Several studies have linked ex- posure to DDM with cases of toxic hepatitis a liver disease among workers For example during an month period beginning in April 1972 six cases of hepatitis devel- nSRe . rma ge THE JOURNAL 9 Lath ise