Document BMaGVeqVyoa3K0QVOGrZpwJk

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1967 Dec 25 DOC NMA119 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION The Washington Post - Rare Fatal Cancer Is Showing Up Among Those Handling Asbestos Writer Rare Fatal Cancer Is Showing Up Among By Thomas O'Toole Washington Post Staff Those Handling Handling AsbesAstbeosstos The Washington Post Times Herald 1959-1973 Dec 25 1967 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Washington Pos pg Al Rare Fatal Cancer Showing Up Among Those HandlingHandling Asbestos By Thomas O'Toole Washington Post Staff Writer in the United States more lioma Even today doctors than half of whom did not have trouble spotting it A fatal cancer of the chest begin working with asbestos whether they're and abdominal cavities is until 10 years ago diagnose it in a cropping up among the Na- In terms of the number of See ASBESTOS tion's asbestos workers persons involved the apparent So rare that 20 years ago it asbestos peril may be even wasn't even in the medical textbooks the cancer is called mesothelioma and seems almost peculiar to people exposed to asbestos But oddly those stricken with the deadly disease include a nurse whose father worked in an asbestos plant and a man who handled as greater than that posed by uranium mines Last May Labor Secretary W. Willard Wirtz established the first Federal radiation limits for underground uranium mines following disclosure that an estimated 115 men had died from lung cancer in a mining population never higher than bestos for no more than a 5600 month while he insulated the Mesothelioma was first spot- plumbing in his own house lighted in 1960 when a South Any attention the disease African doctor found 32 cases gets might come none too among the people living and soon More than 1 million tons working in the Cape of Good of asbestos is consumed annu- Hope asbestos fields The ally these days in the United same doctor turned up 57 States with more than 3000 more cases in the next two separate uses being reported years for the fiber There are at Nobody knows how many least 100,000 asbestos workers Americans have had mesothe trying to person still A5 Col. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission ASBESTOS Page Al Fatal Cancer Is Showing Up Among Asbestos Workers at alive or pin it down autopsy in with two sons who worked as in the lungs where they form ; asbestos insulators in a ship- gummy deposits This explains But in ies in the doc- tors have | Oddly 11 asbestos have had three separate studlast three years turned up 71 cases of them appeared to no real exposure to But the other 60 yard Of 10 deaths that seemed to have only a questionable connection with asbestos exposures two turned out to be almost bizarre One was a either worked with asbestos Swiss cheesemaker who work lived with people who did or ed almost his entire life lived in neighborhoods where around a large boiler cov- the air was heavily laden with ered with asbestos insulation how asbestosis gets started and perhaps even lung cancer One theory is that the gummy substance that builds up around the asbestos fiber lodged in the lung can cause cancer elsewhere in the body But how does it do it Nobody knows Because it is such a new and asbestos dust that flaked off at the touch little understood disease The first American study Another was a worker in a mesothelioma is also creating was one run in 1964 by Dr. brewery where beer is fil- some serious social and IY rovrik' nsg J. Selikoff of New tered through pulp filters economic problems Sinai Mount Sinai Hospital made essentially of cotton No state lists the discase in YTorrakc'isng the lives of 632 New fiber and asbestos its workmen compensation York area members of the The most convincing study laws so nobody afflicted with Asbestos Workers Union who the most recent con- it can be paid damages for his were on the union rolls ducted by a team of doctors affliction Even now the first found Jan. 1. 1943 Dr. Selikoff working out of Middlesex test cases are in the courts that 255 of them had died by General Hospital in New where they may conceivably Jan. 1 1963 Brunswick N.J. a few miles stay for the next 5 to 10 years Some of what he found did from the Nation's largest as- The fact that nobody knows not surprise him For example bestos plant one that employs how much exposure to asbes- 12 of the 255 died of asbes- 5000 workers tos can bring on the disease tosis a known but de- In the past three years no has created controversy too creasingly fatal due to anti- fewer than 19 cases of meso- Most laws stipulate that as- biotics disease brought on by thelioma passed through Mid- bestos workers be in an en- of breathing in asbestos dlesex General Only two of years vironment where there is no the 19 were not workers at dustBut Dr. Selikoff also found the nearby asbestos more than five million parplant that 45 of the men had died one a woman who apparently ticles of asbestos dust per one of lung cancer a rate 6.6 times inhaled asbestos dust in laun- cubic foot of air regulation higher than that in the nor dering her husband's work that many in the abestos in- mal adult male population clothes the second a spin- dustry fought years to get ap- male Even found more five surprising deaths due he ster who lived to from the plant one block proved But with mesothelioma the mesothelioma A relatively new disease disease might be brought on A worker operates a braider in a Canadian asbestos insulation plant ful of places to find out more to the disease He's doing it about the ailment the grant Mount with a 3500 from | Union which Sinai's Dr. Selikoff is now con- Papermakers Union which stantly monitoring the 1500 members of the Asbestos Workers Union in metropolitan New York The Philadel phia local of the same union has started a similiar program represents the asbestos workers in the New Jersey plant Dr. Borow studied It wasn't easy getting the money Dr. Borow went to 40 organisations before he got it including the American Can- with Hahneman Hospital to cer Society and the Public relate to an earlier time period states Dr. W. D. Nor- wood of Richland Wash the health problem in the future may be very extensive and serious Indeed it may be true as many doctors think that it takes 20 years of exposure to asbestos to bring on most cases of the disease If this Dr. Selikoff then launched a follow study of 307 consecutive deaths among asbesLos insulation workers throughout the whole North- mesothelioma is also one of the most difficult diseases to confront modern medicine It is almost impossible to treat Middlesex General's Dr. by exposure to as little as onetenth or hundredth that , limit Despite obstacles like these research has begun in a hand- uncover more information Middlesex General's Dr. Borow says that he is in the process of setting up a traveling exhibit to bring attention Health Service Some doctors think the mesothelioma problem is just beginning Since the malig nancies now being recognized is so says Dr. Norwood large numbers of malignancies are beginning to occur and will substantially increase in the near future east Again to his surprise he Maxwell Borow says that even turned up 10 deaths due to the most potent anticancer mesothelioma drugs have no effect on it About the same time the Pennsylvania State Departments ment of Health began a blind study to find how mesothelioma might be affecting the more than 5000 asbestos workers scattered about the state The Department sent questionnaires to 162 hospitals in the southeastern part of the state asking the hospitals to About all that radiation treat- Departments do he says is remove some of the fluid that builds up in the lungs from the dis- ease The disease is 100 per cent fatal Dr. Borow states and usually takes less than a year after diagnosis to run year its course Nobody knows why it attacks some asbestos workers and not report all mesotheliomas diag- others or why some victims of nosed between 1958 and 1963. the disease get it after an ap- Back came 42 documented parently mild exposure to as- cases of the disease only 11 of bestos The University of Mich- which could not be traced to igan School of Medicine cites asbestos exposure one case of a man who was ex- Ten victims of the disease posed to asbestos for about a turned out to be men who month while he insulated his worked in asbestos plants house Six years later he was Eight were people who lived dead of mesothelioma near asbestos plants most of Even the nature of the their lives Three were mem- disease is little understood bers of families who had one While it is generally known or more asbestos worker mem that the disease attacks the bers year girl whose lining of the chest and abdofather was an asbestos en men nobody knows how it gineer a nurse whose father had worked for 35 years in an asbestos plant and a woman gets there When asbestos haled the fibers dust is in- get trapped Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission