<< 
 Thank you....... I too have been dealing with cancer for a few years. I've 
been a tech for 25 years. We definately need a questionnaire for us oldies.  
NSH is the one to do it, or how about AFIP, whoever we need one done.  I for 
one would like to know how many others have the same cancer that I have, and 
what kind of histo labs they have worked in. Thank you for the idea.
 
 Barbara Stone
 Dermatology Associates
 Boca Raton, Fl.
 
 << Bob,
  
  Why don't you devise a questionnaire for us oldies to answer, say 50 years
  and over with questions such as:
  
  Which of the following chemicals have you been exposed to during your
  working career?
  
  Do you know of any fellow technicians who have contracted Ca attributed to
  chemical exposure + details?
  
  Cigarette smoking could also come into it.
  
  What is your current state of health and if not 100%, would you attribute
  this to chemical exposure?
  
  I have two years to go now to 65 and retirement and have worked in
  laboratories since I was 16 and am still hail and hearty.  Some of the
  chemicals I have worked with are a definite no no nowadays, maybe I am just
  lucky or its all in the genes.  I may be wrong but I imagine the results of
  such a survey would be positive and may go some way to reassure younger
  colleagues that there is not as much danger as one would imagine provided
  good laboratory working practices are in place.
  
  Jim.
  @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
  
  At 09:08 19/02/00 -0500, RSRICHMOND@aol.com wrote:
  >Donna Barlow at Duke University in North Carolina writes:
  >
  >>>We have technicians working in our surgical pathology lab that have had 
or 
  >are dealing with cancer. The cancers these people have dealt with  and are 
  >dealing with are breast cancer, colon, kidney, uterine, ovarian, and 
  >abdominal cancer.<<
  >
  >None of these cancers (with the possible exception of kidney) is thought 
to 
  >be related to exposure to environmental carcinogens. If people were 
getting 
  >cancers related to inhaled carcinogens, you'd expect cancers of the head 
and 
  >neck, lungs, and urinary bladder. To imply that these unfortunate people 
are 
  >developing cancer because they're exposed to laboratory chemicals raises 
  >needless anxiety among people who are exposed to them.
  >
  >Unfortunately, the facts are fewer than they should be. The AMA tracks
  causes 
  >of death of American physicians quite carefully. The causes of death of 
  >American pathologists don't differ from those of other physicians (whereas 
  >radiologists, at least the older generation, differ profoundly). It seems 
to 
  >me that that fact goes a long way to exonerate formaldehyde as a major 
human 
  >carcinogen, since pathologists probably get more formaldehyde exposure 
than 
  >anybody else in the average lab (well, at least  I do!)
  >
  >If there's a suspect carcinogen in the histology lab it's xylene (along 
with 
  >the closely related benzene and toluene). Here histotechnologists get more 
  >exposure than pathologists. Unfortunately, the causes of death of 
  >histotechnologists are not well documented. I think it would be a good 
idea 
  >for NSH to start collecting the death certificates of its members past and 
  >present, but only a minority of histotechs belong to NSH, and many people
  get 
  >several years of exposure, leave the field forever, and would thus be lost
  to 
  >such follow-up. (AMA tracks all American physicians, members or not.)
  >
  >Bob Richmond
  >Samurai Pathologist
  >Knoxville TN
  >
  >
  >
  Jim Hall,
  MDA Equipment Evaluator,
  Department of Histopathology,
  University College London Hospitals,
  Rockefeller Building,
  University Street,
  London, WC1E 6JJ.
  Tel.No. 0171 209 6042
  Fax 0171 387 3674
  
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