Industrial Hygicnists Meet at Buffalo A S i A l ί· 11Κ PORT ML ULL Health for All Men and Women in Industry" was the designated purpose of the recent joint meeting in Buffalo, Ν. Υ., of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and four other industrial health organizations. The week-long con vention which began April 2(> included meetings of the American Association of In dustrial Physicians and Surgeons, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, the American As sociation of Industrial Nurses, Inc., and the American Association of Industrial Dentists. Highlight of the AIHA program was the annual Donald E. Cuminings Memorial Lecture, delivered by YV. P. Yant, director of research and development of the Mine Safety Appliances Co. Dr. Yant reviewed the origin of the association which had as one of its main purposes the "free exchange of information on exposure and industrial hazards". Dr. Yant claimed that al though it is understandable that a certain amount of rivalry exists among the various industrial health and safety groups, they are separated by large "twilight zones" without clear-cut definitions of interest. Dr. Yant declared "much has been said about the training of industrial physicians but little about that of industrial hygien ists". He believed that the purist type of thinking should not determine the curricu lum of the industrial hygienists because the AIHA must welcome the infusion of other professional fields if it is to progress. The prevailing thought about the training of the industrial hygienist is to impose the training upon the already burdened cur ricula of other technical fields. This he said results in too much "stuffing" of the courses without attention being given to an over-all integration of the subject matter. Dr. Yant lamented the emphasis given to the philosophy of "safety first" which in his opinion should be shifted to a doc trine of "production with safety" which would inspire more confidence by industry in the industrial hygienist. Too often the economic factor has been needlessly over looked by hygienists in industry in their sincere attempts at safety. Good teachers, texts, and research pro grams are required before the training of industrial hygienists can be accomplished efficiently, and to prove his point the Cummings Lecturer challenged anyone from the floor to mention a field of produc tion in which a basic research program on industrial hygiene is not needed. The promise that stable and radioactive isotopes hold for the field of industrial toxicology when used as tracers was dis cussed in the paper by J. II. Sterner, di rector of the laboratory of industrial hy giene, Eastman Kodak Co.
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Care and discretion must be exercised, Dr. Sterner warned, in the selection of the proper isotope for a given investigation. With the radioactive material, this is doubly important because of the» haz.-inl lo the subject, either lower animal or human, and the possibility of contamina tion of the out ire area. The speaker revealed several installées in which the tagging of compounds had solved toxicological problems that had long defied routine analytical methods. One was the use of radioactive phosphorus to measure the absorption through human skin of hazardous amounts of triorthocresyl phosphate, and another the effective isolation of metabolic products of trinitrotoluene absorption. Elaborations of the range-finding toxicity test were presented by IL Κ. «Mnyth and C.P. Carpenter of the Mellon Institute. The authors pointed out that the purpose of a range-finding test is mainly that of a preliminary screening out of those materi als that are condemnable immediately. One of the failures of their earlier paper on the subject, the authors admitted, was the fact that it did not present any cri terion of chronic toxicity. This, they be lieve, they have remedied by incorporating the sample in an adequate rat diet and measuring the effect of the material upon
the increase in the body weight, induction of appetite, death, and micropathology of various organs of the test animal. The session on environmental control occasioned presentation of several paprrs on dust and vapor expos inc. Leslie Silverman and V.,\. Viles of the II cirvar*! School of Public Health discussed the general improvement that has taken place in the ventilation of textile mills. In ad dition to furnishing bolter working condi tions adequate textile mill ventilation im proves the elo.mliness of the final pr*odnct. William Λ. Stalker, of the Kentucky State Department of Health, revealed that "metal fume fever", an occupational ail ment of the brass foundry, is rapidly being extinguished by t h e installation of ventilating hoods around furnaces and metal pouring stations o f many fooxidries. The uranium dioxide dust problem of atomic energy plants was discusse-d in a paper by II. ('. I lodge, Charles Lo Hello, Sidney Laskin, and Ascr liothstcin of the University of Uoehestcr in the symposium on particle size. The» authors cinpriasixcri that, as with most dusts, the size of the particle of the uranium compound is an im portant criterion of its toxicity, the micro scopic sizes being the more dangerous.
Right. W. P. Yant, Mine Safety Ap pliances Co,, delivers Cu minings Memorial Lecture. Below, standing: C. E. Brown, Bureau of Mines; J. H. Sterner, Eastman Kodak Co,, new president-elect; A. D. Brandt, Bethle hem Steel Co. Seated: R. A. Kehoe, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati; T. F. Hatch, Industrial Hygiene Foundation and new presi dent of AIHA; F. A. Patty, General Motors Corp., retiring preside tit
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