Rubber Industry Cancer Investigation 1970s US OSHA

The production of rubber products, including automobile tires, automotive and appliance moldings, and rubber gloves, involves subjecting mixtures of hundreds of chemicals to heat, pressure, and catalytic action during a variety of manufacturing processes. As a result, the work environment may be contaminated with dusts, gases, vapors, fumes, and chemical byproducts (such as N-nitrosamines, the focus of this clip). Workers may be exposed to these hazards through inhalation and skin absorption during rubber processing and product manufacturing. Physical hazards such as noise, repetitive motion, and lifting may also be present. Health scientists have been challenged to define these exposures and work conditions when investigating the health of rubber products workers.

Several types of cancer have been the chronic disease most frequently reported in occupational health studies of rubber workers. In the late 1940s, British rubber workers were reported to be at increased risk of bladder cancer from exposure several amine chemicals. In the United States, investigations by Dr. Thomas Mancuso in 1968 revealed excess cancer deaths among a group of Ohio rubber workers employed in 1938 and 1939; these investigators recommended additional studies of U.S. rubber workers. In 1970, the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America (URW -- now merged into the United Steelworkers Union) joined with six major American rubber companies to establish a joint occupational health program. A contract was negotiated with the Schools of Public Health at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina to conduct epidemiologic studies of rubber workers that emphasized cancer incidence and mortality. A large number of published and unpublished reports were produced as a result of these studies until the program was discontinued in 1980. For more details, see the SPECIAL NIOSH HAZARD REVIEW: Rubber Products Manufacturing Industry, 1993 at http://www.cdc.gov/Niosh/rubberhr.html . This clip is from the 1980 OSHA film, Worker to Worker.

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• Rubber
• worker
• URW
• USW
• NIOSH
• OSHA
• industrial
• hygiene
• cancer
• nitrosamines
• health
• hazard
• carcinogen
• tire