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Augwta Ncwi-lteview - September 19, INI •
Feds Warned State In 1972 Os Cancer Risk
Know What’s Happening In Your Community
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Page 2
The NAACP Is Proud to Join ]
Together... a great chorus against injustice
1
ADD YOUR VOICE
1
Solidarity Day—Sept. 19,1981—Washington, D.C.,
10 to 5 on the Mall ,
I
DEMONSTRATE against cuts in needed programs s
for jobs and justice ,
c
Jobs • Justice • Human Rights • Voting Rights • Justice • Human t
Rights • Voting Rights • Jobs • Human Rights • Voting Rights ’
• Jobs • Justice • Voting Rights • Jobs • Justice • Human Rights • t
c
1
zI v 1
/I \ c
SOLIDARITY
nnM ;
From The Atlanta Journal
State health officials
were informed as early as
April 1972 that workers at
an Augusta chemical plant
had been exposed to a
potent cancer-causing
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substance, but the state
failed to heed the warnings,
federal records indicate.
Dr. William M.
Johnson, a former NIOSH
investigator who checked on
conditions at the plant, the
Augusta Chemical Co.,
said he personally mailed
letters to the Richmond
County Health Department,
the then-state Department
of Health (now the
Department of Human
Resources) and the Medical
College of Georgia
Informing them of the
situation in 1972.
...." But I never got a
response from any of them,”
said Johnson in an
interview Tuesday. His
letters are now part erf
NIOSH's records.
Johnson’s letters
stated that several workers
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Waiur I
Boulevard
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had been exposed to the
chemical beta-napthylamine
(BNA), a substance used in
making dyes that had a
history of causing bladder
cancer and other problems.
The letters said the workers
should be monitored to
determine if they develop
the disorders.
‘‘A lot of people
apparently knew - or should
have known -for a long
time what the situation
was,” he said.
He puts the blame,
too, on the federal
government, which,
because of squabbling over
money and which agency is
responsible for what, let
the “workers fall through
the cracks.”
Johnson said he knows
of at least six former
workers at the plant who
have developed severe
bladder problems.
The National Institute
of Occupational Safety and
Health began a laborious
process this week of
notifying the workers of the
plant of their possible
exposure to the chemical,
and telling them of plans to
conduct tests to determine
if they are suffering ill
effects from the substance.
Nobody knows right
now how many workers at
Augusta chemical were
exposed to BNA but
estimates range from 300 to
1,100 men.
Also involved in the
program is the Richmond
County Health Department,
which has contracted with
NIOSH to- do -a medical
study of the former
workers, and the Medical
College of Georgia.
“But to my knowledge,
I never saw that letter (the
one written by Johnson in
1972),” said Dr. Maurice
G. Patton, director of the
Richmond Health
Department.
“I got here in June
1972, and everything was
pretty hectic here,” said
Patton, who added that the
letter could have gotten
misplaced in the shuffle.
“If I has seen the
letter, I would have
immediately forwarded it to
the state, because we
wouldn’t have had the
resources to do the
necessary work,” Patten
said.
But Johnson also
mailed a letter to state
officials, and never received
a response. A state official
said Tuesday that about the
time the letter was mailed,
the old state health
department was in the
process of being absorbed
into the newly created
Department of Human
Resources, and the letter
could have gotten
misplaced in the confusion.
Patton said he was
informed by NIOSH about
the situation in 1979, and
his office started working
Payne To Kickoff
Centennial
Paine College will kick Convocation at the Gilbert
off her Centennial Lambuth Memorial Chape
Celebration on Friday, The ceremony will begin al
Sept. 25, with an Opening 10 a.m. The speaker wil
be Dr. Julius S. Scott Jr.,
pres
'V'Cfi olluw my, the Opening
coibx-x.ili;Hl a
College:
v The History, the
KlltMl A Achievements and the
, Challenges” will be held at
odeum. Participants include
two Paine College alumni,
'tl Dr. W. Clyde Williams,
president of Miles College
and Dr. Elias Blake Jr.,
ADULTS ONLY ’resident of Clark College.
That evening, a dinner
ftiJl-a «S honoring Dr. Benjjamin E.
Mays, former President of
Morehouse College will be
I held at the Thunderbird
I Hotel at 7 p.m. The
I O speaker will be Bishop
Joseph ,
presiding prelate. sith
f'pis vai d>trict the
Christian Methodist
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on the problem then. He
said the study has not fully
guuen under way because
many contractual and
technical details first had to
be worked out.
“But I think we’re
ready now,” he said
Tuesday.
But now, seven of the
former workers at the plant
have joined in a class
action suit filed in
Richmond County Superior
Court against the chemical
company, charging the firm
with negligence and
seeking damages to be
dtermined by a jury trial.
The suit charges that
the company
“manufactured and placed
upon the market a toxic
chemical which it knew or
should have known” was a
health hazard, and it failed
to warn employees of the
hazards of the chemical’s
use.
The suit has been filed
against E.I. du Pont De-
Nemours and Synallory
Corp, doing business as
Augusta Chemical Co.
BNA has long been
recognized as a cause of
bladder cancer. As early as
1895 a strikingly high
incidence of bladder
tumors was described
among German dye plant
workers. In 1934, bladder
cancer was found in 25
workers who worked in a
BNA plant in the United
States, according to an
article m the Annals of the
New York Academy oc
Sciences co-written by
Johnson.
In 1963, 11 bladder
tumors were discovered in
workers at two small plants
in Pennsylvania, and, in
1965, 96 cases of the
malady were reported
among 366 workers in New
York.
European countries
banned the production of
the product. in the early
19505, ans several states in
this country followed suit
several years later.