Document 7MKLpp6L7349mvqGvxBpYvD86

FILE NAME: Oil Industry and American Petroleum Institute (API) DATE: 1976 DOC#: API152 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Excerpt of the Memoir Dr. Wilhelm Hueper with Barry Castleman Notes & Obituary n i iii UH'IHn M ull A D V E N T U R E S OF A P H Y S I C I A N I N OCCUPATIONAL CANCER A MEDICAL CASSANDRA'S TALE WILHELM C. H U E P E R M. D. 19 7 6 ) I APPENDIX D SUBCOMMITTEE CX rTELSTP-AL HYGIENE J. A. Sper.ce, Fh. D. . Chairman The Subcommittee or. Indusc"cal Hygiene met or. November 9; 1962. Liaison members to the American Standards Association reported on the activities of the Z-62, Z-37 ar.d Z-k Committees. No significant activi ties have occurred since the last report. The subcommittee's report "industrial Hygiene Aspects of Petroleum Refining Processes" is complete. Mr. E. 0. Mattocks has been asked to dis tribute the report within the membership of the API. - A questionnaire to determine laboratory hood requirements has been prepared and will be distributed to the medical directors of the API. The results will be compiled as a guide to member companies seeking an economic approach to effective hoods. ID The chairman reported on the activities of the Asphalt Committee and asked the subcommittee members to aid in obtaining data evaluating envi ronmental exposures to asphalt. The subcommittee has no items requiring budgetary expenditures. J . A. S p en ce, P h . D . , Chairman % r API 077 81 224/ When several years later another vice president of this group operating the largest coal tar and pitch operation and coke ovens in the U.S.A., told me at a visit some of the research re sults, he added the remark that the tar producers had done every thing possible, if the workers still should get cancers, this would be their own fault, i.e., the company would not voluntarily offer compensation. c) Up to about 1935? a commissioner of health of Ohio had faithfully reported about the occurrence of scrotal cancers among wax workers in oil refineries. There were no additional similar reports rendered after this date, suggesting by implication that this type of occupational cancer in the U.S.A. had successfully been brought under control. When I visited about 15 years later, one large eastern refinery, I was informed that such lesions had been diagnosed during recent years as "venereal ulcers" which are not compensable. It took almost 10 years before a group of indus trial hygienists of American oil companies published a cooperative study on the occurrence and incidence of wax cancers in the Ameri can oil industry. It was the time when many of the wax-pressing operations were replaced by solvent extraction procedures, which carried a much diminished chance of contact with wax. However, it is uncertain whether all cancer hazards from contact with petroleum waxes have been removed thereby, since chemical anal yses of several dozen dairy waxes used in impregnation of milk-, cream- and butter containers as well as wrapping material of 225/ cheeses, cakes, etc., were shown to contain in several instances recognized carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons. Several years later about a dozen oil companies organized a committee for the study of cancer problems from contact and use with petroleum waxes. I was for a time a member of this committee whose sessions were usually held in one of the medical schools of the Chicago area, until one representative of an oil company sug gested at a meeting that the carcinogenic hydrocarbons demonstrated in the waxes had been in the wax not from industrial scurces. He suggested that the collector of the waxes which were obtained through the courtesy of the National Milk Foundation, i.e., Dr. Hueper, might have added them to the waxes. The subsequent ex perimental studies performed in mice showed that some of these rodents developed bladder cancers when wax pellets were placed into their bladders. This finding was never mentioned or reported outside the committee limits, nor was it discussed at a meeting at the office of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, to which the National Cancer Institute sent as its representative an associate director unfamiliar with the entire problem. The only constructive result of this high level meeting was that the Food and Drug Administration finally adopted standards on the "purity11 of petroleum waxes coming in contact with foodstuffs, which had been, up to that time, without such regulations. The wax committee sponsored then a large experimental study in which pellets of wax, furnished by various oil companies for this purpose and shown to be free allegedly from cancerous material, were implanted subcutaneously into mice. 226/ Some of the waxes thus administered induced subcutaneous cancerous lesions. These were diagnosed by an experienced pathologist, carefully selected by the members of the committee, as being caused by the physical action of paraffin scales and not attributable to any chemical content of the particular waxes. In support of this conclusion, he cited the widely accepted concept that che cancers developing around implanted pieces of various plastic films had a physical origin and not a chemical one. The recent observation of liver cancers in vinyl chloride workers, however, has well dis credited this convenient fantasy and have confirmed my concept of a chemical origin of cancers resulting from and around implanted plastic materials of various chemical composition. d) While during the last 25 years some American producers of carcinogenic aromatic amines used in the manufacture of dyes and rubber antioxidants have seen fit to reveal incomplete data on the number of bladder cancer cases, which have occurred since 193^ in some American plants, these figures are still most deficient for bladder cancers among rubber workers and lack for both dye and rubber workers, information on the occurrence of bladder cancer after changing employment, although pertinent information on these once exposed workers could have been obtained through the use of the Social Security Administration records through which the final fate of many of these workers could have been ascertained. For some known producers of chemicals, no pertinent data have been MP A D V E N T U R E S OF A P H Y S I C I A N I N OCCUPATIONAL CANCER A MEDICAL CASSANDRA'S TALE ! WILHELM C. H U E P E R M. D. 19 76 . I - i I-' ' , I i 224/ When several years later another vice president of this group operating the largest coal tar and pitch operation and coke ovens in the U.S.A., told me at a visit some of the research re sults, he added the remark that the tar producers had done every thing possible, if the workers still should get cancers, this would be their own fault, i.e., the company would not voluntarily offer compensation. c) Up to about 1935> a commissioner of health of Ohio had faithfully reported about the occurrence of scrotal cancers among wax workers in oil refineries. There were no additional similar reports rendered after this date, suggesting by implication that this type of occupational cancer in the U.S.A. had successfully been brought under control. When I visited about 15 years later, one large eastern refinery, I was informed that such lesions had been diagnosed during recent years as "venereal ulcers" which are not compensable. It took almost 10 years before a group of indus trial hygienists of American oil companies published a cooperative study on the occurrence and incidence of wax cancers In the Ameri can oil industry. It was the time when many of the wax-pressing operations were replaced by solvent extraction procedures, which carried a much diminished chance of contact with wax. However, it is uncertain whether all cancer hazards from contact with petroleum waxes have been removed thereby, since chemical anal yses of several dozen dairy waxes used in impregnation of milk-, cream- and butter containers as well as wrapping material of SI 225/ cheeses, cakes, etc., were shown to contain in several instances recognized carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons. ' Several years later about a dozen oil companies organized a committee for the study of cancer problems from contact and use with petroleum waxes. I was for a time a member of this committee whose sessions were usually held in one of the medical schools of the Chicago area, until one representative of an oil company sug gested at a meeting that the carcinogenic hydrocarbons demonstrated in the waxes had been in the wax not from industrial sources. He suggested that the collector of the waxes which were obtained through the courtesy of the National Milk Foundation, i.e., Dr. Hueper, might have added them to the waxes. The subsequent ex perimental studies performed in mice showed that some of these rodents developed bladder cancers when wax pellets were placed into their bladders. This finding was never mentioned or reported outside the committee limits, nor was it discussed at a meeting at the office of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, to which the National Cancer Institute sent as its representative an associate director unfamiliar with the entire problem. The only constructive result of this high level meeting was that the Food and Drug Administration finally adopted standards on the "purity" of petroleum waxes coming in contact with foodstuffs, which had been, up to that time, without such regulations. The wax committee sponsored then a large experimental study in which pellets of wax, furnished by various oil companies for this purpose and shown to be free allegedly from cancerous material, were implanted subcutaneously into mice. 226/ Some of the waxes thus administered induced subcutaneous cancerous lesions. These were diagnosed by an experienced pathologist, carefully selected by the members of the committee, as being caused by the physical action of paraffin scales and not attributable to any chemical content of the particular waxes. In support of this conclusion, he cited the widely accepted concept that the cancerr- developing around implanted pieces of various plastic films had a physical origin and not a chemical one. The recent observation of liver cancers in vinyl chloride workers, however, has well dis credited this convenient fantasy and have confirmed my concept of a chemical origin of cancers resulting from and around implanted plastic materials of various chemical composition. d) While during the last 25 years some American producers of carcinogenic aromatic amines used in the manufacture of dyes and rubber antioxidants have seen fit to reveal incomplete data on the number of bladder cancer cases, which have occurred since 193^- in some American, plants, these figures are still most deficient for bladder cancers among rubber workers and. lack for both dye and rubber workers, information on the occurrence of bladder cancer after changing employment, although pertinent information on these once exposed workers could have been obtained through the use of the Social Security Administration records through which the final fate of many of these workers could have been ascertained. For some known producers of chemicals, no pertinent data have been B4 Mont&UnuaryXw* t lI E WASHINGTON POST '.'R Dr. Wilhelm Hueper, Retired Official x a Dies at 84 By fUchard- Pearson 6 ___ __ AYaitfunitton P-ost-SUfi-W-rtter-------- - Ills other awards include the IPVi Rosenthal Award from the American Dr. Wilhelm. C. Hueper,- 84, a retired official of the National Cancer Insititute who was a pioneer in the study of ta ncer.cauSlHg^^pitFui"fHenSiHfioh- inent died of cardiac arrest Thursday at the Wisconsin Aveune Nursing Heme. _____ ____^.TlTT." . .. 7 : :: ' PrdttV'i948, when he joined NCI, un- iil.his retirement in 4964, he wA* chief of the institute's environmental cam... c tr section. . " Dr. Hueper conducted research into the cancer hazards of heavy metals, petroleum derivatives, synthetic hy drogenated coal oils, asbestos, food additives and plastics. A colleague,at the NCI once chacac.terlzed'Dr. Hueper as possessing.,"!n Ingh degree" the "ability to- shodk hpd alarm." ` . Exam plesofthisinciudedasser- tions that he made in the early 1960s that'70 to' 80 percent of-^ancer cases would turn out to be environmental In origin. Although many considered, him an alarmist at the time, authorities now acknowledge that 70 to L00 per fcent of all cancer is related to envi ronmental factors. ........... During the early 1950s, he helped 1 | P Photo DR. WILHELM C. HUEPER _eancer in workers in' the chromate producing industry. He directed re search that discovered that carcino genic chromates were those most solu ble in water, and thus broken down in the body. His works helped to lower the cancer rate dramatically in the in troversial in recent years, due to criti cism concerning the validity of large doses of drugs to-laboratory animals applying to small amounts of the drug to fltimans, Dr. Hueper con tinued to favor it. dustry. " " ' ............. ... " * Another coworker' said Dr, Hueper He once wrote that "The data from such tests are not necessarily unreal was `controversial, and misunder istic. Although most agents tested are stood. He irritated the devil out of the either weak carcinogens or act in rela hierarchy of command." _____ * "ThiS''festrltgd' in Dr. Hueper's speak ing out ahead of his time in advocat ing tighter laws and more thorough -eeseareh--into--the~possibie -carcino-- -genicproperties'of'drgs." tively,.smallAlases_ people may ingest them over a period of many years. The cumulative effect might then par allel that of ajnassive dose." In 1978, Dr. Hueper was given the National -Institutes of Health Direc He testified in favor the Delaney Amendment, passed by* Congress in 1958, which barred substances known tor's Award. The award -cited his research in luekemia, his pioneer work in chro to induce cancer in animals from be mium research, and also hailed his ing used in drugs consumed by hu book, "Occupational Tumors and Al mans. lied Diseases," a standard text since Benjamin Foer,Milling Firm Official * Although the law itself became con its publication in 1942, Benjamin W. Foer, 77, a retired.vice president of Wilkins Rogers, Ino , died Sunday a.f George Washington Univer Association for the Advancement of Science and a 1962 award frmn the -World Kidtb-Or-Mauu;iuon fur h i t studies. In 1963 the editors of Modern Medi. cine voted him a distinguished achlcv ment award for "his identification oi carcinogenic substances ami Ins un daunted towage m effecting control of noxious environmental agents In In dustry Dr. Hueper was born in Schwerin, Germany, and earned he. medical de gree at the University of Kiel. Hr be gan ills cancer research m Europe in the early 1620s, where he publisher! findings on the rise of lung caneer ni industrial cities. He came to this country in 1023. and practiced medicine and taught pathol ogy in Chicago and Philadelphia be fore joining the d u l'ont Company in Wilmington, Del., in 1934 At duPont he charted a high m o denee of bladder canco:' among-rtye workers, isolating the carcinogenic" substance that caused it He left cluPont to join the Warner pharmaceuti cal laboratories in New York in 1938, remaining there until 1948 when he came to the National Cancer Institute After retiring front NCI he worked in projects to obtain funds for persons stricken by caneer who had worked in professions that exposed them to a high degree of risk. He pointed old in a 1976 interview with The Washington Post, "The whole financial burden of cancer hazards is carried by the general public or by the workers themselves' Dr. Hueper was among the first au thorltles to cite a time lag oi up t o several decades between exposure to carcinogens an d the outbreak of can cer symptoms. His professional memberships in cluded the American Society ot Expo ' rimental Pathology, the -\merican As sociation of Caneer Research, the American College of Pathology, and the American College of Preventive Medicine. He was the first President of the American Society for the Study of Ar terioselerosis, Survivors Include a son, Klaus, of Bethcsda, and one grandchild. The family suggests that expres sions of s y m pa t h y be in t he form of contributions to the Washington Hu mane Suciely. T U I AN Student Traffic I il f.'inv i.\ n 2 student at ilie 1 in KcnxmgtutUi urban Hospital of injuries she accident Dec K She and two u struck near the oclicul Avenue Kensington by , Miss Scott ha d e n t at Hol y Hi ticipaled in Cat lion baseball a school . At llie t was captain of i ers. Site played t! and was aclh i sktt(*tvg-+tt-vhe~n She was a m Andrew's Unitc< iiethesda, where and had beloip Youth Followsli She was a tin S u m v o r s iiu\ and Mrs Watsi K i m b e r l y L., a n all of the home grandparents, h Mr and Mrs T l i e Ui e s i i i t The family sions of s\ rnpat eonlribolions to Memorial I'uiu A n d r e w s l mte< sity Hospital. He had suffered from cancer. - ' Me had joined the company in 1927 t n f rtu tiru tm s S c a t ijB when Wilkins-Rogers was a small B U R R O U G H S , M A R G A R E T T E E . B R tM E R , TH O M A S i. GOU