Doctor gives view on asbestos risk

Press, 16 July 1983, Page 7

Doctor gives view on asbestos risk

PA Hamilton The health risk from asbestos in New Zealand is probably far less than from breathing other people’s cigarette smoke, according to a Health Department senior doctor. “In comparison with other things I do not think asbestos poses much risk in New Zealand,” the Public Health Division’s deputy director, Dr John Stoke, has said. His comment came after a flood of concerned inquiries to district health officers after a recent television programme on asbes-tos-caused deaths overseas. Health Department statistics list six deaths in New Zealand from asbestosis and 35 from mesothelioma in the last seven years. Asbestosis is a chronic lung disease caused by inhaling asbestos dust; mesothelioma is an asbestos-caused cancer of the lung or gut. It was suspected that a number of those who died from asbestos-related causes were exposed to absestos dust overseas, he said. An independent consultant radiologist, Dr Paul White, says that five of the 353 workers at James Hardie, Ltd, have asbestosis. Dr White said yesterday that of the 353' workers whose X-rays were sent to New York for analysis he had found that five had asbestosis. The Engineers’ Union’s health and safety division sent the X-rays to a New York doctor, Professor Irving Selikoff, for analysis. Professor Selikoff found lung abnormalities in 52 of the cases, but Dr White said

that after studying the cases himself he believed only five had asbestosis. Dr White was highly critical of the union’s handling of the James Hardie workers’ cases. “Many of the 353 workers are Cook Islanders who do not speak English. The union took them to the lounge of the Onehunga pub, lined them up and gave them their New York medical reports in envelopes. “Of these, 300-odd were thin envelopes and about 50 thick. They were then shown the film which was screened on television on Tuesday evening, ‘Alice — A Fight For Life.’ “Their reports were gobbledogook to • the average New Zealander, unspecific and open to (different) interpretation.” Dr White, who emphasised that he was an independent consultant radiologist and did not speak for James Hardie, Ltd, said that he had written to each of the 52 workers. “I asked each to see his own doctor and if he wanted to see me and discuss X-ray reports, the company has agreed to pay the cost of these consultations.” There was no question that asbestos was a hazardous material and should be treated with care. “Asbestos, even by Professor Selikoff’s figures, is only half as risky as cigarette smoking. There is no question that the combination of cigarette smoking and working with asbestos is much more hazardous than either smoking alone or just working with asbestos?;