Document zom6meOEM2eDX96eM8YnMJQB3

1=9 ISS1 U----- u Industrial Hygiene Digest April, 196-1 324 Shipyard Employment of the Physically Handicapped. A. Ross and M. Cohen. J. Occ. Med. 5, 528-530 (Nov. 1963). Description of the program of placement of the physically handicapped in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard demonstrates that impaired workers can live and work effectively. Of 7,246 employees at work in the shipyard on January 1, 1963, 4,387 were in production jobs. Of these, 290 had significant physical impairments. Forty-two per cent of these had cardiovascular disorders; 36% had monocular vision, and the remaining 22% had a variety of other physical impairments. All were effectively performing their jobs to the complete satisfaction of their supervisors in work that would not aggravate their physical condition. --Authors' summary 325 Disability, Old Age and Employment. H. Rusalem. J. Ctc. Med. 5, 575-578 (Dec. 1963). The Federation Employment and Guidance Service (FEGS) vocational rehabilitation program has demonstrated that work-motivated older disabled persons can be helped in many cases to re-enter suitable employment. This fact has been demonstrated so clearly that more than a dozen rehabilitation agencies throughout the United States have already used the FEGS program as a prototype and have initiated similar services in their own communities. Given suitable vocational rehabilitation assistance and an intensive vocational placement program, , work-motivated older disabled persons can obtain employment in gratifying numbers. When placed on suitable jobs, they tend to make satisfactory employees and contribute to the goals of the offices and plants in which they work. It is now well-established that older disabled persons constitute a valuable human resource which will become more important as the proportion of older persons in our population Increases during the 1960's. Through informing themselves about the potentialities of older disabled workers and the services available to them, physicians can play a vital role in the vocational rehabilitation process. This role is not limited to serving as a referral source. By selecting the older persons they refer, by providing vocational rehabilitation agencies with good medical information and by con tinuing medical supervision of their patients, physicians can fill an active and essential role in the total process. -- Author's discussion 326 Prevalence of Disabilities Among Government Employees. A 7-Year Analysis. ATish. J. Occ. Med. 6^ 9-12 (Jan. 1964). The study reported here constitutes an analysis of disabilities among 100,865 civilian government employees added to the disability retirement roll in the last 7 fiscal years frot July 1, 1955 , to June 30, 1962, by the Bureau of Retirement and Insurance of the United States Civil Service Commission. This third analysis of the series of disability experiences constitutes the largest group of retired disabled Government employees analyzed to date. The most striking change noted is the sharp reduction in the number of cases of syphilis of the central nervous system as a basis for disabilityretirement --from 7. 9% of all nervous system disorders in 1948 to 3.2% in 1957 and .4% in 1962. The next most striking change is to be found in the marked reduction of persons seeking disability retirement because of tuberculosis . In the 1948 study pulmonary tuberculosis patients made up 63% of those retired for respiratory system diseases, whereas in the 1957 study, pulmonary tuberculosis cases made up 53% of those with respiratory diseases and in the 1962 study, pulmonary tuberculosis cases made up only 22% of those retired for respiratory diseases. The third most striking change is found in the increase in the number of cases of cancer of the respiratory system. In the 1948 study, cancers of the respiratory system made up 11% of the total number of cancer cases, whereas, in the 1957 study they made up 20% of the total number of cancer cases, and in the 1962 study, 22% of the total number of cancer cases found. As for the cardiovascular disability experience, very little change has taken place over the past 23 years. 03121408 7.