Journal of Occupational Medicine

Kindwall, Eric P.

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Kurt, Thomas L.

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Smolensky, Michael

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Collings, G H

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Levine, Richard J.

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Risk indicators for asbestos-related diseases (cancers of the lung, larynx, and alimentary tract; mesothelioma; and asbestosis) and methods of early detection are reviewed and evaluated. The best medical means of reducing mortality from these diseases is to recognize particularly susceptible persons during a preemployment examination and to recommend that they not be hired for jobs involving asbestos exposure. Workers necessarily exposed to asbestos should be enrolled in a medical screening program and urged not to smoke.

Hinds, M Ward

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Mesothelioma is a rare neoplasm, the occurrence of which has been clearly related to asbestos exposure. Data recently collected by population based cancer registries in Washington, Hawaii, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan, Utah, Louisiana and Iowa were obtained for the determination of mesothelioma incidence rates. These registries represent a total population of over 16 million persons. Crude incidence rates were found to range from 3.0 to 7.1 per million per year. Age specific incidence rates showed a steady increase from the third through the eighth decade, with a more rapid increase for males than females. Sex specific incidence rates, age adjusted to the 1970 U.S. population, were found to range from 4.4 to 11.1 per million per year for males and from 1.2 to 3.8 per million per year for females. The highest rates for both males and females were found in the New Orleans area of Louisiana and the Puget Sound area of Washington state, both with significant shipbuilding activity.

Fraumeni, J F

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The geographic location of 18 major manufacturing industries within the United States is illustrated by a series of computer-generated county maps. The metal and machinery industries, the two largest employers, and the transportation and rubber industries are concentrated in the northeastern quadrant of the United States, while most counties with textile, apparel, tobacco, and furniture manufacturing are in the South. Other industries had different patterns. The counties where industry was concentrated tended to be more urban and to have higher levels of income and education. The maps and associated demographic data on industrial counties may prove a useful adjunct to county maps illustrating mortality patterns for cancer and other diseases. Despite obvious limitations, the visual patterns and correlation analyses may help to generate and formulate hypotheses concerning occupationally induced disease.

Hart, Joseph W.

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The prevention of low back injuries in industry has traditionally been attempted by (1) careful selection of workers, (2) good training in safe lifting, and (3) designing the job to fit the worker (ergonomics). One hundred ninety-one low back injuries were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of each preventive approach. The results indicate that the common selection techniques, as they are being used today, are not an effective control for low back injuries. Similarly, training on safe lifting procedures, as it is being administered today, is not an effective control for low back injuries. It was determined that a worker is three times more susceptible to low back injury if exposed to excessive manual handling tasks. The ergonomic redesign of these tasks to reduce the manual handling exposure represents a partial control for low back injuries.

Anderson, Richard

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An apparent excess of abnormal urine cytological findings in crime laboratory workers exposed to potentially carcinogenic aromatic amines was investigated by a cross-sectional epidemiologic study comparing these workers with an unexposed control group. The prevalence of atypical findings in the laboratory workers exceeded that in the control group; however, the results were not statistically significant. A number of serious problems were identified including a high prevalence of inflammatory changes (25% to 26%) and a moderately high percentage of atypical changes (2.5% to 5.4%) in the control population, failure to detect (on urological workup) evidence of neoplastic disease of the urinary tract in any of the laboratory workers whose urine examinations were cytologically interpreted as either atypical or neoplastic cells, and difficulty in determining proper referral criteria for urological workup.