Document BRgxr1b1G27ooKBVVeoXEmjVj

March 3, 1978 G. Rayburn Pruitt Industrial Relations Manager B. F. Goodrich Company P. 0. Box 32950 Louisville, Kentucky 40232 Dear Mr. Pruitt, I thought that our meeting on February 21 was a productive one, and at the suggestion of Dr. Maurice Johnson, I am writing this letter to sug gest a further follow-up on our discussions at that meeting. It appears desirable to get an estimate of the incidence of certain causes of illness at the Louisville plant for as far back as available records go. You showed me some records for 1974, and mentioned the pos sibility that records for 1973 might be obtainable. The time span covered would therefore be from 1973 or 1974 to 1977, inclusive. I believe we agreed that all cases of cancer should be enumerated, as well as all cases of heart diseases such as thromboses and eopbolisms. The records appear to be in such a form that this can be done relatively quickly. I think about 2 person-weeks of effort should be sufficient. / The person who is assigned to abstracting the records should be someone who is familiar with human physiology and disease terminology. A plant nurse would be an ideal person, and it should be possible for her to do the job on an intermittent basis as time permits. Alternatively, a third year medical student would be acceptable. I would expect the person who went through the files of medical absences to do the following. -- i-j Generally, each absence generates a small sheaf of papers which are stapled together, but I believe I found one case in which two different absences were stapled together. Therefore, each sheaf should be examined to make sure that it represents only one episode, and the diagnosis should be read. 2. If the diagnosis is a cancer of any site (including leukemia and the lymphatic cancers) or any circulatory disease (heart, stroke, hypertension), or other circulatory diseases) the following should be recorded. &FG67630 Diagnosis as recorded b. Race, if given c. Sex d. Dace of birch 'v e. Dace of diagnosis if given f. Dace absence began if dace of diagnosis is noc given If this list is then sent to me, I will calculate incidence rates by site for the cancers and by one or two major groupings for the circulatory di seases. I will ascertain as accurately as I can the incidence of these same diseases in the U.S. male^population for the same period of time, and compare these with the observed figures for Che plant. I will assume that the work force averaged abouC 1200 persons during the period in question, and that the average age is about 35 to AO years. The fee for this analysis, and a letter report of my conclusions, will be $1500 dollars. ^ Please call me if there are any additional issues that should be covered, or if any of the above is not clear. Yours sincerely. William R. Gaffey, Ph.D. Senior Epidemiologist Center for Occupational and Environmental.Safety and Health WRG:kjb BFG67631