Document gD3adxYwYZ0ORXrx9wZG1yRKQ

M em o to E d ito rs FR O M : D r. Thom as C. C h alm e rs President, Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, New York R e c e n t m e d i a r e p o r t s c o n c e r n i n g r e s e a r c h on t a l c u m powder c a r r ie d out by the Mount Sinai Medical Center created c o n sid e r a b le confusion on the p a r t of the public. The M edical Center has issu e d the following statem ent in order to c o rre c t any m isin terp retation or m is im p r e s s io n s the m edia reports m ay have generated. M arch 23, 1976 D r. Thom as C. C h alm ers P resident, Mount Sinai Medical Center N ew Y o rk, N ew Y ork > j FROM: Mount Sinai Medical Center New York, New York M arch 23, 1976 New York, N. Y. R ecently data fro m r e se a r c h c a r r ie d out in the M ou nt S i n a i M e d i c a l C e n te r f o r the l a s t f o u r y e a r s on the a s b e s t o s co ntent of so m e t a lc u m pow ders w as cited in the p r e s s before it had been published in a scientific journal The original p u rp ose of this r e s e a r c h was to develop / effective techniques for m easuring the p resen ce of asb esto s in talc. The p ro b lem has p r a c tic a l im plications b e c a u se prolonged exposure to certain fo r m s of a s b e s t o s can cause can cer. The r e s e a r c h work was of the highest tech n ical q u ality and a sign ifican t contribution to the field. H ow ever, in the p ro ce ss of developing these new methods, the sam ples actually used had been p u r c h a se d m o r e than two y e a r s ago, a fact which was not mentioned in the m edia r e p o r t s . F u r t h e r m o r e , the d isc o v e r y of a s b e s t o s in so m e talcum powders by the Mount Sinai in v e stig ato rs w as re p o rted to the Food and Drug Adm inistration at that tim e, and undoubtedly stim ulated som e m anufacturers to change their s o u r c e s of ta lc , so that recen t a n a ly se s by the FD A have not rev ealed appreciable am ounts of a s b e s t o s in any s a m p le s . The Mount Sinai M edical Center w ishes to c o r r e c t certain confusions which tlie r e p o r t in g of th ese data m a y have generated: 1) Any im p licatio n in the new s s t o r ie s that m o s t of the talcum p o w d e r c u r r e n t l y on the m a r k e t co n ta in s a s b e s t o s is not b o rn e out by the m o s t recen t data f r o m the FD A , although continuing surveillance is indicated. (more) ,v 2- - 2) Although the n e w s m e d i a s p e c i f i c a l l y e m p h a s i z e d the d a n g e r s of ta lc u m pow ders a d v e r t ise d for b a b ie s , the only baby powder te ste d that w a s r e p o r t e d to sh ow a s b e s t o s r e p r e s e n t s l e s s than 1% of the m a r k e t , a n d that s a m p l e was five y e a r s old* The m ost commonly used baby talc has been consistently free of asbestos. 3) It i s the opinion o f Mount S i n a i ' s D e p a r t m e n t o f P e d i a t r i c s that baby talc is a useful and safe product. Education of the public in r e sp e c t to health m a tte rs is an im portan t responsibility of Academ ic Health Centers. Educational efforts by such centers m u s t be b a s e d on sound sc ie n tific p r in c ip le s and m u s t be ca lc u la te d to p ro v id e m a x im u m benefit for the community. D isse m in a tio n of r e s e a r c h data on which health rec o m m e n d a tio n s can be based m ust occur via peer-review ed scientific publications. The inevitable existence of conflicting data requires that information be made available first to other p r o p e r l y tra in ed e x p e r ts who m ay be expected to in t e r p r e t them individually or through official agencies or committees.. The latter is slow but a p p r e c i a b l y m o r e r e l i a b l e than p u b lic d e b a t e s that a r e f r a g m e n t e d in the r e p X o r t i n gO . This e xp erien ce e m p h a siz e s the need for constant vigilance in e n s u r in g that the tra n sitio n p e rio d between d is c o v e r y of im portan t health r e la te d ite m s and their revelation to the public is handled with proper attention to die ac c u ra c y of details, as required in scientific publications.