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Re: How Many of These Men Died of LIver Cancer?
Author: BOB2
Date: 12-04-2014 - 16:30
There are lots of studies on specific toxins and carcinogens, for exposure and risks. But not a lot on these exposed populations, except for things like Asbestos. No one did baselines and no one really knew to monitor these things. And, then some of these places were using so many toxics, so there isn't really any "control" group, exposed to one thing and not to others.
Some of the first studies on diesel particulate exposure I saw were in the late 70's, from Sweden, if I recall. No one took it very seriously back then, that the NOx in the fog that would burn your skin and peel the paint off your car at Taylor, might be bad for you....?
I once bid the Johns Mansville job at Dolorers for a week, before bidding off as fast as I could. We switched American Chem (vinyl chloride) without protection, while their guys were wearing space suits, then we went over and switched blocks of hoppers at John Mansville, with air, blowing dust, with every cut. At that time they were killing about one guy a month at John Mansville from lung cancer.
A friend recently died from mesothelioma (asbestos lung cancer) he picked up in the Navy in WWII, finally succumbing, at the ripe old age of 95. So exposure, plus a whole lot of other factors, even luck, do apparently matter.
There were a lot of old timers who had a lot of breathing and other problems. How much of that is from RRing, or smoking, or mining coal, or breathing city air, who knows, on a specific case. A lot of these guys breathed and even ate a lot of fumes, or aspirated oil (from air brakes that vented into the cab), or were exposed to asbestos lagging, or electrical insulation, often frayed and exposed.
These are the new good old days, though. When most of the old folks I know, have fully insurance covered corrective neck surgery from spending years hanging their heads out of a modern engine following a bobbing lantern around at night, and making hard joints.....causing repetitive stress.
As Rosanna Rosannadanna used to say, "it's always something".
Some of the first studies on diesel particulate exposure I saw were in the late 70's, from Sweden, if I recall. No one took it very seriously back then, that the NOx in the fog that would burn your skin and peel the paint off your car at Taylor, might be bad for you....?
I once bid the Johns Mansville job at Dolorers for a week, before bidding off as fast as I could. We switched American Chem (vinyl chloride) without protection, while their guys were wearing space suits, then we went over and switched blocks of hoppers at John Mansville, with air, blowing dust, with every cut. At that time they were killing about one guy a month at John Mansville from lung cancer.
A friend recently died from mesothelioma (asbestos lung cancer) he picked up in the Navy in WWII, finally succumbing, at the ripe old age of 95. So exposure, plus a whole lot of other factors, even luck, do apparently matter.
There were a lot of old timers who had a lot of breathing and other problems. How much of that is from RRing, or smoking, or mining coal, or breathing city air, who knows, on a specific case. A lot of these guys breathed and even ate a lot of fumes, or aspirated oil (from air brakes that vented into the cab), or were exposed to asbestos lagging, or electrical insulation, often frayed and exposed.
These are the new good old days, though. When most of the old folks I know, have fully insurance covered corrective neck surgery from spending years hanging their heads out of a modern engine following a bobbing lantern around at night, and making hard joints.....causing repetitive stress.
As Rosanna Rosannadanna used to say, "it's always something".
