Document daN5zOX6OBJ7B97r1pjXM2zEG

THE PRESS, (Christchurch) Canterbury Province, New Zealand, May 1, 1971 O !N7j n tvott t /GiTi T O'lUiiL V VL/J .-fS .7'' T'?. /'~k~0 ^-t-/ d/D-lLii O' O'fii. o p t/7) ! (I il F\T ^ iN; oZlJo /" : > . . *wvr J 'J VA 7-/TY 5 ! virtually impossible to avo using some of it in sonasbestos products. (By our Industrie/ tcpa:lcr) However, by June, 196 the United Kingdom's ir, Evidence from overseas strongly suggests that a number of New Zealand workers ports of biue asbestos he been iimited to 2.5 per ce: must have died from diseases caused by exposure to asbestos. While the greatest dan ger arises from die handling of asbestos fibre itself, workers handling asbestos in of the total imports, nr shore have beer, substanti, reductions in tite proport:c sulation and some asbestos products are also at risk. of blue asbestos used in Nc Zealand. The diseases are lung and abdominal cancer, ! A type of cancer parties-! Ir.riy associated with nsi.es-1 tos is rr.eso*J;tiic;-.'.e, and this! and as'oes tests.' As'cc-s- has been found in a -IV-yccr-l :osis is & build-up oi scar' old insurance scent whose; tissue in the suiting from lung's re-the pre ' contact was limited to ISmentis work nr. n storeman! ,ir. or. nbscstos plant 2-1 years sence of asbestos par- ,'previously, tides, and according to Another victim of rneothe- American uiontiuS. mll.eedivic.al,ISv auno .Homa was a l-I-year-old boy "'ho5c only exposure to cs.-testas come from tie help cure. Death, a strangula- ;;-.e save his father in repine-: ting, coughing demise, is ^^ Much of r::-e--perhaps i The physicians continued; The largest asbestos fa tory in the South Island nii of it--emit: !)'; ascribed : to keep a watc;-. on the study j cite Fletcher Industries, Lt tn crest incrcn. w, '..mb in group, and during tha next; asbestos cement plan; in Ri .sc of i.t..... -iJu' t n;.;-.e,-:.-..; .and. in this doe:', wot n-rcour.t live years 113 more died,; .compared with the 0 pre-; dieted by standard mortality! carton. Last year about 1 per cent of tha asbestos fib: used there was blue fibr for a threc-f.-.n: rise si-ore the tables. Cf the 113 deaths, 22' this year the proportion IMOs in the incidence of .were caused by cancer in tits! cowr. to about 2.5 per cent lung cancer associated with :pulmonary tract, eight by, The factory manager (a eskestosis. gsstfo-intestinai cancer, and; L .L. r. Waugh) agreed : Of tiio Si known nr--.es- : 15 by asbestosis. j take the writer on a tour < insis deaths in the united According to the United i the plant, and pointed ot Kingdom ir> ! SG-.l. '--1'2- 'w"ecrr.ee \s,ss-* V ' 'Kingdom Adviser;.' ?ar.ci on1 j Problems Arising for the Use; lot Asbcstcs, particular sigr.i-i many .have `.years. improvements :h; been made ir. race: While the dust pro! ihe only end.'' ; family home. The- plaster Public attention was drawn to the cancer threat by an article published in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in October, ISO'S. \shostosis was first clearly recognised as an occupational, disease in the United Kins-' board contained a high per centage of asbestos. The New Zealand Depart ment of Labour has now spotlighted the hazards with a well-documented article in rhe latest issue of its official magazine, the quarterly vf*oofrTni*tehthseei+nrmeinth2aienNreei$aCw2te5hrZi1awse9stao2cbl0herakssun.etrdorc,ssh.ffobaIucn-rc1 j|r-wG"uLihanTa;iznchbe^ehiotstru!er.o"tihnfeatanudrDdnee, ptEaiasimrletmtpdhleoenryeemtfopoenrooenlr.-tft -nd ins--u! 1P*'-- ^ June. Tito article ' -h-rt^-h^rr- ' -:cotKmer.ts that the mec-cal vsss^Sr& or building use, and through 7Ir` ra?d' known number of asbestos 'ucr.nco must fce given to or.e; workers died from cancer not of tite varieties of asbestos--; associated with asb.'ftofis. crcc:do!i:e, or biue asl:c:;tOj| As the "Labour Gazette" --as a cause of mesothelioma, j articic points out. in the ab It recommends that other; sence of tite systematic medi types cf f.brc should be sub-1 cal examination, cf all cs- stituted where possible, and: where this is present :m-; Ibostos workers some victims possible, specie1 precautions i 'will die with their diseare -un should ba taker, to reduce the: recognised. or unattributed. .- risks of inhaling the materia; A study fcv three leadings to the lowest possible l-ave-l. : American physicians has; statistically tied asbestos :o: car.car among workers hand-! Sing it. | in 1952 they compiled a; list of 632 men who had bain I While some of the dangers-! of asbestos have been known! for a long time, there is r.o. substitut.': for it in many mod-,ern, processes and products/ Nothing equals it for fire/ |members 20 years - two metropolitan before the! New York, proofing, cr :s vehicle crake:. a lining for; /em has not beer, eliminate fit hza certainly been groat, reduced by the ir.troductic of forced-draught ver.tiiatio; Respirators are avaiiabic, a though one suspects they a: r.et often used. The plant has about 1C '.vorkers on tite feezory floo ana office and mar.agemsr personnel bring the total sta to about 120. Commenting on the Heal: Department's survey of th incustr-', Mr Waugh said the more than a- dozen of th factory's long-term empio; ees bad been checked ove a period of perhaps 1 months. There had been minding and repairing brake ..id clutch parti I: seems clear there is a .cncer risk even from light :r.d occasional exposure to .sbestos. According to a paper pra- er.tcc at the International lancer Congress in Tokyo in 0-36, out a 10 patients who ln' tracucoi by toe umtea Kmgcom might well warrant the consideration of New Zea land industry. In essence, these regula tions require respirators cr.d protective cicthir.g to be pro-j viacd for use in workplaces: iv,'bere asbestos dust is pre-: branches of the International: '/urSk:vr.',ore, biut asbestos; : Association o: Meat ar.tl Frost; h...-; a much longer fibre than; : Insulators and Asbestos' the ether varieties, and it is! I Workers. i Union, medical and ir.sur-i once records showed that in: the intervening period, 2S2, out of the 632 had died.- Eased on the ages of the! study group, tins was 53; series of X-rays ar.d lur.r capacity tests, finishing abou a year ago. Neither the company no any of the workers" ha hoard anything since, whic. surely indicated that no-ov. had needed medical tree: r.-.ent Mr Waugh seems to km.- .ad occupational exposure to Asstos, one was a oci.'er-.al-tor who worked on the in- jlation of steam engines, r.other built bakery ovens in hich asbestos insulation .as used, and a third was at: scour.tr.nt ir. the c:"co or a asbestos textile plant. ] : United Kingdom deaths' :frcr.i asbestor.is averaged- three a- year from 192-1 to jlS30. Since then the known : death toll has increased sieodly. reaching S-: ir. 1955. I the iatest year for which i figures are available locally. '.more deaths than normal--I '22. per cent above the avor-i ;age. j Moreover, -53 had died of- lung cancer when actuarial tables expected only six. Ail J told. 105 had died from dif- jferent types of cancer, in- i eluding 25 from, gastro-ir.tcs-. Itir.al carcir.cma when only 1C; ; would have baer. expected, j grounds for optimism as f.-. as his own staff are cor. corned, but it view of th cverseas statistics the Ne-. Zeaiand Hcaitit Department' findings cannot be release too soon. According to th head of the department's oc cupstional health unit (Dr 2 ?. Copplcston) the compile tier, of facts has been com pieted but <he analysis ant evaluation wiii take anctko. match or so. CAPCO KIN 0001897