Document 4JMD7nN55y34NkOwbea7jak0j

FILE NAME German Articles - Some with English Translation GER DATE 1980 June DOC GER031 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Trade Journal Article - Asbestos on Payment - No German Original ee Translation 19 May 1981 D.M. Zitta German to English LABOR UNIONISTS A Monthly for the Membership of the Industrial Association of Metallurgy June 1980 28th Year Frankfurt on the Main ASBESTOS Closed Death on Payments The diagram The use of asbestos dates back over 100 years Prof. H.J. Woitowitz ASBESTOS -- The Source of Malignant Tumors The issue of safeguarding human health against hazardous materials and in particular against materials that cause cancer has now become a public issue with responsibility to be shared by the entire society Reference is made here to one of the resource materials used in our time -- asbestos Asbestos is known as the mineral of a thousand possibilities or the magic mineral of the century In The Limits of Growth by the Club of Rome asbestos takes 3rd place among hazardous materials known to cause danger world The National Institute of Social Health NIOSH in the U.S.A. lists asbestos among the ten hazardous material with the greatest potential for the development of cancer The Senate Commission for the investigation of insti uset d byu thet resi earco h insn tituts ions in Germany has listed asbestos among the causing materials for about one decade ASBESTOS -- The Source of Illnesseses The use of asbestos in our country goes back 100 years However on the international scale it took decades before medicine was able to establish an actual relationship between the inhaling of asbestos and the resulting illness The first asbestos manufacturing company was established in Germany in 1870. The first medical reports describing the illnesses date back to the year 1907 -- asbestosis 1933 -- cancer of the lungs due to asbestos 1938 -- pleural mesothelioma and in 1954 -- peritoneal mesothelioma Today these four illnesses resulting from the inhalation of asbestos are covered by workmen's compensation Asbestos is mined processed used as an ingredient in a product or removed as waste Many individuals come in contact with asbestos in the course of its production Those engaged in the immediate processing of asbestos in the factory constitute only a fraction of the personnel involved in the total process and thus vulnerable to the dangers of asbestos dust Recent observations link illnesses from asbestos to the shape of the fibres The fibres enter the vesicles of the lungs through inhalation of the called fine asbestos dust and are absorbed by the alveolar cells Depending on the length of the fibres the cell membranes are punctured creating the called link phenomenon with resultant loss of fluid from the cells and the eventual death of the cell Because some of the fibres remain in the lungs for a prolonged perioodf time other generations of alveolar cells are doomed with a similar fate This process is conclu- sive to the cause of asbestosis and the development of malignant tumors THE RISK OF TUMORS FROM ASBESTOS Statistical data are available which give a break for specific tumors according to frequenacnyd the locality of their occurrence In groups exposed to asbestos dust the mortality rate from tumors is sta- tistically more frequent According to the statistical study by the international institute for cancer research which was published in Lyon in 1977 by WHO workers in the U.S.A. exposed to asbestos dust show an increased frequency . a in malignat tumors the increase in the frequency of tumors due to asbestos in one million workers who have been and continue to be exposed to asbestos dust in their line of work was estimated by breaking down the cause of deaths from bronchial cancer approximately 15 from mesothelioma approximately 7 to 11 % that is a total of 22 to 26 percent deaths from tumors It should be noted that the percentage numbers estimated are corelative with the conditions as they existed a decade ago when facilities for the protection against the dust were more than inadequate It is obvious from scientific evidence submitted date that there has been a change of opinion It is agreed that the risk for tumors to develop in workers exposed to asbestos dust is not only greater as evidenced by a greater number of tumors but that it even exceeds the level of risk to asbestos as applied by the standards of health Thus deaths due to malignant tumors were three times more frequent than deaths due to asbestosis To this day the Federal Republic has only limited scientifically useful information available on research concerning types and the extent of risk for tumors due to asbestos The exact number of tumors due to asbestos remains to this day in considerable obscurity for various reasons Attempts at more research work for purposes of clarification do not always meet with support from the responsible agencies LACK OF MEASURING VALUES Attempts in the past as well as the present to separate workers from areas endangered by asbestos dust have proved to be impractical and difficult to carry out One of the problems among the many others is the lack of knowable criteria on which to base measured levels of asbestos dust in the that is inhaled by the workers As yet no agreement has been reached or is even likely to be reached in the near future on combining and comparing existing findings from available technological data on dust measurements with data from medical research on workers presently exposed to asbestos dust Furthermore diagnostic clinics are needed for the examination of workers exposed to asbestos dust for at least a period of three years for testing the obtained results so as to compare them with the internationally set health standards provided by the more recent and more advanced medical research on health in workers This holds also true with regard to standards for workmen's compensation Particular attention should be given the question concerning a more comprehensive coverage in instances involving bronchial cancer from asbestos as well as asbestosis Finally the care and treatment of workers suffering from tumors due to asbestos should be a public concern and should be supported by the public Remarks 1 Fibrosis of the lungs from asbestos or asbestosis is diffuse scar tissue scattered throughout the lung resulting from term inhala- tion of fine asbestos dust 2 The lung cancer from asbestos shows no marked different characteristics than the bronchial cancer due to other causes Bronchial cancer is a tumor with malignant cell growth originating in the bronchial mucous membrane and continuing to spread and endangering life 3 Mesothelioma is a malignant tumor with cell growth It originates either in the pleural cavity or the peritoneum Diagram on p.3 | The primary danger -- the fine asbestos dust