Document jm5Vg7O0GreMOG8NKnkvj491Z

Wed., Nov. 12, 1969 THE MIAMI NEWS Job-related disease research blocked, M.D. says TO* UucllM Pin provide compensation for said, only Pennsylvania has PHILADELPHIA -- In workers. outlawed Its use and that dustrial leaders have long Breslow, of the University was three years ago. blocked scientific probes of occupational health hazards, including the high risk of cancer in some jobs, the president of the American Public Health Association charged yesterday. "For too many decades." said Dr. Lester Breslow, "we have swept the problems of occupation health under the rug. There has been a very subtle and powerful prohibi tion against even looking at these things." The coal miners' disease, "black lung," caused by coal dust, is an example, Breslow said as he awarded the of California School of Public Health at Berkeley, and Dr. Lorin Kerr of the United Mine Workers of America, said that public health work ers should follow this exam ple and fight other occupa tional health diseases. One is "white lung" a dis ease caused by cotton dust and marked by shortness of breath and coughing, accord ing to Dr. Isadore Buff of Charleston, W. Va.. one of the physicians who fought black lung. He said white lung affects 125,000 women who work on cotton locms in North and South Carolina, There is a high frequency of lung cancer among lead, zinc and copper workers in the Colorado plateau, they said, and unexplained inci dents of brain tumor among rubber workers. Two kinds of_ lung cancer affect asbestos workers? they said. Asked who he 'felt was responsible for sweeping these problems under the rug, Breslow said. "I think the managers of industry and those subject to their in fluence. In many instances, there is an assumption that conditions are not adverse to APHA's Presidential Citation Georgia and Virginia. to four physicians who fought for measures to con trol black lung disease and j;In the rubber and dye in dustries, Breslow and Kerr said, there is an ammonia .j health and this somehow prevails for decades.'* derivative in use that is be lieved to cause bladder can Now, he said, there is "a mounting public outcry for cer and has been outlawed j, social action and we in pub- in Great Britain since 1951. lie health would do welt to , In the United States, they 11 heed this crescendo." '* The APHA, Breslow said, should join forces with such , groups as the physicians who fought black lung and attack - these other occupational hazards. "This award." Kerr said, ."focuses national attention upon the almost extinct sub ject of the health of all work ers on the job. "Over the years." he added, "I have encountered a disturbing lack of concern among many physicians about this subject and a. frighteningly cavalier atti tude about the prevention of these illnesses and injuries 4 . "For example," he contin ued, "we are ignorant about the number of workers disa- bled cr killed by ex^asure ' to carbon monoxide, lead and dynamite." > nODUCED 83