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FILE NAME: ALCOA (ALC) DATE: 1966 Jan DOC#: ALC042 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Abstracts from Journal Articles - Industrial Hygiene Digest Z / r^S Industrial Hygiene Digest r_ INDUSTRIAL HEALTH NEWS >13S ' LITERATURE ABSTRACTS MEDICAL ENGINEERING CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGICAL LEGAL <C : JANUARY, 1966 (Voi. 30, No. 1) 1. -p INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE FOUNDATION MELLON INSTITUTE MOO FIFTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH, PA. 15213 03122043 Industrial Hygiene Digest January. I960 bone m arrow had been adequately excluded. The findings correlate with the histopathological changes which are reported to occur in the lungs of silicotic patients; they indicate a high degree of stim ulation of the reticulo-endothelial system . If these changes are considered to- gether with the industrial history and clin ical and laboratory, data, they m ay provide a clue to the diagnosis of silicosis and help in the differential diagnosis from other diffuse pulmonary lesions. - - Auth. ab st. 71 M esotheliom a of P leu ra and P e rito n eu m Follow ing E xposure to A sbestos in the London A re a . M uriel L. Newnouse and Hilda T hom pson. B rit. J. Ind. M ed. 22, 261-269 (Oct. 1965). A se rie s of 83 patients from the London H ospital with a diagnosis of m esotheliom a confirm ed by necropsy or biopsy has been studied for possible exposure to asbestos. The series consisted of 41 m en and 42 women; 27 of the p atien ts had peritoneal and 56 pleural tum ors. The e a rlie st death recorded was in 1917, but only ten of the s e rie s died before 1950 and 40 (48%) between 1960 and 1964. In 76 of the series full occupational and residential histories were obtained. Forty (52.6%) gave a history of occupational or dom estic (living is the sam e house as an asbestos w orker) exposure to asbestos com pared with nine (11.8% ) out of 76 patients from the sam e h ospi tal suffering from other d ise a se s (P < 0 .0 0 1 ). None of the 17 suspected ca se s of m esoth eliom a, rejected on pathological grounds, was found to have had any exposure to asbestos. There was also evidence that neighborhood ex posures m ay be im portant. Among those with no evidence of occupational or dom estic exposures, 30. 6% of the m esotheliom a patients and 7.6% of the in patients with other diseases lived within half a m ile of an asbestos factory (P< 0.01). Out of the 31 p atients with occupational e x p o su re s only ten w ere in jobs scheduled under the A sbestos R egulations of 1931. The interval betw een the first exposure and the development of the term inal illn e ss of m esotheliom a ranged betw een 16 and 55 y e a rs . In 47 patients in the m esotheliom a s e r ie s , lung tissu e o r sputum w as a v ailab le for ex am ination. In 30 (62.5% ) eith er a sb e sto sis or asbestos bodies were present. -- Auth. abst. 72 Diffuse M esotheliom a of the P leu ra and A sbestos. . P . C. E lm es, W. T. E . McCaughey, and O. L. Wade. B rit. Med. J. K 350 (Feb. 6,.1965). M esotheliom a of the pleura is an uncom m on tum or and, in recent years, studies have indicated a relationship of this tum or to exposure to asb esto s. The occupational h isto ries of 42 patients with diagnosed m esotheliom a w ere co ntrasted to 42 control patients with regard to their exposure to asbestos. Thirty-tw o of the 42 patients with diagnosed m esotheliom a had a history of exposure to asbestos which was considered to be heavy exposure in eight and a light exposure in 24. In the 42 control patients there was a history of exposure in only nine, and in two of these it was con sid ered heavy. The difference betw een these two groups was highly significant. In another study it was shown that the finding of asbestos bodies in lung tissue was significantly related to the history of industrial exposure to asb esto s. When the lungs of 24 patients with diagnosed m eso theliom a w ere exam ined for the p re se n c e of asb e sto s b o d ies, 21 of the 24 patients showed th is finding. In co ntrast, asbestos bodies w ere found in only six of the 24 controls, a highly significant difference. The occupational histories of these patients revealed that the interval between the first exposure to asbestos and the diagnoses of m esotheliom a was often long and in some cases exceeded 40 y ears. Exposure to a sb esto s, even though m any years before and transient, is an im portant factor in the developm ent of m esotheliom a of the pleura. -- J. Occ. Med. A bsts. " 3 R elation Between Exposure to A sbestos and M esotheliom a. I. J. Selikoff, J. Churg, and E. C. Hammond. New Engl. J. M ed. 272, 5o0 (M arch 18, 1965). Ten deaths due to m esotheliom a w ere found in a study of 307 consecutive deaths among asb esto sinsulation w orkers in New York and New Je rse y . T here w ere four pleural m esotheliom as (1.3% ) and six peritoneal m esotheliom as (1.9% ). This is probably an underestim ate of the true incidence since, of the rem aining 297 deaths, only 110 cases were autopsied. These figures can be con trasted to a prospective study of the A m erican C ancer Society in which only three deaths due to m esotheliom a w ere noted in 31,652 deaths of patients betw een 30 and 89 y e ars of age. In an autopsy series of 2,500 deaths, asb esto sis was found in 26. There were four m esotheliom as of the pleura, three m esotheliom as of the peritoneum , and seven bronchogenic carcinom as recorded in the patients with asbestosis. No m esotheliom as w ere found in the absence of asbestosis. C ases of diagnosed m esotheliom a from the files of tne Arm ed F orces Institute of Pathology were review ed and in all cases where lung tissue was available it was examined for asbestos fibers. A sbestos fib e rs w ere found in five of the 19 p le u ra l m e so th elio m a s and in 17 of the 26 peritoneal m e so th e li- 03122066 Industrial Hygiene Digest Jai.qa rv , I"oc o m .i. This is probably an underestim ate of the true incidence of asbestosis among cases of m esotheliom a in the United States since very little lung tissue was available for review ar.d only asbestos bodies ana not asbestos fibers were looked for. M esothelioma should be added to the neoplastic risk s of exposure to asb esto s along with cancer of the lung (53 of 307 deaths) and probably cancer of the stom ach (34 of 307 deaths). . . J. Occ. Med. Absts. | PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT | 74 Safe P ractices for Industrial SCUBA D iving. P . A. B reysse. Ind. M ed. b Surg. 314, 870-873 (Nov. 1965). Recognizing that SCUBA (self-contained underw ater breathing apparatus) divers are sub.tect to many potential hazards and that they m ust be physically and m entally fit, be adequately trained in the use of SCUBA and possess the n ecessary mechanical skills to perform their prescribed functions satisfactorily; and that their safety and well-being depends to a large degree upon equipment being in good working order and upon an air supply essentially free from contam ina tion; the-Safety D ivision, Washington State Departm ent of Labor and Industries, appointed a com m ittee to a ssist the Code Engineer in the com pletion of SCUBA Diving Safety Standards. This com m ittee was composed of representatives of both labor and m anagem ent and other interested groups, a large num ber of which had considerable experience in SCUBA diving activities and diving m edicine. T hese standards should provide a better aw areness of the hazards involved in diving, in addition to minim um requirem ents for diving safety; recognizing that diving can be safe provided it is practiced by w ell-trained, equipped and inform ed individuals. -- Auth. sum . ' 75 Decom pression Sickness Following Repeated Breath-hold Dives. P. Paulev. J. Appl. Physiol. 20, 1023-1031 (Sept. 1965). A report is given on a case of apparent decom pression sickness after repetitive breath-hold dives to depths of 50-66 ft. (15-20m .). Three sim ilar cases in Norwegian Navy escape-training- tank instructors are also discussed. A parallel is drawn between the Scandinavian cases and the "pearl diver d isease" (taravana), found in the Tuam otu Archipeiago in the South Pacific. Sym p tom s and signs in these conditions are consistent with the diagnosis of decom pression sickness. It is em phasized that in such cases im m ediate recom pression is the treatm ent of choice. Con sideration of various depths and patterns of breath-hold diving in term s of nitrogen uptake and elim ination perm its the relative risk of decom pression sickness to be predicted with the help of decom pression tables. -- J. Am. Med. Assn. Ref. b Rev. 76 A ltitude and M aximum P erform ance in Work and Sports Activity. B. B alke, F . J. N agle, and J. D am cis. J. Am. Med. A ssn. 194, 646-649 (Nov. 8, 1965). Experim ental evidence obtained from these investigations has confirmed the hypothetical a s sum ption that, at an altitude of around 2,000 m e te rs (6,560 ft.): (1) physical perform an ces requiring the utilization of maximum aerobic capacity are com paratively w orse than under con ditions of norm al barom etric p ressu re; (2) physical perform ances requiring alm ost exclusively m axim um an aerobic capacity rem ain nearly u n a ltered ; (3) training and acclim atio n can b ring back "norm al" capacity for maximum aerobic work. Possibly, training at elevations higher than 2,000 m e te rs will be m ore effective in this re s p e c t: (4) within one w eek after retu rn from this altitude, perform ances in the longer sprint-type events tend to be slightly better than before, while those in the endurance-type events show co nsid erable im provem ent; and (5) physiologically, these im provem ents are apparently based on an augm entation of the h e a rt's capacity to move a m axim um volume of blood as well as on an in creased amount of oxygen c a rrie d by the a rte ria l blood. -- Cond. auth. com. 77 Prevention of Heat Illness in Football P lay ers. R. J. Murphy and W. F . A she. J. Am. Med. A ssn. 194, 651-654 (Nov. 8, 1965). Football practice in high schools and colleges begins in late sum m er when the effects of heat are of m ajor concern. To determ ine when conditions exist on the field which contribute to heat exhaustion and heat stroke, the dry-bulb and w et-bulb tem peratures recorded during the first three weeks of practice of the Ohio State U niversity football team were co rrelated with w eight loss encountered. From this, a practical guide was developed with suggestions for preventive m e a su re s re la tiv e to the two clin ical e n titie s. T h ere a re 15 re fe re n c e s . - - A uth. sum . 19. 03122067