Document 7MO0pm6evr1EYmB7B2Qq1kRBe

FILE NAME: Phenolic Resins (PHR) DATE: 1956 DOC#: PHR040 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Excerpt from Danish Medical Bulletin; from State of the Art Lit File a * . 'r v ; i DA H GAL !o ULLET u A SURVEY OF DANISH MEDICINE ' t P U B L IS H ^ BY U G E S K R IF T F0R L/EGER THE MEDICAL FACULTIES OF THE U N IY E^JTIES OF COPENHAGEN AND AARHUS THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE OF DENMARK /jit cM 3 Ui ) t: ... 01 . -itr aa I* * * Hit ' * j ie in;. ? ia: i - ;s Paul Bonnette V n k ,lft fat Ljrer . _ Moens l ox I'fesknft for U ? n E D IT O R S : a: H.C. A. Lassen j Niels Bllxenkrone-Moller UnW eriity o i Copeuhtseii ^ UaiTrH7 of A o rtal Assistant Editor: Erltx Fuchs in 41 Richard Friedbenr X ttto u J He*Jth Scrrlc* A Publication o( c VOL 3 THE DANISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Domus Medico, Copenhagen 0 , Denmark l h. 1956 204 DANISH MEDICAL BULLETIN Yol 3 n7; taining many ex-servicemen, U l r i c h (1930) found 16 out of 5,700 (etiology: bullet w ounds, 5 cases; pleurisy, 5 cases; tuberculosis, 1 case; pneumonia, 1 case; unknown, 4 cases), and B e h r e n d t (1930) found 12 out of 9G6 subjects (etio logy: bullet wounds, 5 cases; tuberculosis, 7 cases). H e a d (1934) considers tuberculous pleu ritis and"`hem othorax the only causes definitely known to produce calcification of the pleura. P a t c h & P e r r y point out that calcification is usually unilateral, but bilateral in the so-called idiopathic cases (approxim ately 20 p er cent of all cases)-;-------A special investigation of w orkers exposed to dust was carried out by S m i t h (1952). She found 35 cases of pleural calcification out of 8,779 subjects examined. Only four groups showed a definitely higher incidence of calcification than that among the average population, viz., workers exposed to the dust in making bakelite insulators, (1.5 p er cent), calcim ine (1.7 p er ce n t), m ica thus give some support to S i a i t h 's contentibrv that the incidence of pleural calcification may-* v connected with exposure to mixed dust; but should be emphasized that our subjects have a-; been exposed to calcium. "While sm aller pleural thickenings and ad hesions are a ra th e r common finding in chest X-rays of persons not know n to have had an lung disease previously or to have been exposed to dust at th eir jobs, the findings of pronounce;, bilateral pleural changes in the present sen definitely point tow ards an occupational origiii.. T he diagnosis of asbestosis may be m ade with confidence w hen these pleural changes are fount: together w ith parenchym atous lesions of -the lungs. T he occurrence of sim ilar pleural changes w ithout any definite changes of the lung proper may also, w ith reasonable certainty, be accepted, as evidence of asbestosis in subjects known. La. have w orked w ith insulating m aterial of the sort, used by the workers examined here. (1.6 p er cent) and trem olite talc (6.3 per cent). Tremolite talc is a calcium magnesium silicate, SUMMARY . __' w hich structurally resembles asbestos. It is known 31 w orkers engaged for 20 years o r m orn in to cause pneum oconiosis. Calcimine is composed different kinds of insulation w orks w ere ex of w hiting, clay, talc, silica, m ica and asbestos. am ined for occupational lung disease. They had Four"cases of pneum oconiosis w ere found in this been exposed to dust containing asbestos, kiesel group. Mica is a com plex silicate of potassium , guhr, magnesia, glass-wool and rock-wool. 9 were aluminium,- magnesium, calcium and fluorine. found to have definite signs of pulm onary ** Bakelite w as m ixed w ith talc and m ica. No case bestosis. 19 showed abnorm alities of the pleura, of pneum oconiosis w as found among the -workers 12 of these being bilateraL In 11 cases calcifica exposed to mica or bakelite. No pleural calcifi-. tion of the pleura was found, being bilateral i n j cation w as found among 261 asbestos w orkers. S m i t h suggests that it is the combined exposure to calcium and magnesium, together with a dust producing pleural irritation, which provokes the calcifications. None of the w orkers examined by us have been w orking w ith asbestos alone; all of them have of them. . -. : f f ' : : References: 1) B e h re n d t, T.: B eity. z. K lin. d . T u b e rk . 1330, 75; 123-- 164. * . - 2) Floyd, C. R . H. H epburn: Am. Rev. Tubere. 3) Frost, J .: U g esk r. L-cger 1930, 112: 1284-- 1239. . been exposed to kieselguhr, m agnesium , rockw ool 4) Head. J.: Ann. InL Med. 1934, 7: 1293-- 1307. a n d glass-w ool too. T h e last th re e su b stan ces do 5) to e , T .: U geskr. Larger 1930, 112: 472-- 474 not cause pneum oconiosis. E x p o su re to kiesel 6) Jacob, C. Si H. B o h lig : F o rtsch r. Geb. Rntgeo guhr is know n to involve a risk, as several cases of pneum oconiosis seemingly caused by this substance have been rep o rted . A ccording to Luton, Champeix, Ravet & Vallaud (1956) it is p r im a rily a question of the alphaquartz content. Exposure to the am orphous form stra h le n 1935, S3: 315-- 323. _ 7) K ristiu nsen , I.: A eta tu b . S c an d in av . 1944, IS- 310-- 323. ~ 8) Luton, P-, J. Cham peix, it . Rauet & A. Vallaud: A rch. m a l. p ro fess. 1956. 17: 125-- 148. 9) Merewether, E . R . A .: T ubercle 1933-- 34, 15: 63-- 81, 109-- 118, 132-- 159. _ of kieselg u h r involves co n sid erab ly less risk than 10) H u rra y, i t .: c it. M erew ether 1933-- 34. does exposure to the flux-calcinated substance, 11) .Voro, L.: Acta p atlio l. ct m icrobiol. Scandina*- nearly all of the silica of w hich may be in the form of alpha-quartz. The kieselguhr used in this country is not know n to be flux-calcinated, and sample-analysis has not revealed the presence of alpha-quartz. 1946, 23; 53-- 39. 12) Putch, I. C. L. K. M. .4. Perry: in M arshall P e rry (ed it.) : D iseases of the C hest L ondon 19S~ 13) S c h r u m p f t d..* N o rd . Med. 1041, 9* 704-- 706. 14) S m i t h , A. R.: Am. J . R oentgenol. 1952. 67: 373-- 382. - ' ' In o u r cases the w o rk e rs have been exposed to 15) Ulrich, K.: R n tg e n p ra x is 1930, 2 ; 212-- 222. asbestos, w h ic h is kn o w n to p ro d u c e pneum oco 16) W e g tliu s, C.: Acta ra d io l. 1947, 23: 139-- 152. niosis w ith pleural affection; and to kieselguhr, magnesia, rock-wool and glass-wool. Our in in,,s 17) Wol f f , A .: N ord. Med. 1940, 5: 333-- 341. 18) Wol f f , A .; N ord. l>yg. T id s s k n it 1940, 2 i : 1-- IS-