Document Xz17KXogJMX7weoNZO3kqm18w

1907 National Safety Congrats pressing safety problems in tho industry may, in part, be responsible for submerging any concerted interest in health problems. 'While no aftempt is mado hero to detract from the important responsibility for acci dent prevention in tho industry, it is time that programs in work-induced disease pre vention begin to receive the attention they deserve. High accident frequencies cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, justify a lack of interest in healthy working condi tions. . Our first conclusion--there is a basic need to recognize that construction workers are new suffering job-induced diseases ond>(hat new diseases will emerge with advancing technology. To the casual observer or even a member of the industry itself, it is reasonable to be lieve that occupationally-induced diseases in construction work are not a problem. The crafts have long histories of working out doors in tho fresh air with hammers, shovels, and other tools which have in the past tradi tionally presented safety problems, but not health problems. ,A look at the Federal or Stato hoalth sta tistics appear to support this concept: not because there is a lade of problems, but be cause neither the Federal government nor the states--with the possible exception of California--keep any statistics on tho sub ject When no disease is reported, it is natu ral to condude that none exists. However, . what appears as no problem is, in reality, no information on the problem. ' Experience in California supports this con- dusion. In recent years, physician's reports of occupatiodhl diseases among construction workers have been coming into the State Health Department at approximately twice the average rate for all California workers. Since 1049, when recording began in Cali fornia, this rate has been continuously among the three highest of all tho major in dustries. The diseases Involve the skin, the lungs, systemic poisonings, hearing loss-es- sentially the whole range of illnesses1 nor mally believed to lio in the exclusive 'prov ince of factory Workers. Field investigations suggest that more Is to come. For example, an estimate baser^-rti hearing tests conducted at construction sites by fully-qualified audiologists indicates that* some 20,000 heavy equipment operators now working in the state have permanent noise- induced hearing loss. Tho trend toward larger, faster, and more powerful equipment, designed without consideration for the longtonn hoalth of the operator, is expected to intensify this hearing loss problem. It also is expected to introduce silicosis for the first timo as n disease of the operators of dozers, power shovels, and front-end loaders. The equipment operator Is not alone in facing these health hazards. Tho recent re placement of tho plasterer's conventional trowel with a spray nozzle has Introduced serious hearing loss problems insofar as tho plaster guns that wo have measured are con cerned. Further, the gun application of as bestos-containing fireproof coatings continues without control and without concern. Yet, data coming in regularly from studies of men working afound asbestos dust leave very little doubt that the gun operator and other craftsmen in tho area are being sub jected to the risk of asbestosis and lung can cer. There are many mofc examples. Plastic adhesive and surfacing materials have made life an itchy nightmare for tho tile setter and the cement mason. It Is important to realize that much of this skin disease is accompa nied by a permanent allergy to the epoxy resin hardener used in the process. The slightest further exposure to the hardener brings on a repeat case of tho itch and the man is permanently disabled for any further work with the plastic. Another example involves today's welder. There was a time When very little except or dinary steel was found on'a construction job. Anunprotected welder could work with vory little hazard from fames. Alloys are changing this. For instance, inhalation of the fumes from manganese steel will produce an illness which closely resembles Parkinson's disease. Consider also that nickel, cadmitiinV vana dium, and some other metals are toxic by in halation. It is clear that tho pick and shovel are gone, and along with them went the fresh air and tho iron man. The construction in dustry has entered the era of machines and chemicals, and it should recognize this. A second conclusion--it must bo recog nized that the methods which have been deCCToped for tho protection of the factory worker may not be feasible on a construction job. Most of the occupational health literature and practically all of the preventive methods in use were developed with the factory 22