There are two histotechs here in OKC, that developed pituitary tumors. One
has had one reoccurrence the other three. They both have been in Histology
for many years and worked in poorly ventilated labs. Jenny

-----Original Message-----
From: Connie McManus [mailto:conmac@cc.usu.edu]
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 9:53 AM
To: Renton, Lousie, Mrs; histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Re: "Industrial" disease - anecdotal


I have only *heard* of histologist contracting serioius diseases but have
never actually known anyone to have done so.  I used to work as a QC
microbiologist for  a well known company that produces serum for vaccines,
biotechnology uses, ect. as well as tissue culture media.  I and nearly
everyone I worked with, several times a year were getting sick with cold or
flu-like symptoms that would last for 2 or 3 days, then be gone.  We
assayed the finished serum product for BVD virues, PI3, mycoplasma,
endotoxin, and did Coggins test for Equine encephalitis (I think that's
what it was for... long time since I worked there) and bioburden testing...
Everything turned up clean about 99% of the time, but who knows what other
kinds of viruses were lurking in the raw serum??  To the best of my
knowledge, none of us has turned up with cancer, hepatitis, TB or anything
really serious, just this annoying headache, body ache and upper
respiratory congestion that layed you flat for a couple of days.  

Connie McManus

At 09:54 AM 8/13/01 +0000, Renton, Lousie, Mrs wrote:
>On the subject of TB, I worked with 2 pathologists who had contracted
>it in their internship. Interestingly, both were strict vegetarians. 
>Strangely enough, we have not had any serious illness amongst the
>histotechnologists, apart from one case of Burkitt's lymphoma.
>The most serious complaints are migraines and stress realted 
>headaches
>The highest incidence of carcinomas was amonst our typsists - ovarian,
>lung and breast all featuring in the 20 odd years I worked in that lab. 
>
>They had no direct exposure to the specimens, and worked in a separate
typing pool.
>
>Louise Renton
>MRC 
>Johannesburg
>
>
>
>On 9 Aug 01, at 15:30, RSRICHMOND@aol.com wrote:
>
>> Tuberculosis used to be a major occupational risk for health care
>> workers of all sorts. Seventy to a hundred years ago, perhaps a third
>> of doctors and nurses contracted it, usually during their training,
>> and about a tenth died of it. It's really difficult for us to conceive
>> o
>
>

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