Document wrb7npeo81Vo8pb1O0nNZ7xmQ

FILE NAME Jewelers JEWEL DATE 1988 DOC JEWEL009 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Published Journal Article - Page 1 only of mucous sed nausea heartburn ^< subjects although I incidents . 24 to 48 uded poor i idling of Then ventiof several Quality fuel cupational on defined ual miners n is needed tion should associated a for their ry effects of ticulates from lution Control 2 IC 8666 US on Emissions Maintenance to reau of Mines posed to diesel .89 ine pp 38-42 American Journal of Industrial Medicine 407 4110988 BRIEF COMMUNICATION Asbestos Disease in the Jewelry Industry Report of Two Cases David G. Kern MD MOH and Howard Frumkin MD MPH We describe two cases of asbestos pulmonary disease in jewelry workers Exposures occurred during the mixing of asbestos powder used to make jewelry soldering boards Key words asbestosis asbestos pulmonary disease pleural plaques soldering soldering boards INTRODUCTION Rhode Island is the capital of the nation's jewelry industry Thirty thousand of its residents are employed in the manufacture of costume and precious jewelry Workers in this industry face a number of recognized hazards including expo- ee ewe sures to acids solvents cyanide metals and noise and risk of accident Wuraftic 2 and Hickey 1938 Martin 1978 Quinn et al 1980 Jones and Slovin 1983 In this paper we report two cases of asbestos pulmonary disease occurring in jewelry workers CASE 1 A.T. a year man presented to the Roger Williams General Hospital Occupational Health Service in October 1985. From 1939 to 1982 he spent 8 hours daily making soldering forms Fig ) for use in his family's costume jewelry manufacturing plant In the process he mixed asbestos powder plaster of paris and water and shaped the resulting mud into 15 ^ 15 ^ cm patties He then made surface impressions in the mud to hold jewelry pieces for soldering In preparing for a new soldering job he routinely rubbed together two forms to obliterate existing impressions and rewet their surfaces before making fresh indentations When asbestos powder was unavailable he obtained it by hand grinding asbestos sheets He wore no Program in Occupational Medicine Roger Williams General Hospital Brown University Providence Rhode Island D.G.K. H.F. Department of Epidemiology Harvard School of Public Health Boston H.F. This work was supported by NIEHS Environmental Training Grant 1 T32 ES07069 Address reprint requests to David G. Kern MD MOH Department of Medicine Roger Williams General Hospital 825 Chalkstone Avenue Providence RI 02908 Accepted for publication September 16 1987 Brown University '1988 Alan R. Liss Inc.