Document x5QmeeNkkzMZxwO8ym3ExpQj0

FILE NAME: OWILL DATE: 1977 May DOC#: OWILL008 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Journal Article - The Konicide Club 1932-1940 Historical Notes \ The Konicide Club (1932-1940) A Brief History Theodore F. H atch , S c .D . a n d Eug ene P. P en d erg rass, M .D . In January, 1932, a small group physicians, scientists and .~gineers mot informally at the Pittsburgh Laboratories, U.S. 5jreau of M ines to exchange experiences and views concerning ^problem ofCsilk osis^in U.S. mines and factories. No list o fth e participants is now available but the number probably did not ex* ivd 20, representing essentially all the research institutions and v!d investigative groups in tlie country at that time. Particular in- rest centered around standardization of atmospheric dust sanv r" ng and assessment of dust exposures and the parallel medical procedures for evaluating the respiratory injury found in exposed -dividuals. There was great need for such standardization to in- vj:e comparability of results, derived in the sam e manner by all in stigators. O n e recommendation coming from the meeting was i t> develop a sturdy, all-glass impinger designed to be easily j iiplicatable, and to settle on a standard method of dust counting. >* modified Greenberg-Smith impinger resulted and is still in use, : are the counting techniques delineated at that time. Beyond i specifics there w ere wide-ranging discussions of the many \ -dtff aspects of the silicosis problem. Great enthusiasm over this \ voday conference and the desire to continue such meetings * nte expressed by all the participants with the further wish to name and with the purpose of having cxicasicxial meetings lo discuss research problems on the relation of dust to health. The club will have no dues, will meet anywhere or any time any member desires and can per suade at least one other member nor m his own organization to meet with him. The meeting will select its own chairman as the club has no president and dr>o> not propose electing one. If the memliers present see fit, they will send a notice or minute of their meeting to the secretary, who will pass it along to the* other members. Any member publishing an article on anv phase of the dust question will either send through the secretary a reprint to each member or mail the reference to his paper. The membership will be kept small and is to be elected from time to time by a committee of Messrs. Yant and Leake and the secretary. Until February 1, 1033, Drinker will serve as secretary, which means at tempting to do the dirty work a secretary should do. such as arranging meetings and attending to correspondence. On February 1. 1933 Drinker will appoint his successor. Your suggestions as to other members would be appreciated, but bear in i mind that we do not want members not now engaged in investigative work on dust. We want the membership kept small and above everything to be informal and no precedents to be established. Attached is a list of proposed members. Please be good enough to send the secretary word as to whether or not you wish to become a member. Philip Drinker, Secretary 55 Van Dyke Street Boston, Mass. ^ the meetings small and informal to insure lively debate and change of views. At the end of the meeting. Dr inker proposed a for the calling and c onduct of the meetings. He suggested o name ^Konicide Club"Jand on February 12, 1932, he sent the^ r is in g letter to all parliti[Kints, plus a few additional in- Konicide Club Members (First Mailing List -- about March 1932) Bureau of Mines. Dept, of Interior, Washington, D.C.: Mr. Daniel O Harrington; Mr. F. B. Meriwether: and 4800 Forbes Street, Pittsburgh, Pa.: * Mr^W.-P. Yant>Dr. C. E. Brown, 5*tduafc. Because of its typical Drinker style, the letter i$ given in * `r Chicago, tli, 330 South Wells St.: Dr. C. O. Sappington. ) iollowed by the names on the* Tirst mailing list together with | ppi respective institutional affiliations, j IConicirk* Club , Employers Mutual Insurance Co., 800 Empire Building, Milwaukee, Wis.: Mr. E. G. Meiter. Harvard School of Public Health, 55 Shattuck St.. Boston, Mass.: Mr. Philip Drinker; M r Theodore Harch: and Dr. W. I. Clarkf The Norton Co., Wor t February 12, 1932 cester, Mass. M etropolitanLife Insurance *Cot Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y.; Or, { ^ 4 fecent meoliog at the Bureau of Mines, i'iusburgh a number of us A. I. Lanza: Dr. W. I. McConnell; Mr. f. W. Fehnel. t to start an informal, sjnltl, and very select if) club with the above Northwestern Universty,Medical School, Chicago, 111.: Dr. lames A. Brit t ** ton. i thv Oaduate School of Publtc Hrallh. University oi Pittsburgh tDr. Hatch. S a^vu0r emeritus and the Schoni of Mndkmr, University of Pennsylvania, Owensdllinois Class Co., Toledo, Ohio: Mr. W. C. Hazard. ' Pendergrass. Professor l memos). Public Health Service, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.: Dr. ft. R i of Occupational Medicine/Vot. 19. N o. 5/May 1977 351 u - i i pKiei\t`n on ivsb&losis Sayers; Dr. Albert . Russell; Dr. R, R. jones; Mr, ), |. BjoomitHd- Qf. j, m the end of the sec on Dr. Gardner spoke briefly on "Wiwi Daliavalle. Saranac Laborj /ory,Box 551, Saranac lake, N.V.: Qr, L U, Gardner: Mr. Donald Cummings; Dr. Homer l. Sampson; Mr. Andrew Red)in; Mr Thomas Ourkam Known About Asbestosis", an early contribution to a subject *looms so large today in the occupational health field. It is not tomuch to say that this was the most detailed seminar on the mni! Toronto, Ontario, Parliament Buildings: Dr. Courue Blair Brink; Op John cal and radiological aspect of the pneumoconiosis prob'en* Grant Cunningham; Dr. A. R. Riddell. presented in the United States up to that time (1933). University of Pennsylvania, University Hospital, Philadelphia. Pa.: Dr. H._K_ The next meeting was hold in Washington, lanuarv 13-14, 1911 Pancoast; Dr. E P. Pendergrass. State Department of Health,Hartford. Conn.: D:,,uAn.dSe.rCtrhaev;aMusrpWicaersreonf Dr. Sayers and associates. Office of Indu- ..op^ % Hygiene. U.S.P.MS. Among th^* topics discussed were: lecognii"-- Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., Medical Dept., EasV Pitts * of the roentgenologic changes, etc., described at the cad' burgh, Pa.: Dr. T. Ivle Hazlett: Mr. Edgar C Barnes. % Six additional names were on the membership list in the last days of .the the Club: Manfred Bowditch, W. C Pn?ssen, Leonard Grenhuru, Oscar Sander, H. H Schreuk and Charles R. Williams Philadelphia meeting, as significant diagnostic events m tb development of silicosis and the essential procedures to be recommended in both medical and environmental control of the: hazards. Dr. Savors and a^rx iates reported on the finding'- of lb PHS , The first meeting of the new club was hold at the Saranac oCUrtc Laboratory on April 2, 3,1932, attended by Messrs. Gardner, Clark. Pancoast. Pendergrass, Clifford (guest), McConnell. Leake, Brown Meiter, Fehnel. Hatch, Bloomfield and Cummings plus other mem- j bers of the Saranac Staff. The first day was devoted to the pathology of silicosis and the second to dust sampling and count ing. Some of the highlights of the meeting were summarized as j follows and give an idea of the state of knowledge of silicosis in i 1932: the hazard from a silicious dust is in proportion to its free- silica (SiOri content, provided that no inhibitory substance is j present; other compounds of silicon have not produced fibrosis in experimental animals lexccpt magnesium silicate which produces a different kind of fibrosis); intravenous injection of S1O 2 pioduces ; fibrosis in the suprahepatic lymph node followed by fibrotic ! nodules in the liver; no similar fibrosis is produced hy aluminum i oxide. Respecting dust counting, there was lively discussion of dark-field vs. light-field microscopy, especially with reference to ease of particle counting in the <1 range. To change from i light-field, however, would entail a considerable series of com parative counts. There was nq agreement on such a change. f ^ A second meeting was held in conjunction with the National I ^Safety Congress in Washington on October 3-5, 1932. Messrs. Gardner, Russell, Bloomfield, Hatch and Drinker presented a series of "dusty addresses" (Drinker's wording) to the congress. This was, d perhaps, the first large gathering from U.S. industry before which onscale representatives of the small group of pneumoconiosis specialists o f& fcp b presented the dimensions of the silicosis problem and the needs for its control. Messrs. Thompson, Leake. Russell, Bloomfield, Yant, Brown, Gray, Cook, Cunningham, Gardner, Hatch and Drinker were present at the club meeting on O ctober 4th. The relative merits of dark and light*field illumination in dust counting were further discussed with a final conclusion to continue with the lat ter. All agreed, however, that an easier method would he welcome. An important contribution was made by Dr. Clark, who outlined recommended procedures for a continuing medical con trol program in the dusty industries. T he application of these recent PHS study of the health hazards in apthracite coal nvn ^ and Sayers and Millet described their findings irom ntraponuc" injection of dusts in experimental animals. In the course or la menting. as in earlier ones, there was much discussion of the c.c to establish limits of permissible dustiness to ^erve as guideno^ stcu y la fj for effective dust control efforts. Out of these came Gumming* fe' suggestion of the formula used for many years subsequently tcalculate acceptable levels of dijstiness in proportion to the if*'* silica content of the airborne dust, starting with 5 x 10" mppei ^ pure quartz. This formula, with some modification, is still wide;', used in oilier countries as well as the U.S. W e recall also his vjca. shared by Dr. Lanza, that no "safe" level of dust exposure could be set for individuals with any degree of tuberculous infection. lhi> dictum was laid down, of course, to emphasize the absolute necessity for tuberculosis prevention along with control of the in dustrial dust hazard. This gathering was of particular significante as a preparatory session for two meetings shortly to be held: one at the Mellon In stitute. out of which came the nAir Hygiene Foundation" (now in A ir H'fg.RU dustrial Health Foundation) and the other, the 1936 Silicosis Con ` ifcS t& C i.-. ference, sponsored by Miss Perkins, the Secretary of Labor. Konicide club members played leading parts in the planning and conduct of both of those meetings. In January, 1936, a dub meeting look place at Harvard organized by Drinker and Hatch. The importance of particle size in the etiology of pulmonary dust disease was emphasized. Broun discussed respiratory dust deposition and retention; Hatch report ed on the striking variations in the composition ot mineral dust as particle size is reduced, with particular reference to the decreasing S1O 2 content with particle size for dusts from granite, sandstone and other silicious minerals. Professor Larsen of Harvard's Geology Department demonstrated petrographic techniques for du^t analysis and discussed size limitation in such analysis. Dr. C < Drinker described the* Ivmpfutic system and discussed its im portant*? in the development of silicosis and P. Drinker reported on nasal dust filtration. procedures, so well understood and commonplace now, was only later in 1936 (November 23rd and 24th). Drs. Lanza and beginning in the early 30'$. For the 1933 meeting (November 11th and 12th), Drs. Pancoast McConnell and Bill Fehnel offered a program at tlie headquarters of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City. The first m et Ltfe U .fe n n . and Pendergrass were the hosts at the X-ray Department. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pa. With their colleagues they prepared for this meeting a very comprehensive series of subjects for discussion, The first day was devoted to clinical examination in silicosis and the importance of associated diseases, especially tuberculosis, pneumonia and other respiratory day was devoted to medical questions and progress in animal studies. Speakers includ(?d Drs. Gardner, Sampson, Lanza. Pen dergrass. During the second day Dr. Greenburg described a New York state program of industrial hygiene and Fehnel discussal a dust control program in an asbestos plant. Decrease in SiO * con tent with particle size found in industrial dusts, notably in foun diseases. During the second day, discussion was directed mainly dries, was also a topic of continued interest. to radiological techniques and differential diagnosis between silicosis and silico-tubcrculosis and lesions simulating silicosis. At O n |uly 12 th and 13th, 1937, the club enjoyed the hospitality of mcWreaJ in1 the Montreal Mining Co., Montreal, W is., with whom the Saranac 352 The Konicide Ctub/Hatch and Pendergrass boratory had close association. The program. arranged by Dr. Ringo. Medical Director, was focused on the health problems of the ferrous mining industry, with detailed discussion of the problems encountered in the' Montreal and neighboring mines. Speakers included Drs. Gardner and Sampson w ho emphasized the significant differences in the pathological and roentgenological changes seen in the iron miners, compared, for example, with granite cutters. The medical facilities and dust monitoring equip ment employed at the Montreal mine were inspected and club members enjoyed an underground inspection trip. The meeting concluded with a general review and summary of the medical and engineering problems encountered in the industry. O n January 2 2 ,1 9 3 9 another meeting was bold at the University of Pennsylvania under arrangements made by Dr. Pendergrass. The (lustry. T itle s'o P se p a rM Survey o/ the ~\st>estos Industry and Its Engineering Problems: Experimental Pathology Concerning Asbestosis; Clinical and Roentgenological Survey of the Asbestos Industry; Pathology in Patients Dying with Asbestosis; Roentgen Studies in Industries Having Asbestosis. Speakers included Drinker, Gardner, Sayers, Dreesen and Drs. lames Bullett and Rush Shull, guest speakers. Over the years there had been frequent inquiries by non* members about the club activities and increasing pressure to in- tludo in its deliberations individuals not engaged in pneumo coniosis research, especially by lawyers concerned with co m pensation claims. Those widening interests and more particularly, the organization of the American Industrial Hygiene Association in 1939 suggested to the members that the "exclusive" Konicide Club had served its purpose and its activities should he concluded. There w ere no more meetings. It is difficult at this late date to recapture the gxuUaneot stimulation that one found in the club meetings. In the course of the successive conferences, new findings and new research and investigative procedures w ere quite regularly brought to our at tention. In many instances these required abandoning old ideas and adopting new ones, but these changes did not come easily for the proponents had to defend their proposals against much fconstructive) criticism by their colleagues. O n e of the fortunate co n tributions was to being together from the start the scientists and practitioners from both sides of the problem.{respecting both man and environm ent -- biological science and medicine together with physical science and engineering. The collective responsi bility of such teams of specialists for the development and appli cation of preventive measures for the' control of silicosis and other disabling occupational dust diseases was constantly emphaszied. Not the least accom plishm ent was learning to talk to each other and each to recognize the essential need for the skills of the others in the joint solving of important health problems. The expansion of this concept in dealing with other job-related diseases has given special strength and effectiveness to the whole occupational health effort in the United States. A lH A * Regulated Progress Scholarly review is such an effective barrier to novelty that a new idea can seldom be announced to the world until it has first been sold to the establishment. Most innovators are ill-suited to promotional work, and begrudge the time and effort. Many ideas die at this stage. The innovator must buttonhole important people to enlist their support, or perhaps apply for a grant to study his i innovation. If successful, this gets the idea on to the grapevine which is its announcement to and acceptance by the world. Publication is a formality, like a letter confirming a telephone call. Qy thus standing astride the channel of communication, the establishment maintains its rule and regulates progress for its own convenience. -- From "tvolvod Conspiracy*1 by Charles Me Cute hen in The Sconces, July/August 1976. . Mnit of Occupational Medicine/Vol. 19, No. 5/May 1977 3S3