Partnership For Prevention: The Insulation Industry Hygiene Research Program

Our plain-English summary of Partnership For Prevention: The Insulation Industry Hygiene Research Program, by I.J. Selikoff (1970).

The study

• Author: I.J. Selikoff
• Published: Industrial Medicine And Surgery 39(4):162-166, April (1970)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001409. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article described the Insulation Industry Hygiene Research Program. It reported no new mortality study, though it mentioned field tests and a survey. The author, the program's director, described a 1968 effort by Johns-Manville, the insulators' union, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the U.S. Public Health Service to cut dust exposure. The author recounted the group's earlier and continuing studies of New York union members, with one report then in press. The group traced 632 men who were union members on January 1, 1943, through 1962. Among these men with at least 20 years' exposure to asbestos and other insulating dusts, 255 had died, 52 more than expected. Of these, 12 were attributed to asbestosis, 42 to lung cancer and four to mesothelioma. Among 370 men alive in January 1963, 36 lung cancers developed by November 1, 1969, all but one among the 283 cigarette smokers. In a survey, only 4% of union members said they always wore masks on dusty jobs. The article described new respirators, cement mixing bags, dust-suppressing sprays and suction-fitted saws. The author suggested similar partnerships might help other industries.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Descriptive report on an industry, union, medical and government prevention program. It mentions field tests and a worker survey, and it recounts the author's group's earlier and continuing mortality research on insulation workers, which includes published papers and one report in press.
• Who was studied: Asbestos insulation workers. The mortality research covered 632 men who were members of the New York area locals of the insulation workers' union at the start of 1943. The program itself served about 18,000 unionized U.S. insulation workers, who were spread among about 850 employers.
• Exposure: Asbestos and other insulating dusts. Sources named were handling, sawing, mixing asbestos cement, spraying insulation, and waste disposal. The mortality figures are given for men with at least 20 years of exposure. No specific fiber types were named.
• Main results:
  • Of the 632 men traced through 1962, among those with at least 20 years of exposure to asbestos and other insulating dusts, there were 255 deaths. This was 52 more than expected from comparable U.S. mortality figures.
  • Among those deaths, 12 were due to asbestosis, 42 were attributed to lung cancer, and four were from mesothelioma.
  • With longer follow-up of the same 632 men, 300 had died, including 30 from asbestosis, 72 from lung cancer and 22 from mesothelioma. The end date of this follow-up is garbled in the scan.
  • Among the 370 men still alive in January 1963, 36 cases of lung cancer developed by November 1, 1969. All but one of these occurred among the 283 cigarette smokers.
  • The author wrote that this suggests the risk of dying of bronchogenic carcinoma among these workers who smoke cigarettes is 92 times that of men who neither smoke cigarettes nor work in the insulating industry.
  • Only 4% of union members surveyed said they always used a mask on a dusty job, and almost 30% said they never used such protection.
  • Pilot models of power saws fitted with suction attachments were described as nearly 100% efficient in dust prevention.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the partnership of labor, industry, science and government had proved useful, and that it might provide a key to similar partnerships in other industries with occupational health problems.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the goal of an effective, acceptable respirator had not yet been achieved. The first field tests, in spring 1969, revealed shortcomings.
  • The author stated that sampling for dust counts still needed refinement and that the minimum necessary dust level was not known.
  • The author stated there was some evidence of increased respiratory disease risk for other construction workers, but its extent and cause were unknown.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Johns-Manville, Insulator, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma, Respirator.

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