Document 6B121GDRgaZbOME7aGqm97Jdd

FILE NAME Dental Asbestos DEN DATE 1976 Aug DOC DEN004 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Published Letters - Journal of the American Dental Association of the American Dental Association I August 1976 ne 93 e No oe , a ee . PRELIMINARY _. PROGRAM 117TH ANNUAL SESSION AMERICAN DENTAL ASSOCIATION Vegas Vegas Vegas - * 377IANDON QU SADIGAN ON SI 134 20 Mar VN Preliminary Program hunlights eooveeper | nformati nformati nformati mor bers ta Wee Dr. Slovis regarding the need to expand programs to include heavy equipment evaluation and intends to move as quickly as possible into this area in accordance with available funding and manpower JOHN W. STANFORD PHD SECRETARY ADA COUNCIL ON DENTAL MATERIALS AND DEVICES DA office poliev Congratulations on your editorial in the May 17 ADA News It is quite apparent that the hierarchy of the ADAA is doing its best to ruin its organization Perhaps we can help them on their way by adopting the Stay and Git or Git and Stay office policy This policy means that if the assis- tants want to stay the ADAA then let them get out of your office but if they want to stay in your office let them get out of the ADAA If we dentists follow this policy perhaps the troublemakers of the ADAA would listen to the grass members of their organization who are opposed to the recent actions of the ADAA TAYLOR W. HAMILTON DDS HUNTSVILLE AI Persistence is the key My respect for Chuck Amenta is no secret From close observation I have come to think of him as some kind of genius He developed the American Society for Preventive Dentistry from nothing to a growing movement But when he suggests . the goals we set out to achieve have been reached I am certain he is wrong To effect lasting change we need persistence Many organizations and individuals identify with the preventive philosophy but fail to follow through in practice If they once were enthusiastic most have now fallen back to the easier less demanding repan philosophy of the past Patient persistence works with patients It will work with the profes- sion We need a strong ASPD now to keep up the good start given us by Amenta Brackett and Ross JEROME MIITELMAN DDS NEW YORK CITY Asbestos in dentistry The report by the ADA Councils on Dental Materials and Devices and on Dental Therapeutics regarding Hazards of asbestos in dentistry as very timely and appropriate April JADA We are pleased the Council no longer considers asbestos taining periodontal packs eligible for its Acceptance Program and we further hope that dentists will discontinue use of these packs in private practice Although in 1973 the Food and Drug Administration considered the health hazard from ingestion of asbestos particles inconclusive recent evidence demonstrates neoplastic response in experimental animals following ingestion of asbestos fiber In rats fed talc or chrysotile two gastric leiomyosarcomas were observed while no tumors occurred in the control animals In addition to lung cancers and pleural and peritoneal mesotheliomas indicated in the Council's report numerous epidemiologic studies of defined populations occupationally exposed to airborne asbestos fibers have consistently shown an excessive risk of cancers other than of the lung especially of the gastrointestinal tract review of the literature Schnetderman conctl hatuind cre easd ed ex- posure to airborne asbestos particles leads to an increased risk of digestive system cancer While lung cancers and mesotheliomas are assumed to result from inhalation the exact pro- portion of GIT cancers which would result from direct inhalation of asbes- tos fibers as opposed to indirect m- gestion of sputa contaminated with asbestos fibers is not possible to as- certain For any substance which is known to cause cancer in humans a thresh- old level below which such an agent would not cause cancer has never been demonstrated Thus we urge the Council to go beyond its position of no longer making asbestos taining periodontal packs eligible for its Acceptance Program and take more aggressive steps to educate the dental profession about the carcino- genic propertie's" and potential mu- tagenic hazards associated with asbestos Although the Councils report mentioned that airborne fibers may occur in dental laboratories it did not indicate whether or not environmen- tal monitoring for airborne levels of asbestos fibers ever had been conduct- ed in dental schools during laboratory casting procedures The ADA recently has shown interest in assessing the health hazards associated with waste anesthetic gases and = mer- cury in the dental operatory Leadership and appropriate measures should be taken to assure that dental students instructors and patients are not likewise at an increased health risk resulting from dental laboratory or clinical exposure to asbestos PUTEREPUTERE INFANTE DDS RICHARD A TEMEN MS NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH CINCINNATI CINCINNATI OHIO 1 Federal Register 38 27076 Sept 28 1973 Wagner 1 ( and others Animal exper- iments with tale Fourth Inte national Syme posium on Inhaled Particles and Vapors burgh Scotland 1975. In press 3 Mancuso F and El Attal A Edin- Edin- Mor tality pattern in a cohort of asbestos workers study based on employment experience f Occup Med 9 147 4 Flmes PC 1967 and Simpson MFC MFC Insul ation workers in Belfast 3 Me tabty 1940-66 But Industi Med 28 126 1971 Kogan M Guselnikova * and Gulevskaya MR The cancer mortality rate among workers of asbestos industry of the Urals Gri Samit Russian 37 29 1972 " ers Newhouse ME Cancer among work- the asbestos textile industry In Bogov Shi P Gulson ) and Wagner ( Proceedings of the Conference on Biological Biological Effects Asbestos Evon Faber 1973 PP 203 7 Wagoner PR Johnson WMF and Lo men RA Malignant ad non malignant res piratory disease mit dix patterns umong as Pestos Record production WOLKUS WOLKUS WOLKUS Congresional Senate Proceedings and Congressional Debates of the 3rd Congress Karst SeSSHOT US Gov LETTERS TO THE EDITOR JADA Vol 93 August August 1976 221