Product Sales Co.

Engage brain, then mouth

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N bringing industry news and informatiort to - I our readers we occasionally encounter a stoiy that carries the seeds of misunderstanding. It is the kind of story that makes us want to preface it with a cautionary "read it all and read it carefullv !"

A recently announced study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is just such a story. They are funding a study which will attempt to determine if forest product workers have an unusually high incidence of cancer-caused deaths due to prolonged exposure to sawdust, chemical fumes and wood fibers.

It plans to examine the cause of death of 20,000 persons in the Pacific Northwest who had worked for at least one year in the forest products industry and is expected to last 22 months. No examination of living workers is planned.

Obviously, a misreading of such a story is enough to start the rumor mills buzzing. Jumping to an unsupported conclusion in this case as to what the study might (repeat, might) find is enough to make even Paul Bunyan blanch. So many people just don't seem to understand that because a research organization studies something, it doesn't necessarily mean there is a problem.

Yet the other side of the coin cannot be ig- nored or go unreported for fear of misunderstanding. The potential problem is just too great. Our only real hope for an eventual cure of cancer lies in research and study and this NIOSH project is just part of the whole program.

Other industries, such as those that worked with asbestos, found to their horror that prolonged exposure to asbestos did indeed cause cancer and result in premature death. Additional research in other manufacturing areas seems to indicate the problem is more widespread than heretofore believed.

According to the National Woodwork Manufacturers Association, a previous independent study "found that'where wood is simply machined' (e.g. sawmills) there wasn't the 'striking excess' of deaths caused by cancer as were found in the pulp, paper and plywood industries." Noting that "many of the treating chemicals, glues and working conditions are the same" in millwork, NWMA correctly observes that "any findings could eventually be correlated to our industry."

But today, no one knows, one way or the other, which is true. Gossip and misinformation can only cause worry and confusion. The time for thoughtful discussion of the situation is at the end of the study, not at its inception.