Document NGwGn17b3n2yw7VZQ3EQM0KRE

FILE NAME: CertainTeed (CERT) DATE: 1968 Mar28 DOC#: CERT036 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article Thursday, March 28, 1968 c KIST MP B uffalo Evening N ews Emmy Lou wo Scientists Suspect A sbestos May Cause Some Types of Cancer By MILDRED SPENCER Buttato Now* f t a t t Rapor t r r SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 28--Two scientists, in cluding one from Roswell Park Memorial Institute, have pointed a finger of suspicion at asbestos as a potential cause of cancer. -------------- --------------------- " Art started out life as a con firmed girl-hater -- then he met one! " Asbestos is one of the most common elements in our civiliz ed environment, they told the 10th annual Science Writers Seminar sponsored by the American Cancer Society. It use has increased a "thousandfold" since the turn of the century, coincident with the increase of certain types of cancer. . to it in our homes, automobiles, offices and industries. "Asbestos is virtually in destructible," Dr. G r a h a m pointed out. " It can be fragmented into ever smaller particles but it is still there. The smaller particles readily pass into the tissues by way of the respiratory tract and possibly by the intestinal tract as welL" Dr. John B. Graham, chief of the Department of Gynecology at Roswell Park Memorial In stitute, suggested Wednesday that asbestos "may be a factor" in cancer of the ovary. This disease, which has been in creasing steadily in recent years, ranks third as a cause of cancer deaths among women in New York State. Mutt Assess Hazard Dr. W. A. D. Anderson, pro : lessor of pathology at the l University of Miami, reported l finding asbestos fibers in the lungs of 28 per cent of 500 | unselected autopsy cases. An inl creased incidence of lung cancer i has been noted for years among , asbestos workers. Both Dr. Graham and Dr. , Anderson emphasized -that the . possible hazard of asbestos " still ' has to be assessed." But, Dr. Graham declared that there is enough evidence of a rela tionship between asbestos and cancer to "deserve further in vestigation." " Could Be Asbestos" Dr. Graham and his wife. Dr. Ruth Graham, have foundasbestos fibers in non-cancerous tissues of exposed animals and in man, though rarely In the cancer Hseif. They failed to find the fibers in ovarian cancer, but they did find crystals of something that " could be asbestos" in tissue from the ovaries of six women with "borderline" lesions. The crystals were all located ad jacent to the lesions. ' The Grahams have used asbestos to induce sim ilar lesions on the surface of the ovaries of guinea pigs and rab bits when atilbeatrol, a female sex hormone, was administered to the animals, the lesions pro-, greased to become dintcaUy- recognizable cancer. _ . . "This would indicate," Dr. Graham said, "that cancer of: the ovary may be a two-step d r ie s which does not occur unlesinoth factors are present" Asbestos Is used ^in . brak- linings, electric and househol ; Insulation end a multiplicity other products. Wa ara expos *ka Railroad, rucrdna Whittier,ta Fairbanks, ot.awne^ and par-1 Castleman.CERT000249