Document GK7LnXRQ8kydOk3ZENqx3G9w4

^4908 ffTHE WASHINGTON POST .- Monday, Dee. 2S, 1967 Ten victims/<of the disease' -turned out to he men who ftud- fJes In the. Hurt threeyears.doc- >tprs haw tamed up 71.cases. [Oddly, 11 -of them appeared to have had no real exposure, to issbesios. -But the other: CO /either worked with asbestos, Ith people who did or neighborhoods r whe-r^eu worked. In asbestos. plants. Eight were people who lived near asbestos plants! most "ofj .their lives. Three! were mem bers ol families who had one 'or more asbestos,wppker poemb'ersr-a 3-year-old girl'-whose, ifatheri; was in . asbestos- Vh-| ,^ineer, a nurse whose father! ^jhnada worxkead xfoor 3jw3 years Imn amn] A/TTh*. disease is 100 per cent jlataV Hr.. Boro.w states, "and (usually takes less than.a year latter diagnosis .to - run its Scourse." x \' --*. . '/'Nobody knows why It attacks Some'asbestos workers/and not <rthers, or why Borne victims of lthie disease get it after an ap parently mild exposure to as bestos. The University of Mich igan/School of .Medicine cites ,one coase ooif a man whmoi waass ceax-- neav?iy^a.en winx `^bestpsplai^juJd^JUWonwJM (posed to' asbestos for about a Str-:. .'The !, first American study ,|fvnffi^two sooTwho" worked -is !"was: one run In 1964 by Dr. asbestos insulators',in a ship New Hospital yard.' , ' ' ' . A ;/*' .V-\ festos for no mar*! than!-* month 'while he Insulated the jMp&bljig'in-hi* own';ho4seir'. pi &6yj attentldin'the/diseise fgets;.might comir hone'/top Soon. More than ! million toh*. of asbestos is consumed Annu ally these' days in.'the'United: fitatescjwlth, fppttr tifiti-JOOQ' separate uses being, reported Sr ibi - fiber/ (There,ast 100,000 asbestos Ini?: the.- Xitf&i&iSttitesZ ^$$3 Ahjin -^U^!`o^^hmr;did/nbH begin - worHngf'Wltbf Asbestos1 tintil lOyearsk^o. / jfjn terms' number 16t persons lnybhyfd; the apparent asbestos pcrQi'.msy be even greater' than!, that posed; -hyj uranium Vmineai Last Labor - Secretary W.; Willard New York area members of the Asbestos Workers Union who /were on the union rolls before ^Jan. 1,1843, Dr. Sellkoff found /.that 255 of them bad died by,1 /Jan, 1, 1963. - Some of what be found did , not surprise him. For example, 12 of .the 255 died of asbestosis, a long-known but de- ereaslngly fatal (due to anti biotics) disease brought on .by .years of breathing In asbestos dust. A .'-But Dr. Sellkoff also found (that 45 of (he men had died of lung cancer, a rate 6.6 times higher, than that in the nor mal adult, male population. Even - more surprising, he found five' deaths due i to' 'mesothelioma!-. / . ! / -' Df/oArlJiloinwSm-coAlink. osftfudthyeno_#f,la30u7nc-_ch_pe_nd- Of 10 deaths that seemed to have only a "questionable" connection with asbestos.- ex posures, two turned out to 'be almost, bizarre. One was' a Swiss cheesemaker, who, work ed almost his - entire life around a large',-boiler cov ered with asbestos .Insulation that flaked off at .' the tpuch. Another was a worker in a brewery, where beer Is fil tered through pulp filters made essentially of cotton Iflbcr and asbestos. ' The ..most' convincing study is the "most recent one--con ducted by a team of doctors jworldng out ' of Middlesex General Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J.,; a few miles from the Nation's , largest as bestos plant, pne that employs 5000 workers. 1' iUe3wnerthe pasJt9 t*hareseeJ yoefarnsc,Sn(o(. Wirtz established vthe *first Federal: radiation limits;! fori underground 'uranitnn mitt following ^`dlscldsure that \ jfc(jthhated;lljl, j^en-. had ,dleoj xecutlve deaths .. among ashes-, tos lnsu'l at lb`ri>` workers, -throughout the? whole North>pst. Again^ to his surprise, he! 'turned up 10 deaths !diie: to1 thclkjtpa passed .through Mid dlesex General. Only two of the 19 were not workers at the nearby - asbestos . plant, one a woman who apparently ;irom lung cfint&E In a minin'" mesothelioma// ./..-A'-' inhaled asbestos dust in laun population 'never: higher ,tha; /t; About the same time,' the dering her husband's work 3600.V-~ -V-4 /V: -*vy r'vHrivj .Pennsylvania fetste, JJepart- clothes, the second a spin-: Mesothelloma was first Spot - ment of Health began a'blind ster who lived one 'block lighted In 1060/ when a South] ; study to find how meiothe- frhm the plant. .: African doctmrifouhd SJ esies: $orn* might be/ affecting the ;A relatively "new'' disease, .ambng fha /jjwpla cllyjng'.And` `"tnore'than 5000 asbestos work-' mesothelioma-Is also one of mpnth wWhhitle* he (inns,,u,ll.ateed his (house. -Six years later, he was! dead of mesothelioma.: ,Eyen,, the ; nature of < the; 'disease is little understood.: While it is generally known that, the' disease -attacks the lining of the. chest and abdo-! men,, nobody knows how it gets there. ;~ When asbestos 'dust is -in- ^akdyvtlu^fibf^'fert ,'ttappe<t] In the**lungs^where they forifl' gummy deposits. This explains [ how' asbestosls get* started,-; nnd perhaps even lung cancer.' One theory Is that the gummy substance that ^builds up^ around T"the . asbestos fiber* lodged In the lung can cause] cancer elsewhere In the body.; Bdt how does it do it? Nobody knows. : ,4) . Because it Is such a new and;. litUe'.understood disease/ mesothelioma Is also creating/ some' serious social' , and' economic problems. >'5 - - ;v :.No state lists the disease in jili workmen compensation, jlaws, ao pobody afflicted with. ; it Van bo,pald damages for hlsl affliction. Even now; the first! .tekt cases are in the courts, where they may conceivably : stay for the next 5 to 10 years.' - The fact that nobody knows how much exposure to asbes tos 'can bring on the disease has' created controversy, too., *rs scattered about the sjiate.-.. tpc most `difficult diseases to : Most laws'stipulate that as-; Hopn jf -The Department sent ques- confront modern medicine. / bestos workers be In an en- samfc" doctor ` turned -slpr* ' /Uonnaitjes to 162 hospitals In It Is almost Impossibly -to Ivironrnent where there is no 'the' southeastern,.;prt 'bf the! treat Middlesek^Genepd's Dr. !more than five million pari .State, asking the hospitals/to] MaxweD'Bafow says that even i tides of asbestos dust per one report all mesotheliomas diag-i [th* rtnifel potent entlcancer (cubic foot of air--a regulation >j0s?d';betweJj..T95F juad.^^613 'D0. .n ^ that many In the abestos in '^ttroubld' i?VEack came 42 -documented] (About all that radiation treat- dustry fought years to get ap lease* of the disease, .qnly H,0{ menU d^ ^ wys, Js remove proved. / ' ' ` -j which, could not be traced,-to ;*ome:*f the; asbestos exposure. 'A !. ,>!'] M ** the lungs from the <hs- (diagnose -it Mn- Y'pfer&on. sail; -.--------------r-- -----------------------1 ^ase,. y > >/-, . But with mesothelioma, the disease might be brought on by exposure to as little as one- tenth or one-hundredth that -X 0347831 limit ' Despite obstacles like these, fe^earch has begun in a hand/ 004909 A worker operates a braider In '* Canadian asbestos insulation plant ful of places to find out more]to the disease.'He's doing it relate to an earlier time about the eDment Mount [with a $3500 grant from the period," states Dr. W. D. Nor:, Sinai's Dr. Sclikoff is now con-jPapermakers- Union, which wood, of Richland, Wash.' atantly ; monitoring the I500,rePrsent* asbestos work- "the health problem in the members .of the Asbcstos!5? 1? thf ^ew Jersey plant future may be very extensive Workers tan New Union York. in metropoliThe Phlladcl- j Dr. Borow It wasn't money. Drl studied. easy getting the JBorow went to 40 'and serious.":. Indeed, it may be many' doctors . think, , true, -that as . It Phla local of the fame union joreanl;ati6is before he got it takes 20 years of exposure to has started a slmiliar program {--including the American Can- asbestos to bring on most with .Hahneman Hospital to [ter Society and the Public cases of the disease.-If . this uncover more information. V Health Service.' is so, says Dr. Norwood, "large 'Middlesex General's Dr-i Some ' doctors think the numbers of malignancies are Borow says that he is,in theimesothelioma problem is Just beginning to occur and will process of setting up a travel-j beginning.,"Since -the malig- substantially Increase In the jhg exhibit to bring attention Inancies now being recognized _n_e_ar^fut-u-re."- : ' . / X~03476)32