Document 5LdYjzgr04g1mVdL5MyaBmRYD

Insulation Hygiene Progress Reports Vol. 5, No. 3 Fall 1973 frum the Insulation Industry Hygiene Research Program Editor: \V. J. Nicholson, Ph.D., Pub lished at the Environmental Sciences Laboratory tIrving J. Selikoff. M.D.. Director). Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York, N.Y. 10029 Advisory Council of IIHRP Irving J. Selikoff. M.D. Program Director and Chairman E. Cuyler Hammond, Sc.D., Vice Presi dent, American Cancer Society. New York. N.Y. Andrew Haas. General President. Interna tional Association of Heal and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers. Washington. D.C. Fred L. Pundsack, Ph.D. Vice President. Research and Development. JohnsManville Corporation, Denver, Colo. PURPOSES OF THE INSULATION INDUSTRY HYGIENE RESEARCH PROGRAM 1. To develop improved meihods for minimizing exposure of insu lation workers to dusis and fumes encountered in (heir work. 2. To disseminate knowledge of these improved methods of dust control wherever they may be applied advantageously and to offer cooperation, advice and assistance toward their universal adoption. (Continued from first page) highly efficient in the respirators tested, the face seals that can be obtained are much less effective. These respirators passed an approval schedule that re quired only 90% of the dust to be ex cluded by the face seal. Your choice of a respirator should thus be based on the fit that can be achieved on your face and comfort during use. You don't have to worry about fibers penetrating the filler. Mn, Anne Macklcr of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory of Mount Sinai School of Medicine collecting settled dust from the stairway near which asbestos contaminated wurk clothes were hung in this home. Above her shoulder is located an air sampling unit. Household Contamination is a Serious Problem Control of insulation dusts on the job site is necessary to protect, not onlyinsulation workers, but also members of their families. Special concern for ihe family mem bers of insulators has recently de veloped because of the finding of a lung lumor in the nine year old daughter of a New Jersey Union member. The tumor was localized and successfully re moved by surgery. Asbestos Found in Lung Electron microscopic analysis at the Environmental Sciences Laboratory of Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the tissue removed from Ihe lung showed significant amounts of chrysotile asbes tos and diatomaceous earth to be pres ent. much in excess of what is typically found in a child of nine. Both chrysotile and diatomaceous earth are common components of insulation material. The existence of the tumor and the finding of insulation material in Ihe lung in this isolated case does not dem onstrate that these fibers and particles necessarily caused the tumor. Chrysotile asbestos, albeit in lower amounts, Is found in the lungs of mrfhy individuals, children, as well as adults.who have had no direct or indi rect association with asbestos products. Nevertheless, because of the rarity of such tumors in children, this particu lar case does give one pause. It was a similar single isolated case of lung cancer described in the medical litera ture in 1935 that first pointed to the risk of such disease in asbestos workers. Air Samples Collected Samples of the air and specimens of settled dust from the room of the child and elsewhere in the home were coir lected by Mrs. Anne Mackler and Dr. Arthur Rohl of the Environmental Sci ences Laboratory. The analysis of these samples showed significant amounts of asbestos to be present in the child's bedroom and in the basement play area near where the husband's work clothes were hung and where these clothes were laundered. In a more extensive sampling pro gram of a variety of asbestos workers' homes, including those of mill work ers, asbestos has universally been found to be present, usually in concen trations much higher than those of the above case. Chrysotile air concentra tions may range from 100 limes to over 1000 times those found in general city air.