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From: Monona Rossol <0000030664c37427-dmarc-request**At_Symbol_Here**LISTS.PRINCETON.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Common industrial lab safety practices 1906-1930?
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2017 09:17:24 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 15ca6c05e97-4015-df8d**At_Symbol_Here**webprd-m20.mail.aol.com
In-Reply-To <008401d2e4b2$cdfe9190$69fbb4b0$**At_Symbol_Here**rochester.rr.com>
That almost makes me cry. Check that stash of papers. Without data, we can't fix things. Let me tell you an issue that burns my cork in regard to the benzidine dyes.
As you know, the difference between a dye and a pigment is not a very real one. It sort of depends on use so in general, colorants that dissolve in polar solvents like water are mostly dyes and those more likely to dissolve in oils are pigments. But many dyes are also used as pigments and vice versa. These will actually have two different Colour Index identifications, one for their pigment color and the other for their dye color/dye-use category.
But when the Benzidine rule was in place, the then manufacturer's trade association (DCMA, I think), the Arts and Creative Materials Association (ACMI)* and their consultants fought successfully to remove any benzidine "pigments" from the list based on the same phone principle used in so many toxicology decisions in the absence of testing, namely that water-insoluble chemicals go through the human body unchanged like grass through a goose, Time and time again, testing has showed this theory fails.
* had a different name back then.
Nonetheless, that 1983 NIOSH list of dyes does not contain the benzidine pigments. And those are still used in art materials and labeled by the same toxicologist (and now his son) as "nontoxic." Untested chemicals can all be labeled nontoxic under our laws -- even when they are in chemical classes that any normal person would consider suspect. And in fact, when one of these nontoxic benzidine pigments (PO 13) was used in extruded plastics, it was documented to release airborne 3,3-dichlorobenzidine -- a known carcinogen.
This is also one of many reasons I fight for disclosure of all dyes and pigments in children's art materials. Even the colorants in Crayola crayons are all trade secrets, and this should not be allowed. Even women who don't want their children exposed to food dyes should have a right to know if they are present in their kids' art materials.
And, there are benzidine dyes in the Colour Index Food Dye class. When the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1958 there were ~150 dyes in this class. After testing, only 5 of these ended up with FDA numbers (e.g.., FD&C 40). But the other 145 can still be called "Food Dyes!" And let me tell you, some manufacturers rely on using that C.I. Food Dye name to put consumers worries unjustifiably to rest.
All this could be fixed overnight if we just didn't allow chemicals for which there is no significant amount of chronic testing to be labeled "nontoxic." If people just grew up and faced the fact that most of the chemicals we use have never been tested for squat and stop relying on labeling plus use common sense to keep exposure to everything that isn't food to a minimum, we could improve the situation. And since children, by definition, don't have common sense, chemicals in products used by children should be tested.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Zavon <pzavon**At_Symbol_Here**ROCHESTER.RR.COM>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Wed, Jun 14, 2017 4:36 am
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Common industrial lab safety practices 1906-1930?
I'll have to check the papers I squirreled away when he was declining. I=E2=80™m not sure what I have from his benzidine dye project. I do know that he trashed the (nearly) personally identifiable files of those individuals who were studied. I'll always regret that I did not prevent that and got them to Eula Bingham for a final closeout review/paper.
Wow. Any records or letters from this time would be of historic significance. It wasn't until 1983 that NIOSH assembled a list of benzidine dyes in production at that time. So information on which dyes were used prior to then is all of interest.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
My father, with Eula Bingham as a younger toxicology assistant, demonstrated that benzidine-based dyes produce bladder cancer. They were looking at a group of people employed at a Cincinnati-based company that I believe eventually moved to New Jersey and became Toms River Chemical. They did their work in the late 50s and through the 60s as far as I can tell. Eula told me last week that they pushed to get their definitive paper out in the late 60s in anticipation of federal legislation that would create a national occupational safety and health agency.
My father in law was employed as an electrician at Allied Chemicals Buffalo Color in the 50s and 60s. They were the only site that made indigo dye for denim fabric. Benzidene based dye. He retired at 65 and barely made it to 69 when he died of cancer at multiple organ sites. They could not determine the first site
You might look at the orginal version of Alice Hamilton.M.D.'s (I think 1928) called "Exploring the Dangerous Trades". I'll bet you could find a re-issed version on Amazon.
She was actually the "mother" of Occupational Medicine in the US, the first Woman to be on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, and came from Indiana (not too far from where I gew up and went to medical school). A fascinating read about the time when workers and employers seemed to accept that work just wore out workers and this was acceptable (NOT!).
I believe there was some discussion of the munitions and dye industries in there. It's been some time since I read it in full.
Then her collaboration with Elizabeth Hardy (who began what we know know of berrylium toxicty) and thier early publications might yield some insights.
Although not in the realm of dye chemistry, an excellent book on the state of industrial product versus the discounting of the employee is the
And in 1936, the primary cancer may not have arisen in the liver. Research also the status of cancer research in 1936 to examine the assumption that the cancer was actually liver cancer.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Common industrial lab safety practices 1906-1930?
Azo dyes and other chemicals used for various purposes in the textile industries have long been linked to excesses in cancer (although liver cancer is not predominate).. There is a study from IARC (http://www.inchem.org/documents/iarc/vol48/48-13.html) from 1990 that provides a bit of information. My suspicion is that it was more than just lab safety that may have had an effect on your relative. I would guess (but do not know) that the factory workers were at greater risk than the lab workers.
I am sure some others can share their understanding.
S.Z. Mansdorf, PhD, CIH, CSP, QEP
Consultant in EHS and Sustainability
With the wisdom of this listserve, I bet a few of you may provide some information on this topic..
A family member is writing a history of a relative who was a Harvard-educated dye chemist at a New England textile firm from 1906 until about 1930. At that time his health began to deteriorate and he "retired" from chemistry. He died in 1936 of liver cancer at 51 years of age.
Both she and I know it is highly speculative to associate his work and poor health, but she wonders what laboratory safety precautions might have been in common industrial use during that time. Do you know?
When I worked at the University of Wisconsin, a retired chemistry professor there told me that his first "gas mask" was purchased from army surplus prior to WW II. In my career, I've helped remodel labs with functional fume hoods dating from the 1920s. Were masks, gloves, hoods, etc. in common use in industrial labs between 1906 and 1930?
Perhaps there is a book that traces this safety history. If so, I'd appreciate hearing about it
Director, Office of Environmental Health & Safety
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