Document RpRrj57aOamzZVjz41EX6gevn

AUDITS Programs Facilities SEARCHES literature Data SEMINARS General Special COURSES Regional In-Piant RESEARCH Bise'letw Tsiicsiogy Special Issue June, 1978 Mornnc In Mqrnharc Published periodically by INDUSiRIAL HAi_in rCwJ,'ii^n.iGN, 5231 Centre Avenue . Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania 15232 (412) 687-2100 This special issue of Memos to Members is to draw your attention to some ramifications of OSHA% Informal Public Hearing on the Proposed Standard for Exposure to Beryllium during July-September 1977. The proposed Standard states that occupational exposure to Beryllium should be regulated on the basis that Beryllium has been shown to be carcinogenic in humans. Three bodies of data were used by N10SH to support this position, but the findings of these studies and the methods used in conducting them are seriously questioned by ten scientists who sent letters to the Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare, and the Secretary of Labor, on February 10, 1978. These scientists are Drs. Merrill Eisenbud, Professor of Environmental Medicine, New York University Medical Center; Leonard Goldwater, Professor Emeritus of Occupational Medicine, Columbia University Faculty of Medicine; Ian Higgins, Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, The University of Michigan; Brian MacMahon, Walcott Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health; Adrianne Rogers, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Daniel Roth, Statistical Consultant, Potomac, Md.; Irving Tabershaw, Professor Emeritus of Occupational Medicine, University of California, and Consultant in Occupational Medicine; and Howard Van Ordstrand, Head, Section on Environmental Health, Department of Pulmonary Disease, Cleveland Clinic Foundation. They expressed concern "over the quality and credibility of that segment of government-sponsored health research performed by NIOSH and utilized by other government agencies, most notably by OSHA, for regulatory purposes." They feel strongly that "incompetent or biased studies which lead ultimately to confusion, controversy and erosion of credibility within the scientific community, do irreparable harm" . . . and they quote Senator Kennedy in the Congressional hearing on preclinical testing: - NOTED: J.V.SSCEHDAU. (Information contained herein is expressly for IHF Members: not for re-publication witho -------------- ------------ ------------ - SCF-ALLF-07273