EDITORIAL Take a Deep Breath

T HE QUESTION of what damage wood

I dust does to workers' lungs and the balance of their respiratory system continues to be studied. We said in an editorial in the November, 1977 issue that the problem, given its implication as a carcinogen and possible root cause of other serious diseases, called for an all out effort to find what actual threats to workers' health exist.

Fourteen months later, we find some studies being completed, but it seems to us that the whole business is proceeding at a pace that can only be described as leisurely. As there is reason to suspect wood dust as a real health hazard, why are we so far from any concrete action to protect the industry's workers?

The second draft of a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study has toned down its first recommendations on the allowable amount of wood dust in the workplace. These have still been attacked by industrial hygienists and occupational physicians as being unnecessarily severe and unsupportable with present evidence.

It has also been pointed out that earlier con- clusions in British and European studies on wood dust exposure have not been supported by data developed by studies in this country.

An inter-industry Task Force on Wood Dust is currently among groups contributing facts and opinions during the review phase involved in NIOSH's attempts to formulate a proposed standard for how much wood dust can safely be allowed to be breathed by workers.

So far, so good. A problem, or what seems like one, surfaces and everyone proceeds according to the book to find a logical, structured solution with which everyone can live. But is the system really so good? Why is it taking so long? Fourteen months is not long as such studies go, but every working day, thousands of workers have been breathing in more wood dust.

Ask yourself, is there really any doubt in your mind what fourteen extra months of breathing in wood dust has done to people? Is there really any doubt in your mind that the studies could be done in about half the time if they really tried?