Document yrqQwGEy9oXdbXzp2nwKjYY7X

FILE NAME: Newspaper & Magazine Articles (NMA) DATE: 1964 Oct 7 DOC#: NMA004 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT Article - A Rare Carcinoma Believed on the Rise My. ~iiu 24 ' h tw s Odd-7, / ^ f ARARE CARCINOMA BELIEVED ON RISE Study of Asbestos Workers Shows a High Incidence By HAEOLD M. SCHMECK Jr. Occupational exposure to as bestos may be making an ex tremely rare form of cancer much more common, accord ing to a report yesterday to the annual meeting of the American Public'Health Association. The cancer is called mesothe lioma. It affects the Inner lining of the abdomen or of -the chest and. In either case, It Is fatal. In the general population It is extremely rare, but studies in Africa, where asbestos Is mined, and more recent studies of construction workers exposed to asbestos dust to the N ew York City area show It to be far more common among those ex posed occupationally. The specialists who gave fhe report expressed worry that the danger might not be entirely restricted to a limited occupa tion group, but that It might be more general gnd possibly of considerable Importance. There Is no direct evidence to sub stantiate th is they said, but some of the available findings hint that this may be the case. The report was given by Dr. Irving J. Sellkoff and Dr. Jacob Churg of Mount Sinai Hospital and Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond, director of statistical re Arch for the American Cancer So ciety. Mesothelioma is so rare in the general population th at it is not separately coded among causes of death. Yet a study four years ago in an African asbestos min ing region found 33 cases, the report said. Heavy exposure to asbestos dust has in the past been linked with some increased risk of lung cancer, Dr. Sellkoff and Dr. Hammond, said at a news conference before their talk, but the mesothelioma Is another matter. The group pursued the ques tion by studies In the United States. One of these w as a study of deaths among members of two New York area locals of a construction trade union whose members dealth with asbestos! .insulation. Of a total of 3071 deaths occurring in .th is fairly| restricted group over 20 yfears--' 1943 to 1964--1 0 were found to be caused by mesothelioma. The report called this "an extraordinarily high Incidence for a tum or generally so rare." In contrast, they current hugh study by th e Am erican Cancer Society on the effects of environ m ental factors on health showed that am ong 31,652 deaths In the general population only three were due to mesothelioma. i A further study of many cases of mesothelioma collected over a long period by. the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology showed th a t one-fourth of those spechnens th a t could be tested hafpevidonee of the presence of asbestos. : The worrisome feature, Dr. Hammond and Dr. Sellkoff said, Is the evidence that asbestos, once taken into the body/ stays there. Thus even a single heavy exposure could conceivably pro duce a cancer after a latent period of 20 years or more, they said. This Idea, for which they said there is some experimental as well as epidemiological evidence, could expind the risk from sim ply those occuoationally exposed to virtually anyone who might tonljr occasionally encounter as bestos dost. The severity of exposure nec essary to produce such a seri ous effect is not known, the two physicians said* D r. E . Cuyler Hammond