Document Qgbky79p9wXLO8xqw6d80OzLL

In the past several years. the spectrum has widened considerably. First, it has Iwen recognized that the hazard associated with direct occupational exposure to asl>eslos is bv no means a narrow or infrequent one. The cx)H>riences of insulation work ers in this country are instructive. These men, with direct occupational asbestos exposure. Totals of 100,(100 to 125,000 are often proposed. Again, the lower figure is hoped for, especially in view of the absence of satisfactory mortality information con cerning such asbestos factory workers, and since . MancuBo's findings are disquieting. employed in the construction industry and often Analysis of these mortality experiences is dis working out-of-doors and with materials containing turbing from another point of view, in addition to only limited amounts of asbestos, are much less its magnitude. 1 refer to the occurrence of pleural exposed than many factory workers had been. Yet their health experiences have been disastrous. TASLE 1 ; J We have studied all members of the Insulation Workers Union in the New York metropolitan area. On December 31. 1942 there were 632 members of this Union. Calculations in studies by E. Cuyler Observed and Expected Number of Deaths ' among 632 Asbestos Workers Exposed to Asbestos Dust Twenty Years or Longer. 1943-1962 Hammond. J. Churg and myself indicated that by % Totol December 31, 1002, according to life expectancy in Cause ol Death 1943- me1947 1952 1953I9S7 19S&1962 1943I9C2 the general population of U.S. white males, there should have been 203 deaths among these men. Instead, there were 255--an excess of twenty per Tolol cancer, all ulei ___ Obterved 13 Expected S.7 17 e.i 26 39 13.0 9.7 cent. Using age, year and sex-specific rates, thei'e Concur 0/ iunp and p)#u*o 96 36.5 should have ltcen six or seven deaths due to cancer of the lung or pleura. Instead, there were 45. There Observed 6 Expected 0.8 Cancer of ttorr.och colon. e 1.4 13 20 18 45 2.4 . 6.6 should have been nine or ten deaths due to cancer of the stomach or colon; there were 29. There should, of course, have been no deaths due to as- bestosis; there were twelve. ,i: Similar calculations io mid-19G7 gave similar, re i sults. Whereas 47 deaths were expected, .' 94. Where eight'or nine deaths duet"Cancer ond rectum....................... **4;` Obxenred . . * ,. Expected Cancer of aD other iitoi . ' combined ;* . Obterved 4 7 2.5 2.6 14 2.3 94 6 ." 7 *'.tM .0 iOy. 21 205.--'., .:t\nr . 7-'4 - ;12. r.- predicted, there were 49. Again, there was 1 ^ esnt excess o-f* specific .types o- 'f c--a-n--c-e--r'. oW"hile there Totol. all cou*** `a thon 1 s :. should have been tWo or three deaths due to cancer, &>.!. jf Obstvsd-M of the iting or pleura,' there were 27,'arid there'"Wtrt .. l <?vr t.ewigohet _xd_pe_eact.thesd.. due togastrointestinal Once more, asbestocis cc.laani.m_c_eerva aZfg,a,iinfstte.a'n1de' penri'to~ n 1eal, my eso..th. el,io-m.a-'-'(t-u3m.;...or-vs o f.th,,e li.n, in"g-----j. among these -w janiMaww.-v<;s,c k. IV;',.. ?^'lhuIfc'tton^worK<rt'7h'i:pin ' Mortality data Indicate that Ui'e 'NewYoVi^ art unfortunately true elsewhere, as. ^f^asWatos workera .caused /lSy' 'Vvee^d!ifTuae;Jturnore^ y? indiiigs ... ^urijacos..Such..isolated ^ca?es '"Received little'notice had it'hot'heen^^w rang* frbm iW,0^ .V>' ho^ijjyJIntormaUbn, ohej ore. ^^dilPnifjMbestSs Worker*;' ............. . ^^auij5^jlT3r}il'/smohf.`4EheihWwr^Me .sUir. ' ' among Individuals hot "known to be exposed, to as"- ' tumor specific * autopsy files ***SW^KS*k. suggest that this rapid Increase, with hundreds of ..... >sb*stos epidemiology, -Dr. .Irving :'^CAses_;nbw known "In ClrtSkt IlfiUJn,-South Africa, fit' Environmental MedfeUva'-eiij ;0nrtSl ^Stales and 'Canada, unot due to refine- "' '' fSiVCity university's Mount Sinst School of Medi cine. Director of its Environments] Sciences Laboratory* en<l is also President of the New York Academy of Sci meht in diagnosis. Thus, review of all possible cases in several major pathology departments in Scotland ences. Ke was swarded the American Public Health Asso has demonstrated an increase from one or two cases O ciation's Albert Lasker Award in Medicine for bit research on iaonlatid, an antibiotic drug widely used in the treat ment of tuberculosis. -- .- ' a year in the 1950's to some twenty cases a year or more at the present time. Fourteen of the last 120 deaths in New York among asbestos insulation Environment Vol. n. No. 2 &OOQ 0931 RQ PRODUCED BY FORD HFM - 008371