How everyday products make people sick: Toxins at home and in the workplace, updated and expanded

How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace, Updated and Expanded

Volumn , Issue , 2009, Pages

  Blanc, Paul ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84887692713     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (398)

1. "Industrial Disease" by Mark Knopfler, © 1982 by Chariscourt Ltd. All rights in the United States administered by Almo Music Corp./ASCAP. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
2. Additional background on the West Virginia silicosis episode can be found in Martin Cherniack, The Hawk's Nest Incident: America's Worst Industrial Disaster (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986).
3. "Silicosis Blues," Josh White ©. Used with permission. The song was originally issued under the name of PinewoodTom in 1936.
4. See also Josh White, The Josh White Song Book (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1963), 104-105.
5. For a similar case report of a mercury-impacted appendix and a review of the literature, see Patrick E. McKinney, "Elemental Mercury in the Appendix: An Unusual Complication of a Mexican-American Folk Remedy," Journal of Toxicology Clinical Toxicology 37 (1999): 103-107.
6. Randall Lutter, Valuing Children's Health: A Reassessment of the Benefits of Lower Lead Levels (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies [Working Paper 00-2], March 2000). The body of the report is ten pages with three additional pages of references. The quoted text is from the report's executive summary.
7. Neil Kensington Adam, The Pollution of the Sea and Shore by Oil: A Report Submitted to the Council of the Royal Society: For Private Circulation Only (London: Harrison and Sons, December 1936)
8. the quotations that follow in the text are from page 6. The only copies that I have identified in public collections are at the University College London and the London School of Economics.
9. Fisheries Preservation Association, On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom ([London]: Fisheries Preservation Association, 1868).
10. See also a some what later publication: Vincent B. Barrington-Kennett, River Pollution By Refuse fom Manufacturies and Mines Together with Some Remedies Proposed (London: William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1883).
11. Philip Drinker, "Atmospheric Pollution," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 31 (1939): 1316-1320, quotation from 1318.
12. W. P. D. Logan published one of the first reports of the 1952 London Fog: Logan, "Mortality in the London Fog Incident, 1952," Lancet{\\ February 1953): 336-338.
13. Three years before 1952 Logan had reported another similar but less extreme episode: W. P. D. Logan, "Fog and Mortality," Lancet (8 January 1949): 78.
14. Jean Firket, "Fog along the Meuse Valley," Transactions of the Faraday Society 32 (1936): 1192-1197.
15. Jonathan Ribner, "The Politics of Pollution," in TurnerWhistlerMonet: Impressionist Visions, ed. Katharine Jordan Lochnan, contr. Luce Abeles et al. (London: Tate Publishing, 2004), 51-63, 236-238.
16. The recent scholarly work of Stephen Mosley, Chimney of the World (Cambridge: White Horse Press, 2001), provides a detailed account of air pollution in Manchester, England, in the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
17. See also Stephen Mosley, "Fresh Air and Foul: The Role of the Open Fireplace in Ventilating the British Home, 1837-1910," Planning Perspectives 18 (2003): 1-21.
18. The early history of air pollution is covered in Peter Brimblecombe, The Big Smoke: A History of Air Pollution in London since Medieval Times (London: Methuen, 1987).
19. See also Paul D. Blanc and Jay A. Nadel, "Clearing the Air: The Links between Occupational and Environmental Air Pollution Control," Public Health Revues 22 (1994): 251-270.
20. John Evelyn, Fumifugium: or, the Inconvenience of the Aer, and Smoake of London Dissipated, 2nd ed. (London: B. White, 1772). The first edition of 1661 was printed by W Godbid for the publishers Gabriel Bedel and Thomas Collins.
21. John Evelyn, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, ESQ. ER.S. (London: Henry Colburn, 1818), vol. 2, 66 (diary entry for 25 November 1699).
22. Evelyn, Fumifugium, 19.
23. "H. W Johns' Patent Asbestos Materials," printed full-page advertisement, Godey's Lady's Book Magazine, 1878 (collection of the author).
24. W. E. Cooke, "Fibrosis of the Lungs Due to the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust," British Medical Journal {z% July 1924): 127 (with a special plate).
25. "Section of Preventive Medicine," British Medical Journal (6 August 1927): 216-217. The British Medical Association meeting took place on 21 July 1927 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
26. Theodore Dreiser, Tragic America (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931). Occupational diseases, including asbestosis, are discussed on pages 19 and 196.
27. The Index Medicus first began listing asbestosis in its July-December 1927 volume, but only as a cross-reference to the index heading "pneumoconiosis." It was not until i960 that a separate full index entry appeared.
28. Paul Brodeur, Expendable Americans (New York: Viking Press, 1974).
29. An excellent review and bibliography on the current and historical aspects of the medical literature regarding cumulative trauma disorders are provided in Allard Denbe, Occupation and Disease: How Social Factors Affect the Conception of Work-Related Disorders (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996).
30. Ralph Barnes Grindrod, The Slaves of the Needle; an Exposure of the Distressed Condition, Moral and Physical, of Dress-Makers, Milliners, Embroiderers, Slop Workers, &c. (London: William Britain and Charles Gilpin, 1845).
31. The pamphlet cites in full Thomas Hood's poem "Song of the Shirt."
32. The weaver's lament is quoted in Kate Fitz Gibbon, Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia from the Guido Goldman Collection (London: Laurence King Publishing, 1999), 89, citing, in turn
33. Viktor M. Beliaev, Central Asian Music (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1975), 179.
34. The symptoms described are consistent with "tarsal tunnel syndrome," the ankle-related equivalent of carpal tunnel wrist injury.
35. For additional details of the nosology of trade disorders, such as chauffeur's knee, see Martin G. Cherniack, "Diseases of Unusual Occupations: An Historical Perspective," in Unusual Occupational Diseases, Occupational Medicine State of the Art Reviews, ed. Dennis J. Shusterman and Paul D. Blanc (Philadelphia: Hanley and Belfus, 1992), vol. 7, 369-384.
36. The earliest English-language report of repetitive-use nerve injury (trade palsies) is in Christopher Robert Pemberton, A Practical Treatise on Various Diseases of the Abdominal Viscera (London: W Bulmer and Co., 1806), 157-158.
37. On Neolithic period cumulative trauma, see Theya Molleson, "The Eloquent Bones of Abu Hureyra: The Daily Grind in an Early Near Eastern Agricultural Community Left Revealing Marks on the Skeletons of the Inhabitants," Scientific American (August 1994): 70-75.
38. Henry E. Sigerist, "The Wesley M. Carpenter Lecture: Historical Background of Industrial and Occupational Diseases," Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 12, ser. 2 (1936): 597-609. Sigerist is quoting Papyrus Sal-lier II (also known as the Satire of Trades), column VI, lines 1-3, and column VII, lines 2-4. For a complete variant translation, see www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/literature/satiretransl.html (14 January 2006).
39. Bruce Bernard, editor of the NIOSH document, and Anne Mavor, study director for the Institute of Medicine report, also provided me with additional background information on the political context of these projects.
40. These numbers are based on a review of the PubMed (National Library of Medicine) database.
41. Antonio Gazio (Antonius Gazius), Aerarium Sanitatis (Padua, Italy: J. Fabrianus, 1549).
42. The Latin text cited in the original reads: "Pectori et pul-monaria contraria: Aer omnis malus, borealis, fumosus, pulverulentus, locus in-clusus cavernosis, praefertim, qui juxta fornaces, inquibus metallica sunt, & ex-ercentur opera. Fumus carbonum, loga apud ignem mora & converfatio. Incessus sub lunae radiis. Exhalatio, que ex horreis diu primu et mox apertis occurrit."
43. Andrew Wynter, "Mortality in Trades and Professions," in Curiosities of Civilization Reprinted from the "Quarterly" & "Edinburgh" Reviews, 2nd ed. (London: Robert Hardwicke, 1860), 499-535 (article reprinted from Edinburgh Review [January 1860]).
44. Lewis W. Leeds, Lectures on Ventilation: Being a Course Delivered in the Franklin Institute, ofPhiladelphia, During the Winter of 1866-67 (New York: John Wiley and Son, 1868).
45. George T Palmer, "What Fifty Years Have Done for Ventilation," in A Half Century of Public Health: Jubilee Historical Volume of the American Public Health Association, in Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of its Foundation, New York City, November 14-18, 1921, ed. Mazyck P. Ravenel (New York: American Public Health Association, 1921), 335-360, quotations from 359-360.
46. K. Nishiyama and J. Y Johnson, "Karoshi-Death from Overwork: Occupational Health Consequences of Japanese Production Management," International Journal of Health Services!'/ (1997): 625-641.
47. Vopiscus Fortunatus Plemp, De Togatorum Valetudine Tuenda Commen-tatio (Brussels: Francisci Foppens, 1670).
48. Bernardino Ramazzini cites this in relation to the indoor air hazards of tallowwax candle fumes. See Ramazzini, Diseases of Workers: The Latin Text 0/1713 Revised, with Translation and Notes by Wilmer Cave Wright (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), 402-405.
49. Aside from mental strain, the ill effects of indoor air were also invoked as an argument against sedentary occupations. See W. A. Pearkes, Popular Observations on the Diseases of Literary and Sedentary Persons (London: W. Pearman, 1819), 32
50. "The confined air which men shut up in studies, counting-houses, manufactories &c. are continually breathing may be reckoned as another cause of disease, and to which too little attention is paid."
51. S. A. Tissot, An Essay on the Disorders of People of Fashion; and a Treatise on the Diseases Incident to Literary and Sedentary Persons, trans. James Kirk-patrick (Edinburgh: A. Donaldson, 1772).
52. Ramazzini, Diseases of Workers, 381.
53. S. Weir Mitchell, Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overworked (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1871), 47.
54. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published years after her treatment by Mitchell.
55. See Charlotte Perkins Stetson, "The Yellow Wall-paper," New England Magazine 5, n.s. (January 1892): 647-656.
56. See also Elaine R. Hedges, afterword to The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1973), 37-63
57. and Kenneth Levin, "S. Weir Mitchell: Investigations and Insights into Neurasthenia and Hysteria," Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 38, ser. 4 (1970-71): 168-173.
58. The view that literary pursuits posed an occupational hazard was not universally shared. In discussing work-related diseases, Benjamin Ward Richardson, a leading British figure in the Victorian public health movement, noted, "Concerning those who follow poetry as an art, we have heard much said,-a vast deal more, I take it, than was ever true,-as to their sufferings."
59. See Richardson, Diseases of Modern Life (London: Macmillan and Co., 1876), 410.
60. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Cambridge, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 6.
61. Karl Marx, "Debatten über das Holzdiebstahlsgesetz" (On the law on the theft of wood), Rheinische Zeitung 298 (supplement) (25 October 1842).
62. Harriet Martineau, The Factory Controversy; A Warning Against Meddling Legislation . . . Issued by the National Association of Factory Occupiers, 13, Corporation Street, Manchester (Manchester, England: A. Ireland and Co., 1855), 25.
63. Martineau, The Factory Controversy, 29.
64. A. J. Lanza and Joseph H. White, How a Miner Can Avoid Some Dangerous Diseases,Miners' Circular 20 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1916)
65. "Rock Dust," 24-25
66. quoted passage, 25.
67. For the life expectancy of grinders, see Andrew Wynter, "Mortality in trades and professions," Curiosities of Civilization Reprinted from the "Quarterly" & "Edinburgh" Reviews, 2nd ed. (London: Robert Hardwick, 1860), 499-535.
68. Henry J. Bigelow, "Necrosis of the Maxillary Bones; of the Nasal Plates; and of the Sella Turcica, resulting from the Fumes of Phosphorous,"
69. reported in W. W. Morland, "Extracts from the Records of the (Boston) Society for Medical Improvement from its January 26, 1852 Meeting," American Journal of Medical Sciences 24, n.s. (1852): 82-83.
70. John B. Andrews, "Phosphorous Poisoning in the Match Industry in the United States," United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 86 (January 1910): 31-146.
71. House Committee on Ways and Means, Hearings on Bill (61), HR 26540, 29469, 30022, 61st Cong., 3rd sess., 16 December 1910 and 20 January 1911
72. Hearings on Bill (62), HR 22896, 62nd Cong., 2nd sess., 10 January 1912.
73. Herbert Spencer, Social Statics, or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of them Developed (London: John Chapman, 1851).
74. John Tierney, "Best Incentive to Make Sure Workers Don't Get Hurt: Money," New York Times, 9 March 2001.
75. The summary of events is based on my own experience with the Film Recovery Systems case. See Paul D. Blanc et al., "Cyanide Intoxication among Silver-Reclaiming Workers," JAMA 253 (1985): 367-371.
76. Kaufman, "Bessie Cohen."
77. OSHA's gift of the charred doors from Imperial Food Products was reported in "Work Week: OSHA's Quarter-Century Inspires a Poignant Gift to a Museum," Wall Street Journal, 30 April 1996.
78. The nitropropane sealant death is reported in Robert Harrison, Gideon Letz, Gary Pasternak, and Paul D. Blanc, "Fulminant Hepatic Failure after Occupational Exposure to 2-Nitropropane," Annals of Internal Medicine 107 (1987): 466-468.
79. Cyril Aldred, "Fine Wood-Work," in A History of Technology, vol. 1: From Early Times to the Fall of Empires, ed. Charles Singer et al. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954), 695, 696.
80. The Egyptian use of glue is covered in far greater detail in the very first chapter ("Adhesives") of Alfred Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, rev. by J. E. Harris, 4th ed. (London: Histories and Mysteries of Man, Ltd., 1989), 1-9.
81. The instructions on medieval glue making are quested from Robert Hendrie, An Essay Upon Various Arts in Three Books, by Theophilus, Called also Rugerus, Priest and Monk, Forming an Encyclopaedia of Christian Art of the Eleventh Century (London: John Murray, 1847), 23, 43.
82. Charles Turner Thackrah, The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions, and of Civic States and Habits of Living on Health and Longevity, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1832), 59-60.
83. For technical background on gums, resins, and latex, see "Gums and mucilages," "Resins (natural)," and "Rubber (natural)," in Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, ed. Douglas M. Considine and Glenn D. Considine, 7th ed. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989), 1389-1391, 2426-2428, 2486-2488, respectively.
84. A recent popular biography of William Perkin also provides useful context. See Simon Garfield, Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World (London: Faber and Faber, 2000).
85. L. Snelling, "A Preliminary Report of Some Cases of Purpura Haemorrhagica Due to Benzol Poisoning," Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital 21 (February 1910): 33-37, quotation from 34.
86. Snelling, "A Preliminary Report of Some Cases of Purpura Haemorrhagica Due to Benzol Poisoning," 37 (both text quotation and footnote). Occupational Diseases, Brussels, 1910, author's collection).
87. V. H. Veley, "An Examination of the Physical and Physiological Properties of Tetrachlorethane and Trichlorethylene," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character 82 (1910): 217-225, quotation from 217.
88. Karl B. Lehmann, "Expirementelle Studien über den Einfluss technisch und hygienisch wichtiger Gas und Dampfe auf den Organismus (XVI-XXIII)," Archiv für Hygiene 74 (1911): 1-60.
89. Anonymous, "A Fatal Case of Poisoning by Tetrachloride of Ethane," 1491.
90. P. Delore and [C.] Borgomano, "Leucémie aiguë au cours de l'intoxication benzénique: Sur l'origine toxique de certaines leucémies aiguës et leurs relations avec le anémies graves," Journal de Médecine de Lyon 9 (1928): 227-233
91. quotation from 233, "cette possibilité est bien connue por la radiothérapie."
92. The key Semon patent for B. F. Goodrich was U.S. Patent 1,929,453 (10 October 1933). See S. L. Brous and W. L. Semon, "Koroseal, a New Plastic," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 27 (1935): 667-672
93. For biographical details on Semon, see Jon Marmor, "Waldo Semon-He Helped Save the World," Columns: The University of Washington Alumni Magazine (September 1999), www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/sept99/semon.html (15 May 2003)
94. See also "Milestones," Time, vol. 153, 7 June 1999, 27.
95. Enrico C. Vigliani and Giulio Saita, "Benzene and Leukemia," New England Journal of Medicine 271 (1964): 872-876
96. quotation from 875. For biographical details on Vigliani, see the series of memorial comments that appeared as "La Scomparsa del Prof. Enrico Vigliani," Medicina del Lavoro 83 (1992): 4-17.
97. Ludwig Rehn, "Blasengeschwültse bei Fuchsin-Arbeitern," Archiv für Klinische Chirurgie 50 (1895): 588-600.
98. John L. Creech and Maurice N. Johnson, "Angiosarcoma of the Liver in the Manufacture of Polyvinyl Chloride" (Special Communication), Journal of Occupational Medicine 16 (March 1974): 150-151, quotation from 150.
99. Henry Falk, John L. Creech Jr., Clark W. Heath Jr., Marice N. Johnson, and Marcus M. Key, "Hepatic Disease among Workers at a Vinyl Chloride Polymerization Plant," JAMA 230 (October 1974): 59-63, quotation from 59. As senior author, Dr. Key is listed last.
100. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), IARCMonographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Man, vol. 7 (Lyon, France: IARC, 1974).
101. Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO v. American Petroleum Institute et al., 448 U.S. 607, Supreme Court of the United States (1980), decided 2 July 1980.
102. Yasuhiro Yamamura, "n-Hexane Polyneuropathy," Folia Psychiatrica et Neurologica Japonica 23 (1969): 45-57, quotation from 45.
103. Allan Herskowitz, Nobuyoshi Ishii, and Herbert Schaumburg, "n- Hexane Neuropathy: A Syndrome Occurring as a Result of Industrial Exposure," New England Journal of Medicine 285 (1971): 82-85.
104. Donald Katz, Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World (New York: Random House, 1994), 71. Bowerman's illness is misprinted in this source as a "narapathy."
105. Javad Towfighi et al., "Glue Sniffer's Neuropathy," Neurology 26 (1976): 238-243.
106. Scott P. Bruder and Alan B. Leahey, "Accidental Instillation of Cyanoacrylate Adhesive in the Eye," Journal of the American Board of Family Practice 8 (1995): 486-490, quotation from 488.
107. K. J. Blinder, W. Scott, and M. P. Lange, "Abuse of Cyanoacrylate in Child Abuse: Case Report," Archives of Ophthalmology 105 (1987): 1632-1633.
108. E. Martin Caravati and Toby L. Litovitz, "Pediatric Cyanide Intoxication and Death from an Acetonitrile-Containing Cosmetic," JAMA 260 (1988): 3470-3473.
109. Consumer Product Safety Commission, press release 78-030, "CPSC Recommends Ban of Benzene in Consumer Products," 27 April 1978.
110. Consumer Product Safety Commission, press release 80-013, "CPSC Seeks Data on Levels of Benzene Found in Various Consumer Products," 16 April 1980.
111. Consumer Product Safety Commission, "Benzene-Containing Consumer Products; Proposed Withdrawal of Proposed Rule," 3035.
112. "Nominee to Head Safety Panel Withdraws," New York Times, 19 September 2001.
113. Don Colburn, "Art Supplies That Have Toxic Chemicals Must Carry Labels," Washington Post, 10 September 1991. See also "Arts and Crafts and Toxins," editorial, Washington Post, 28 September 1991.
114. Nail Systems International, D-Zolve, "Material Safety Data Sheet" (rev. 29 January 2001) and Web-based product information, www.nsinails.com (30 June 2003).
115. Elena H. Page et al., "Peripheral Neuropathy in Workers Exposed to Nitromethane," American Journal of Industrial Medicine 40 (2001): 107-113.
116. C. J. Booth et al., "Elevated Creatinine after Ingestion of Model Aviation Fuel: Interference with the Jaffe Reaction by Nitromethane," Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 35 (1999): 503-504.
117. Jo E. Dyer and J. H. Reed, "Alkali Burns from Illicit Manufacture of GHB" (abstract), Journal of Toxicology Clinical Toxicology 35 (1997): 553.
118. Justin J. Brown and Charith S. Nanayakkara, "Acetone-Free Nail Polish Removers: Are They Safe?" Clinical Toxicology (Philadelphia) 43 (2005): 297-299.
119. Carlos Pastore et al., "Partial Conduction Blocks in N-Hexane Neuropathy," Muscle Nerve 26 (2002): 132-135.
120. "N-Hexane-Related Peripheral Neuropathy among Automotive Technicians-California, 1999-2000," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 50 (2002): 1011-1013.
121. R. Lobo-Mendonça, "Tetrachloroethane-a Survey," British Journal of Industrial Medicine 20 (1963): 50-56.
122. Paul Garner, "Commentary: Industry Can Damage Your Health," British Medical Journal 314 (1 February 1997): 342.
123. William Belmont Parker, "Cooper, Peter," in Dictionary of American Biography, ed. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), 409-410.
124. Suellen Hoy, Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 100-110.
125. Masayasu Minami, Masao Katsumata, Kazumasa Miyake, et al., "Dangerous Mixture of Household Detergents in an Old-Style Toilet: A Case Report with Simulation Experiments of the Working Environment and Warning of Potential Hazard Relevant to the General Environment," Human and Experimental Toxicology 11 (1992): 27-34.
126. J. Naumovski et al., "Specter of Pulmonary Injuries after Inhalation of Irritative Fumes from Mixing Household Cleaners" (abstract), American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 159 (1999): A236. This experience was reported from the Clinic of Toxicology and Urgent Internal Medicine, Skopje, Macedonia.
127. An account of the historical background of chlorine bleaching is indebted to collaborative work with Dr. Kjell Torén, M.D., of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Gothenburg University.
128. See Kjell Torén and Paul D. Blanc, "The History of Pulp and Paper Bleaching: Respiratory- Health Effects," Lancet 349 (1997): 1316-1318.
129. Claude-Louis Berthollet, "Memoir on Dephlogisticated Murine Acid, 1785," in Alembic Club Reprints no. 13, The Early History of Chlorine, 11-31.
130. Interesting source material on bleaching before chlorine is provided in F. Home, Experiments on Bleaching (Edinburgh: Kincaid and Donaldson, 1756)
131. James Dunbar, Smegmatologia, or the Art of Making Potashes and Soap and Bleaching Linen (Edinburgh: printed for the author, 1736).
132. Bernardino Ramazzini, Diseases of Workers, translation of the 1713 edition of De Morbis Artificum by Wilmer Cave Wright (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), 106-127, quotation from 111.
133. William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, IV, iii, 5-6: "The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,/With hey! the sweet birds, O how they sing!" The Riverside Shakespeare (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974), 1586.
134. The "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, trans. Robert Graves (New York: Pocket Books, 1952), 191-192.
135. Robert Morris and James Kendryk, "Oxygenated Muriatic Acid," The Edinburgh Medical and Physical Dictionary, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1807), unpaginated.
136. Parkes, "On Bleaching," 398.
137. Parkes, "On Bleaching," 400.27. Clow and Clow, "The Chemical Industry." For additional details on Leblanc, see Robert Fox, "Leblanc, Nicolas," in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles Gillispie, vol. 8 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), 113-114.
138. A. P. Laurie, "The Chemical Trades," in Dangerous Trades, ed. Thomas Oliver (London: John Murray, 1902), 568-598, quotation from 571.
139. Weldon, On the Manufacture of Chlorine, comment near the outset of his lecture.
140. Laurie, "The Chemical Trades," 571.
141. Arthur Vacher, "On the Origin of Disease: Occupation in Relation to Disease," in Health Lectures Delivered in Manchester 1886-7, 10th ser. (London: John Heyward, 1887), 23-24.
142. Laurie, "The Chemical Trades," 577.
143. Weldon, On the Manufacture of Chlorine, quotation from near the beginning of his lecture text.
144. For the life of Muspratt, see Philip Joseph Hartog, "Muspratt, James," in Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, vol. 13 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959-60), 1330-1331.
145. Thackrah, The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions, 55-56.
146. Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Traité des moyens de désinfecter l'air, de prévenir la contagion, et d'en arrêter les progres, 3rd ed. (Paris: Chez Bernard, 1805).
147. William Wallace, Researches Respecting the Medical Powers of Chlorine Gas Particularly in Diseases of the Liver, 2nd ed. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1824), 132-133. The frontispiece of Wallace's book illustrates a person in an exposure apparatus with his head out of the box.
148. Gannal, Two Memoirs Read Before L'Academie Royale des Sciences at Paris, 15.
149. The biographical details on Thackrah are drawn from Andrew Meiklejohn, The Life, Work and Times of Charles Turner Thackrah (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingston, 1957). This publication also includes a facsimile of the second edition of Thackrah's The Effects of Arts, Trades and Professions.
150. Torén and Blanc, "The History of Pulp and Paper Bleaching."
151. For the early Chinese history of papermaking, see Ch'iao-Píng L., The Chemical Arts of Old China (Easton, PA: Journal of Chemical Education, 1948).
152. For early German industrial hygiene and experimental exposures to chlorine, see Karl B. Lehmann, "Experimentelle Studien über den Einflusz technisch und hygienisch wichtiger Gase und Dämpfe auf dem Organismus Theil III und IV: Chlor und Brom," Archiv für Hygiene 17 (1887): 231-285.
153. The Lewis Freeman quotation, based on material that originally appeared in the Cornhill Magazine, is cited from Arthur Hurst, "Gas Poisoning," in Medical Diseases of the War, 2nd ed. (London: Edward Arnold, 1918), 308-316, quotation from 311-312.
154. Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorem Est" is frequently anthologized but perhaps not as carefully read as it might be in its specifics. See, for example, The 100 Best Poems of All Time, ed. Leslie Pockell (New York: Warner Books, 2001), 142-153.
155. A. T. Sloggett, Memorandum on Gas Poisoning in Warfare, pamphlet, 32 pp., dated "1/4/18," Thomas Renton Elliot Archives, The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.
156. Anonymous, Soldier's Gas Notes, No. 7, Training Battalion (Drivers) RASC C Company, Thomas Renton Elliot Archives, The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. This eight-page pamphlet is composed of twenty-two questions and answers; the sixth item as quoted appears on its initial pages.
157. Haber's oversight of the deployment of war gas is fictionalized in André Malraux's The Walnut Trees of Altenburg. See Malraux's novel as excerpted in The Longman Literary Companion to Science, ed. Walter Gratzer (Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 1989), 395-397.
158. Witschi, "The Story of the Man Who Gave Us 'Haber's Law,'" quoted Haber text as reported and translated by Witschi, 203.
159. Witschi, "Fritz Haber: December 9, 1868-January 29, 1934," quoted Haber text as reported and translated by Witschi, 12.
160. For Haber and Weizmann, see Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949), 353-354.
161. Davy, "On a Combination of Oxymuriatic Acid and Oxygene Gas," 155-162. Davy notes the bleaching power of what came to be known later as chlorine dioxide: "The compound destroys dry vegetable colors, but first gives them a tint of red" (161).
162. The report of the Brooklyn release was published three years after the actual event. See Herbert Chasis, John A. Zapp, James H. Bannon, et al., "Chlorine Accident in Brooklyn," Occupational Medicine 4 (1947), 152-176.
163. The release in Youngstown, Florida, was documented in later medical follow-up of the survivors, reported in Robert N. Jones et al., "Lung Function after Acute Chlorine Exposure," American Review of Respiratory Disease 134 (1986): 1190-1195.
164. J. Fleta, C. Calvo, J. Zuniga, et al., "Intoxication of 76 Children by Chlorine Gas," Human Toxicology 5 (1986): 99-100.
165. Yongyudh Ploysongsang, Billie C. Beach, and Ralph E. DiLisio, "Pulmonary Function Changes after Acute Inhalation of Chlorine Gas," Southern Medical Journal 75 (1982): 23-36.
166. Faysal M. Hasan, Adel Gehshan, and Farid J. D. Fuleihan, "Resolution of Pulmonary Dysfunction following Acute Chlorine Exposure," Archives of Environmental Health 38 (1983): 76-80.
167. The original modern description of reactive airways dysfunction syndrome following irritant exposure was by Brooks and coworkers. See Stephen M. Brooks, W. A. Weiss, and I. L. Bernstein, "Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome (RADS): Persistent Asthma Syndrome after High Level Irritant Exposures," Chest 88 (1985): 376-384.
168. Brad B. Moore and Michael Sherman, "Chronic Reactive Airway Disease following Acute Chlorine Gas Exposure in an Asymptomatic Atopic Patient," Chest 100 (1991): 855-856.
169. Metin Gorguner et al., "Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome in Housewives Due to a Bleach-Hydrochloric Acid Mixture," Inhalation Toxicology 16 (2004): 87-91.
170. J. Elliot Black, Elliot T. Glenny, and J. W. McNee, "Observations on 685 Cases of Poisoning by Noxious Gases Used by the Enemy," British Medical Journal (15 July 1915): 165-167.
171. Walter Broadbent, "Some Results of German Gas Poisoning," British Medical Journal (14 August 1915): 247-248, quoted passage from 247.
172. M. C. Winternitz, Collected Studies on the Pathology of War Gas Poisoning (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1920)
173. A related volume of research was authored as Frank P. Underhill, The Lethal War Gases: Physiology and Experimental Treatment (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1920).
174. Harry L. Gilchrist, "Residual Effects of Warfare Gases: The Use of Chlorine Gas, with Report of Cases," Medical Bulletin of the Veterans' Administration 9 (1933): 229-270
175. Harry L. Gilchrist and P. H. Matz, The Residual Effects of Warfare Gases, 1. Chlorine, 2. Mustard (Washington DC: War Department, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1933).
176. The ongoing concern over the chemical warfare agents is reflected in the continued appearance of high-profile medical reviews on this subject, such as Stefanos N. Kales and David C. Christiani, "Acute Chemical Emergencies," New England Journal of Medicine 350 (2004): 880-888.
177. Jonathan Borak and Werner F. Diller, "Phosgene Exposure: Mechanisms of Injury and Treatment Strategies," Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 43 (2000): 110-119.
178. Anna-Carin Olin et al., "Prevalence of Asthma and Exhaled Nitric Oxide Are Increased in Bleachery Workers Exposed to Ozone," European Respiratory Journal 23 (2004): 87-92.
179. Ariel Hart and Matthew L. Wald, "Cloud of 'Green Stuff ' Rising from Train Wreck, Then Death and a Ghost Town," New York Times, 8 January 2005.
180. "Public Health Consequences from Substances Released during Rail Transit-South Carolina, 2005
181. Selected States, 1999-2004," MMWR 54 (2005): 64-67.
182. A. Bernard et al., "Lung Hyperpermeability and Asthma Prevalence in School Children: Unexpected Associations with the Attendance at Indoor Chlorinated Swimming Pools," Occupational Environmental Medicine 60 (2003): 385-394.
183. "Homemade Chemical Bomb Events and Resulting Injuries-Selected States, January 1996-March 2003," MMWR 52 (2003): 662-664.
184. Christina Ng, Elise Stone, and Paul D. Blanc, "Prevention of Household Chemical Product Overexposure: Field Testing of an Educational Brochure," Health Values 18 (1994): 24-31.
185. Frederick Peterson, "Three Cases of Acute Mania from Inhaling Carbon Bisulphide," Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 128 (1892): 325-326, quotation from 325.
186. Some of the work presented in this chapter was presented at the 2nd International Conference on the History of Occupational Prevention, Norrköping, Sweden, September 2001, as Paul D. Blanc, "From Balloons to Artificial Silk: The History of Carbon Disulfide Toxicity."
187. Peterson, "Three Cases of Acute Mania from Inhaling Carbon Bisulphide," 326.
188. W. A. Lampadius, "Etwas über flüssigen Schwefel, und Schwefel- Leberluft," Chemische Annalen (Lorenz von Crell) 2 (1796): 136-137.
189. R. Chenevix, "On the Action of Platina and Mercury upon Each Other," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 95 (1805): 104-130.
190. Humphry Davy, "New Analytical Researches on the Nature of Certain Bodies, Being an Appendix to the Bakerian Lecture for 1808," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London 99 (1808): 450-470.
191. Henry M. Leicester, "Berzelius," in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles C. Gillispie, vol. 2 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970), 90-97.
192. Jons Jacob Berzelius and Alexander Marcet, "Experiments on the Alcohol of Sulfur, or Sulphuret of Carbon," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London 103 (1813): 171-199
193. Alexander Marcet, "Experiments on the Production of Cold by the Evaporation of Sulphuret of Carbon," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London 103 (1813): 252-255.
194. Berzelius and Marcet, "Experiments on the Alcohol of Sulfur, or Sulphuret of Carbon," quoted footnote from 175.
195. Anselme Payen, Précis de chimie industrielle á l'usage des écoles préparatoires aux professions industrielles et de fabricants (Paris: Librarie de L. Hachette, 1849), 74
196. This, the first edition, relegates carbon disulfide to a single footnote.
197. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1853), 83 (in chapter 5, "Old Letters").
198. The biographic details on Parkes are drawn from R. B. Prosser, "Parkes, Alexander (1813-1890)," in Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and S. Lee, vol. 15 (London: Oxford University Press, 1959-60), 292-293.
199. Auguste L. Delpech, "Accidens [sic] que développe chez les ouvriers en caoutchouc: L'inhalation du sulfure de carbone en vapeur," L'Union Médicale 10, no. 60 (31 May 1856): 265-267, quotation from 265: "Les désires vénériens et la érections étaient abolis."
200. The same year as Delpech's report, Professor E. Beaugrand published his own brief report. See E. Beaugrand, "Action du sulfure de carbone," Gazette de Hôpitaux Civils et Militaires 3 (1856): 331-332. He presents an analysis of the symptom complex of carbon disulfide poisoning organized in light of Delpech's findings.
201. Delpech's "magnum opus" on carbon disulfide toxicity was not published until 1863. See Auguste L. Delpech, "Industrie du caoutchouc soufflé: Recherches sur l'intoxication spécial que détermine le sulfure de carbone," Annales d'Hygiéne Publique et de Médecine Légale 19, ser. 2 (1863): 65-183.
202. Galignani (first name not stated), "Unhealthy Trades," London Times, 26 September 1863, 12.
203. For details of the specific cases, see Delpech, Annales d'Hygiéne Publique et de Médecine Légale. Page 82 notes "excitation aphrodisiaque." Case XIX is also discussed on pages 81, 87, and 91
204. Case X, on pages 147-148.
205. On lead poisoning and mill-reeck, see J. E. D. Esquirol, Mental Maladies: A Treatise on Insanity (1845; reprint, New York: Hafner Publishing, 1965), 41.
206. An excellent analysis of the role of carbon disulfide in early French psychiatric thought is presented in R. R. O'Flynn and H. A. Waldron, "Delpech and the Origins of Occupational Psychiatry," British Journal of Industrial Medicine 47 (1990): 189-198.
207. The term Charcot's carbon disulfide-hysteria appears as late as 1943. See Karl B. Lehmann and Ferdinand Flury, Toxicology and Hygiene of Industrial Solvents, trans. Eleanor King and Henry F. Smyth Jr. (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1943), 303. (This edition was translated from the German text of 1938.)
208. Marie's detailed report was published three days after the "lesson." See Pierre Marie, "Hysterie dans Tintoxication par le sulfure de carbone," Bulletins et Memoires de la Societe Medicale des Hopitaux de Paris (9 November 1888): 1479-1480.
209. On the balloon makers, see Benjamin Ward Rchardson, On Health and Occupation (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879), 51.
210. Rchardson provided details of this work on euthanasia of pets in B. W Rchardson, "Euthanasia for the Lower Creation-an Original Research and Practical Result," Asclepiad 1(1884): 260-275.
211. R Eglesfeld Griffith, A Universal Formulary (Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1859), 451. This is also the source for the carbon disulfide-containing remedies that follow.
212. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "gassed," citing the Liverpool Daily Post for the earliest printed appearance of this usage.
213. Thomas Oliver, "Indiarubber: Dangers Incidental to the Use of Bisulphide of Carbon and Naphtha," in Dangerous Trades, ed. Thomas Oliver (London: John Murray, 1902), 470-474, quotation from 472-473. Of note, early in his career Oliver had studied with Charcot.
214. For a comparison between the French and British approaches in the later part of the nineteenth century, see Edward Smith, Handbook for Inspectors of Nuisances (London: Knight and Co., 1873).
215. The Whitelegge rules are detailed in Oliver, ed., Dangerous Trades, "Appendix: Special Rules," 855-856.
216. The likelihood of ramie fiber use in Egypt is discounted in Alfred Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, rev. J. E. Harris, 4th ed. (London: Histories and Mysteries of Man, Ltd., 1989), 149-150.
217. For the dating of cotton substitutes, I have relied on the relevant entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.
218. A useful early industrial history of rayon can be found in W. D. Darby, Rayon and Other Synthetic Fibers (New York: Dry Goods Economists, 1929).
219. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. "glos," "rayon."
220. H. D. Jump and J. M. Cruice, "Chronic Poisoning from Bisulphide of Carbon," University of Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin 17(1904-5): 193-196, quotation from 193.
221. A. P. Francine, "Acute Carbon Disulphide Poisoning," American Medicine (1905): 871.
222. Anonymous, "Parliamentary Intelligence: Health Conditions in Artificial Silk Factories," lancet (24 March 1928): 631.
223. Thomas M. Legge, Industrial Maladies (London: Humphrey Milford Oxford Press, Oxford Medical Publications, 1934), 120-122.
224. For an early muckraking of the international rayon cartel, see Grace Hutchins, labor and Silk (New York: International Publishers, 1929).
225. United States v. Du Pont, 351 U.S. 377 (1956).
226. The details of the Italian Fascist period draw heavily upon the work of Franco Carnevale and Alberto Baldesseroni, "La lotta di Mussolini contro le malattie professional! (1922-1943): I lavoratori e il primato Italiano nella pro-duzione di seta artificiale," Epidemiologia e Prevenzione 27 (2003): 114-120.
227. This work was presented in an earlier form as "The Italian Fascist Fight on Occupational Diseases" at the international conference "Occupational Health-Public Health: Lessons from the Past-Challenges for the Future," in Norrkoping, Sweden, 6-9 September 2001.
228. Fedele Negro, "Les syndromes Parkinsoniens par intoxication sulfo-carbonee," Revue Neurologique 2 (1930): 518-522.
229. Carnevale and Baldesseroni, "La lotta di Mussolini contro le malattie professional!."
230. Exposure data were published retrospectively after World War II in Enrico Vigliani, "Carbon Disulphide Poisoning in Viscose Rayon Factories," British Journal of Industrial Medicine YY (1954): 235-241. Vigliani went on to become a leading investigator of benzene's link to leukemia (see chapter 3, n. 31).
231. The industrial base of Premnitz, Germany, was originally founded on munitions manufacturing. After that plant was taken apart in accordance with provisions of the 1918 Treaty of Versailles, the rayon staple industry was established in 1920 under the trade name Vistra. Rayon textile fiber (trade name Travis) came into production in 1928. See the Web site of the "Premnitz Industrial Park": www.premnitz.de (21 November 2004).
232. International Labour Office, Occupation and Health: Encyclopaedia of Hygiene, Pathology and Social Welfare, Studied fiom the Point of View of Labour, Industry and Trades, special supplement: Industrial Health in Wartime (Montreal: International Labour Office, 1944), 19-21.
233. Emil A. Paluch, "Two Outbreaks of Carbon Disulfide Poisoning in Rayon Staple Fiber Plants in Poland," Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology 30 (1948): 37-42. At least one other rayon staple plant (located in Wittenberg, Germany) was run with slave labor, in this instance from the Neuengamme concentration camp.
234. See www.holocaust-education.de (21 November 2004).
235. Recent data from the People's Republic of China through collaborative study with Belgian investigators are presented in XiaodongTan et al., "The Cross-Sectional Study of the Health Effects of Occupational Exposure to Carbon Disulfide in a Chinese Viscose Plant," Environmental Toxicology 16 (2001): 377-382.
236. The scientific literature pertaining to cardiovascular disease is reviewed in Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, ToxicologicalProfile for Carbon Disulfide (Update) (1996-739-32) (Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [ATSDR], 1996).
237. United States v. Du Pont, 351 U.S. 377 (1956), opinion by Justice Reed.
238. "Arnold N. Nawrocki, Cheese Innovator, 78," obituary, New York Times, 12 July 2002.
239. Anne T Fidler and Michael S. Crandall, HETA Report no. HETA-85-098-L1959, Teepak, Inc., Danville, Illinois (Cincinnati: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, April 1989).
240. R. M. Swift, "Drug Therapy for Alcohol Dependence," New England journal of Medicine 340 (1999): 1482-1490.
241. The later data analysis was published as G. M. Egeland et al., "Effects of Exposure to Carbon Disulphide on Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Concentration and Diastolic Blood Pressure," British Journal of Industrial Medicine 49 (1992): 287-293.
242. The aborted NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation of the Courtaulds facility in the late 1990s was named "A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Health Effects in Carbon Disulfide Exposed and Non-Exposed Workers at a Viscose Rayon Factory" and was assigned the official NIOSH report number HETA 96-0114.
243. The data reanalysis sponsored by the carbon disulfide industry was published as Bertram Price et al., "A Benchmark Concentration for Carbon Disulfide: Analysis of the NIOSH Carbon Disulfide Exposure Database," Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 24 (1996): 171-176.
244. One such Internet-marketed source, at least as late as 2006, was Make it Yours; see www.millenniumgeneralstore.com/classdemos/pgi.html (31 March 2006).
245. For a more complete General Hospital plot synopsis, see www.abc.go xom/daytime/generalhospital/episodes/i99i2.html (29 July 2005).
246. The welding exposure experiments are summarized in Paul D. Blanc et al., "Cytokines in Metal Fume Fever," American Review of Respiratory Diseases 147 (1993): 134-138.
247. Additional general background on metal fume fever is provided in Paul Blanc and Homer A. Boushey, "The Lung in Metal Fume Fever," Seminars in Respiratory Medicine14 (1993): 212-225.
248. For zinc as a cold remedy, see "Zinc for the Common Cold," Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics 39 (31 January 1997): 9-10
249. and R. B. Turner and W. E. Cetnarowski, "Effect of Treatment with Zinc Gluconate or Zinc Acetate on Experimental and Natural Colds," Clinical Infectious Disease 31 (2000): 1202-1208. The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics review is equivocal; the latter paper shows no zinc-related benefit.
250. For further information on endotoxin, see Cecile S. Rose and Paul D. Blanc, "Inhalation Fever," in Environmental and Occupational Medicine, ed. William N. Rom, 3rd ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), 467-480.
251. Andrew Meiklejohn, "Outbreak of Fever in Cotton Mills at Radcliffe, 1784," British Journal of Industrial Medicine 16 (1959): 68-69.
252. This article includes the text of the original report by Thomas Percival, John Cowling, Alexander Eason, and Edward Chorley See also Charles Webster, "Two-Hundredth Anniversary of the 1784 Report on Fever at Radcliffe Mill," Society for the Social History of Medicine Bulletin 36 (1985): 65-67.
253. For an early general review summarizing the British view of byssinosis, see C. I. C. Gill, "Byssinosis in the Cotton Trade," British Journal of Industrial Medicine 4 (1947): 48-55
254. and, more recently, R McL. Niven and C. A. Pickering, "Byssinosis: A Review," Thorax 51 (1996): 632-637.
255. Philibert Patissier, Traite des maladies des artisans (Paris: J.-B. Bailliere, 1822), 245.
256. "Ces ouvriers inspirent continuellement un air charge de debris co-tonneux trestenus qui excitent les branches, provoquent la toux, et entretien-nent dans les poumons une irritation perpetuelle. lis sont souvent obliges de changer de profession pour prevenir la phthisie."
257. William Rathbone Greg, An Enquiry into the State of the Manufacturing Population and the Causes and Cures of the Evils Therein Existing (London: James Rdgeway, 1831), 15.
258. The Greg family operation, the Quarry Bank Mill, was still operating outside Manchester well into the twentieth century. It was given to the British National Trust in 1939 and is now an industrial museum and favored picnic spot. See www.quarrybankmill.org.uk (11 March 2006).
259. Michael Sadler, "Speech in the House of Commons on the Second Reading of the Factories Regulation Bill (13 March 1832)" (excerpt), in English Historical Documents 1833-1874, ed. G. M. Young and W. D. Handcock (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1956), 933-934.
260. This brief excerpt does not give justice to Sadler's full speech, nor does it document his invocation of Thackrah. See Charles Wing, Evils of the Factory System Demonstrated by the Parliamentary Evidence (London: Sanders and Otky, 1837), 256-285. Wing dates the speech 16 March 1832.
261. William Albert Samuel Hewins, "Oastler, Richard," and Michael Ernest Sadler, "Sadler, Michael Thomas," in Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, vol. 14, 738-740 (Oastler); vol. 17, 594-598 (Sadler).
262. James Phillips Kay, The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester, 2nd ed. enlarged (London: James Ridway, 1832), 90-92, quotation from 92.
263. Until recently the location of Thackrahs grave was unknown. See Graham Hardy, "Thackrahs Grave," Occupational Medicine 53 (2003): 505-506. This also provides a brief biographical synopsis of Thackrah largely informed by Meiklejohn's work (see n. 11 above).
264. Daniel Noble, Facts and Observations Relative to the Influence of Manufactures Upon Health and Life (London: John Churchill, 1843).
265. For relevant excerpts from Chadwick's report that helped to kill the Ten Hour Bill (coauthored by Thomas Tooke and Thomas Southwood Smith), see English Historical Documents 1833-18J4, ed. G. M. Young and W D. Handcock (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1956), 941-949.
266. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854; London: Penguin Books, 1970), 146-147.
267. Louis-Rene Villerme, Rapportd I'Academie dessciences morales etpolitiques sur I'etat physique et morale des ouvriers employes dans les fabriques de soie, de coton, etde laine (Paris: Academie des sciences morales et politiques, 1839), 148.
268. "La toux est le premier symptome d'une maladie lente et formidable de poitrine."
269. Marx, Das Kapital, vol. 1, part 3, chap. 10, "The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value," sec. 3, "Branches of the English Industry without Legal Limits to Exploitation."
270. Citing Greenhow's Privy Council report regarding the pottery trades, Marx concluded that they are so injurious as to be "a branch of industry by the side of which cotton-spinning appears an agreeable and healthful occupation" www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-cl/chio (16 March 2003).
271. Adrien Proust, Traite d'hygiene publique et privee (Paris: G. Masson, 1877), 171.
272. Thomas Harris, "A Contribution to the Pathological Anatomy of Pneumokoniosis (Chalicosis Pulmonum)," Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 15 (1880-81): 395-404.
273. John T Arlidge, The Hygiene, Diseases, and Mortality of Occupations (London: Percival and Company, 1892), 361.
274. M. F. Trice, "Card-Room Fever: Strict Control of Dust Will Eliminate Health Hazard from Low-Grade Cotton," Textile World 60 (March 1940): 68.
275. For Thackrah on the brass ague among the brass melters of Birmingham, see Thackrah, The Effects of Arts, Trades, and Professions, 2nd ed. Quotation from 101; brass button makers are discussed on 110.
276. Thackrah, The Effects of the Principal Arts, Trades, and Professions, and of Civic States and Habits of Living, 1st ed., 54.
277. Pliny's Natural History, trans. H. Rackam, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952). Quotation on cinnabar is from book 33, chap. 40, beginning line 123; cadmia is discussed in book 34.
278. C. G. Ekeberg, "Underrattelse om tutanego," Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar 17 (1756): 316-317; translation as provided in Boni, Tutenag and Paktong, 10-11.
279. W. Richardson, Chemical Principles of the Metallic Arts, with an Account of the Principal Diseases Incident to Different Artificers, the Means of Prevention and Cure and a Concise Introduction to the Study of Chemistry (Birmingham: Thomas Pearson, 1790), 169-170.
280. E. A. Blandet, "Colique de cuivre" and "Effets des vapeurs du zinc sur l'économie animale," Annales d'Hygiéne Publique et Médecine Legale 33 (1845): 461-462, 462-463 (two separate reports published sequentially).
281. Augustus Kingsley Gardner, "An Account of a Disease Peculiar to Workmen in Brasscock Foundries," New York Journal of Medicine 10 (1848): 210-213.
282. Edward Headlam Greenhow, "On Brass-Founders' Ague," Medical- Chirurgical Transactions 54 (1862): 177-187, quotation from 177.
283. Lawrence Wright, Warm and Snug: The History of the Bed (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962).
284. Jeremy Brecher, Jerry Lombardi, and Jan Stackhouse, Brass Valley: The Story of Working People's Lives and Struggles in an American Industrial Region (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982), 74-76.
285. Elsie de Wolfe, The House in Good Taste (New York: Century Company, 1913), 215-216.
286. Charles A. Pfender, "Brazier's Disease, Brass-Founder's Ague, or Acute Brass-Poisoning," JAMA 62 (1914): 296-297, quotation from 297.
287. A. C. Titus, Henry Warren, and Philip Drinker, "Electric Welding. 1. The Respiratory Hazard," Journal of Industrial Hygiene 17 (1935): 121-128, quotation from 121.
288. Philip Drinker, Henry Warren, and Richard Page, "Electric Welding. 3. Prevention of the Respiratory Hazard," Journal of Industrial Hygiene 17 (1935): 133-137, quotation from 135.
289. Joseph R. Kuh, Morris F. Cullen, and Clifford Kuh, "Metal Fume Fever," Permanente Foundation Medical Bulletin 4 (1946): 145-151.
290. Stephen F. Wintermeyer et al., "Pulmonary Responses after Wood Chip Mulch Exposure," Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 39 (1997): 308-314.
291. William T. Brinton, Earl E. Vastbinder, John W. Greene, et al., "An Outbreak of Organic Dust Toxic Syndrome in a College Fraternity," JAMA 258 (1987): 1210-1212.
292. Dennis J. Shusterman, "Polymer Fume Fever and Other Fluorocarbon Pyrolysis-Related Syndromes," Occupational Medicine 8 (1993): 519-531.
293. "Respiratory Illness in Workers Exposed to Metalworking Fluid Contaminated with Nontuberculous Mycobacteria-Ohio, 2001," MMWR 51 (2002): 349-352.
294. Guo-chang Xing, "Some Opinions on Byssinosis in China," American Journal of Industrial Medicine 12 (1987): 737-742.
295. Gaskell, North and South, 147.
296. Juliana Hatfield, "Metal Fume Fever," © 2000 Juliana Hatfield Music (BMI). All rights for the world on behalf of Juliana Hatfield Music (BMI) administered by Zomba Songs, Inc. (BMI). Used by permission.
297. Amanda Hesser, "An Old-Fashioned, Versatile Treat," New York Times, 3 October 2001.
298. Jonathan Eig, "Butter Flavoring May Pose a Risk to Food Workers," Wall Street Journal, 3 October 2001
299. See also "Claims Are Settled in Suit Involving Popcorn Plant," Wall Street Journal, 6 October 2005. The case involved fifteen injured workers.
300. David G. Kern et al., "Flock Worker's Lung: Chronic Interstitial Lung Disease in the Nylon Flocking Industry," Annals of Internal Medicine 129 (1998): 261-272.
301. William L. Eschenbacher et al., "Nylon Flock-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease," American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 159 (1999): 2003-2008.
302. Sibel Atis et al., "The Respiratory Effects of Occupational Polypropylene Flock Exposure," European Respiratory Journal 25 (2005): 110-117.
303. Yih-Leong Chang et al., "Segmental Necrosis of Small Bronchi after Prolonged Intakes of Sauropus Androgynus in Taiwan," American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 157 (1998): 594-598.
304. T. L. Kurt et al., "Dinitrophenol in Weight Loss: The Poison Center and Public Health Safety," Veterinary and Human Toxicology 28 (1986): 574-575.
305. Robert Sullivan, "Home Remedy Dept.: A Case of the Blues," New Yorker, 11 November 2002, 70-71.
306. K. Hori et al., "Believe It or Not: Silver Still Poisons" (abstract), Journal of Toxicology Clinical Toxicology 40 (2002): 394-395.
307. John Butter, Remarks on the Irritative Fever Commonly Called the Plymouth Dock-Yard Disease
308. Mr. Dryden's Detailed Account of the Fatal Cases, including That of the Lamented Surgeon, Dr. Bell (Devonport: Congdon and Heale, 1825), 134-136
309. quoted excerpts are from a continuous section of the text.
310. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (The Royal Society of Arts), Abstract of the Premiums Offered by the Society (London: John Nichols, 1784).
311. Ambrose Bowden, A Treatise on Dry Rot; in which are Described the Nature and Causes of that Disease in Ships, Houses, Mills, Ec. Ec. with the Methods of Prevention and Cure . . . (London: Burton and Briggs, 1815).
312. Michael Faraday, On the Practical Prevention of Dry Rot in Timber; Being the Substance of a Lecture Delivered by Professor Faraday at the Royal Institution, February 22, 1833 (London: J. and C. Allard, 1834).
313. Michael Faraday, "On Dry Rot," manuscript notes dated 22 February 1833, Collection of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, RI MS F4 D, pp. A13-14, quotation from A14.
314. Faraday, On the Practical Prevention of Dry Rot in Timber, quotation from his introductory remarks.
315. George Birkbeck, A Lecture on the Preservation of Timber by Kyan's Patent for the Prevention of Dry Rot (London: John Weale, 1835), 27-28.
316. Richard Bissell Prosser, "Kyan, John Howard," in National Dictionary of Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, vol. 31, 347-348. This is also the source for the laudatory song about Kyan.
317. Cram's 1838 adverse experience with Kyanizing was first reported only in 1885. See Octave Chanute, "The Preservation of Timber: Report of the Committee on the Preservation of Timber, Presented and Accepted at the Annual Convention, June 25th, 1885," Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 14 (1885): 254.
318. Edwin Chadwick, Report to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, from the Poor Law Commissioners on an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (London: W. Clowes, 1842), 258-259.
319. Anonymous, Burnettizing or the Process for Preventing the Rapid Decay of Timber (Cambridge, MA: Allen and Farnham, 1856).
320. John Elliston, On the Medicinal Properties of Creosote (London: G. Woodfall, 1835), offprint of Medico-Chirurgical Transactions 19, n.s. (1835). Elliston was the first to report on creosote in English.
321. John Rose Cormack, A Treatise on the Chemical, Medicinal, and Physiological Properties of Creosote Illustrated by Experiments on the Lower Animals (Edinburgh: J. Carfrae & Son, 1836). Cormack's 154-page work includes a summary of the original synthesis of creosote by the German scientist Karl Ludwig von Resichenbach in 1830.
322. Payne, Memoir Descriptive of Payne's Patent Process, 5.
323. Henry T. Butlin, On Cancer of the Scrotum in Chimney-sweeps and Others: Three Lectures Delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (London: British Medical Association, 1892).
324. Stephen Mackenzie, "A Case of Tar Eruption," British Journal of Dermatology 10 (1898): 417
325. This was one of two cases Mackenzie "exhibited" to fellow dermatologists and was reported in the "Society Intelligence" column, a regular feature of the journal.
326. Thomas Oliver, Diseases of Occupation from the Legislative, Social, and Medical Points of View (London: Methuen and Co., 1908), 383-385.
327. W. J. O'Donovan, "Epitheliomatous Ulceration among Tar Workers" (in two parts), British Journal of Dermatology and Syphilis 32 (July 1920): 215- 228
328. 32 (August-September 1920): 245-252. Quotation is from 216
329. the J. R. case is described on 223.
330. H. A. Cookson, "Epithelioma of the Skin after Prolonged Exposure to Creosote," British Medical Journal (1 March 1924): 368 and plate.
331. The information on the chronology of the use of creosote in the railroads is derived largely from Oaks, Date Nails and Railroad Tie Preservation.
332. Philip J. Landrigan [and Mauro A. Tumolo], "Health Risks of Creosotes" (Questions and Answers), JAMA 269 (1993): 1309.
333. Anonymous, "Eruptions in Lumber Workers" (Queries and Minor Notes), JAMA 106 (1936): 2092.
334. Allen D. Lazenby, "Pentachlorphenol" (Queries and Minor Notes), JAMA 110 (1938): 229
335. The initial term pentachlorphenol was later replaced by pentachlorophenol.
336. Karl Herxheimer, "Ueber Chlorakne," Münchener Medicinische Wochenschrift 46, no. 9 (28 February 1899): 278
337. A brief biographic note on Herxheimer, after whom a well-known immune reaction is named, can be found in B. G. Firkin and J. A. Whitworth, Dictionary of Medical Eponyms, 2nd ed. (New York: Parthenon Publishing Group, 1996).
338. Karl O. Stingily, "A New Industrial Chemical Dermatitis," Southern Medical Journal 33 (1940): 1268-1272, quotation from 1269.
339. William M. Gafafer, Manual of Industrial Hygiene and Medical Service in War Industries (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company, 1943), 176-177.
340. Louis Schwartz, "Dermatitis from Creosote-Treated Wooden Floors," Industrial Medicine 11 (1942): 387.
341. Anonymous, "Occupational Acne" (Questions and Answers), JAMA 188 (20 April 1964): 336.
342. Jacob Bleiberg and Roger H. Brodkin, "New Weed Killers Produce Chloracne" (letter), JAMA 189 (6 July 1964): 66-67.
343. Extensive documentation of the history of Agent Orange, its application, and the toxicity of dioxin can be found in Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1994).
344. U.S. Congress, Joint Resolution of Congress, H.J. Res. 1145, 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 7 August 1964 (Gulf of Tonkin Resolution).
345. Jacob Bleiberg et al., "Industrially Acquired Porphyria," Archives of Dermatology 89 (1964): 793-797.
346. I gathered additional information from a telephone interview with Dr. Roger Brodkin (31 October 2004), who had been one of the principal treating dermatologists in the outbreak.
347. Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange.
348. Elizabeth Rosenthal, "Liberal Leader from Ukraine Was Poisoned," New York Times, 12 December 2004.
349. Alexandra Geusau et al., "Severe 2,3,7,8-Terachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) Intoxication: Kinetics and Trial to Enhance Elimination in Two Patients," Archives of Toxicology 76 (2002): 316-325.
350. Bowden, A Treatise on Dry Rot; quoted passage from p. 164.
351. The chronology of U.S. EPA action on wood preservatives is derived from Jay Feldman and Terry Shistar (National Coalition against the Misuse of Pesticides), "Poison Poles-a Report about Their Toxic Trail and Safer Alternatives," www.beyondpesticides.org/wood/pubs/poisonpoles/ (31 March 2006).
352. Chris Carlsten, Stephen Carl Hunt, and Joel D. Kaufman, "Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin and Coal Tar Creosote Exposure in a Railroad Worker," Environmental Health Perspectives 113 (2005): 96-97.
353. Wolmanized Natural Select Treated Wood and Lumber, Material Safety Data Sheet, Brewer Lumber, Saint Clair, Minnesota (1 October 2003)
354. Naturewood Amine Based Treated Wood, Material Safety Data Sheet, Osmose, Inc., Buffalo, New York (11 August 2003).
355. Fiberon Deck Board, Material Safety Data Sheet, Fiber Composites, LLC, New London, North Carolina (10 October 2001); TREX Wood-Polymer Lumber Products-Woodland Brown, Material Safety Data Sheet, Trex Company, LLC, Winchester, Virginia (27 January 2003).
356. Anthony E. Lang and Andres M. Lozano, "Parkinson's Disease," New England Journal of Medicine 339 (1998): 1044-1053, 1130-1143.
357. James Parkinson, Hints for the Improvement of Trusses Intended to Render Their Use Less Inconvenient, and to Prevent the Necessity of an Understrap. With the Description of a Truss of Easy Construction and Slight Expence for the Use of Labouring Poor (London: C. Whittingham for H. D. Symonds, 1802).
358. Caroline M. Tanner, "Occupational and Environmental Causes of Parkinsonism," in Unusual Occupational Diseases, Occupational Medicine State of the Art Reviews, ed. Dennis J. Shusterman and Paul D. Blanc, (Philadelphia: Hanley and Belfus, 1992), vol. 7, 503-513.
359. For a case documenting dementia pugilistica, see (Robert E. Scully), "Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weekly Clinicopathological Exercises, Case 12-1999, a 67-Year-Old Man with Three Years of Dementia," New England Journal of Medicine 340 (1999): 1269-1277.
360. Peter S. Spencer et al., "Guam Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis- Parkinsonism-Dementia Linked to a Plant Excitant Neurotoxin," Science 237 (1987): 517-522, quotation from 518.
361. Richard Stone, "Guam: Deadly Disease Dying Out," Science 261 (1993): 424-426.
362. R. Stanley Burns et al., "The Clinical Syndrome of Striatal Dopamine Deficiency: Parkinsonism Induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)," New England Journal of Medicine 312 (1985): 1418-1421.
363. For background on copper and iron, see Matthew J. Ellenhorn et al., Ellenhorn's Medical Toxicology: Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Poisoning, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1997), 1554-1556, 1558-1562.
364. George Eliot, Quarry for Middlemarch, ed. Anna Theresa Kitchel (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1950), 35.
365. H. R. Shubert, "The Steel Industry," in A History of Technology, vol. 5: The Late Nineteenth Century, ed. Charles Singer et al. (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 53-71.
366. Louis Casamajor, "An Unusual Form of Mineral Poisoning Affecting the Nervous System: Manganese?" JAMA 60 (1913): 646-649, quotation from 646.
367. Ahmed H. Sadek, Ronald Rausch, and Paul E. Schultz, "Parkinsonism Due to Manganism in a Welder," International Journal of Toxicology 22 (2003): 393-401.
368. Hugo Mella, "The Experimental Production of Basal Ganglion Symptomatology in Macacus Rhesus," Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 11 (1924): 405-417.
369. H. B. Ferraz et al., "Chronic Exposure to the Fungicide Maneb May Produce Symptoms and Signs of CNS Manganese Intoxication," Neurology 38 (1988): 550-553.
370. Robert A. Yokel and Janelle S. Crossgrove, Manganese Toxicokinetics at the Blood-Brain Barrier, Research Report, Health Effects Institute 119 (Boston: Health Effects Institute, 2004).
371. American Chemical Society, "'Green' Detergent Catalysts Herald Cleaner, Brighter 21st Century," in What's Happening in Chemistry (Washington DC: American Chemical Society, 1995), 39-40.
372. Hamilton, Exploring the Dangerous Trades, 415-416.
373. For additional background on the introduction of tetraethyl lead, see Christopher C. Sellers, Hazards of the Job (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970).
374. Ethyl Corporation, Ethyl 1995 Annual Report (Richmond, VA: Ethyl Corporation, 1995); Ethyl Corporation, Ethyl Corporation 2001 Annual Report on Form 10-K (Richmond, VA: Ethyl Corporation, 2001); Ethyl Corporation, "About Ethyl," www.ethyl.com (June 2000).
375. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Comments on the Gasoline Additive MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl)," www.epa.gov (updated 28 June 2002).
376. Ethyl Corporation, "Ethyl Corporation Wants to Remove Millions of Pounds of Smog-Related Pollutants per Year from the Environment," paid advertisement, New York Times, 7 March 1996.
377. John H. Cushman Jr., "E.P.A. Accuses a Company of Distortion," New York Times, 8 March 1996.
378. Ethyl Corporation, "MMT and Public Health: Separating Fact from Fiction," briefing materials (14 May 1996), quotation from 21. This is a twentyone- page unbound text.
379. "MTBE Waiver Benefits Texas Oil Refiners, Enviros Say," Environmental News Service, 22 October 2003. See also Carl Hulse, "Congressional Negotiators Are Nearing Agreement on Broad Energy Measure," New York Times, 25 July 2005.
380. For the Web sites described, see www.aftonchemical.com and www .newmarket.com (28 July 2005). Robert Burns's poem "Afton Water" was composed in 1791.
381. Herbert L. Needleman and Philip J. Landrigan, "Toxins at the Pump," New York Times, 13 March 1996. See also Philip J. Landrigan, "MMT, Déjá Vu and National Security" (editorial), American Journal of Industrial Diseases 39 (2001): 434-435.
382. Jennifer Lee, "White House Minimized the Risks of Mercury in Proposed Rules, Scientists Say," New York Times, 7 April 2004.
383. Tara Parker-Pope, "Score One for the Couch Potatoes: New Studies Link Bicycling to Impotence," Wall Street Journal, 15 October 2002.
384. Steven M. Schrader, Michael Breitenstein, and Brian Lowe, Health Hazard Evaluation Report HETA 2000-0305-2848; City of Long Beach Police Department; Long Beach, California, May 2001 (Cincinnati, OH: NIOSH, 2002).
385. Leonard J. Goldwater, "From Hippocrates to Ramazzini: Early History of Industrial Medicine," Annals of Medical History New Series 8 (1936): 27-35.
386. "Brief Report: Lead Poisoning from Ingestion of a Toy Necklace- Oregon, 2003," MMWR 53 (18 July 2004): 509-511.
387. Stephen Lebaton, "150 Million Pieces of Toy Jewelry Are Cited for Lead Content in Largest Government Recall," New York Times, 8 July 2004.
388. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, "Testimony of Ms. Nancy Nord," 190th Cong., 1st sess., 12 April 2005. See also John Files, "Senate Approves Consumer Nominee," New York Times, 30 April 2005.
389. See, for example, Susan Okie, "What Ails the FDA?" New England Journal of Medicine 352 (2005): 1063-1066.
390. Maria R. Lucarelli et al., "Toxicity of Food Drug and Cosmetic Blue No. 1 Dye in Critically Ill Patients," Chest 125 (2004): 793-795.
391. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "FD&C Blue No. 1 (Blue 1) in Enteral Feeding Solutions," Public Health Advisory (29 September 2003).
392. "Update: Hydrogen Cyanamide-Related Illness-Italy 2002-2004," MMWR 54 (29 April 2005): 405-408.
393. The suspect chemical component of flame retardants is addressed in Thomas A. McDonald, "A Perspective on the Potential Health Risks of PBDEs," Chemosphere 46 (2002): 745-755.
394. Michael Eddleston and Michael R. Phillips, "Self-Poisoning with Pesticides," British Medical Journal 328 (2004): 42-44.
395. Frost, "A Sketch of China's Coal Industry." Li Yang's 2003 film Blind Shaft (Mang jing) was banned in China for its harsh realism and inherent social critique. See also Manohla Dargis, review of Blind Shaft, Los Angeles Times, 19 March 2004.
396. L. J. Henderson and Elton Mayo, "Effects of the Social Environment," in The Environment and Its Effect upon Man (Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, 1937), 1-16, quotation from 7.
397. Ernst Pawel, The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1984). For a time, Kafka also worked at his uncle's asbestos factory in Prague.
398. Muriel Rukeyser, "Book of the Dead," in U.S. 1 (New York: Covici Friede, 1938), 70-71.