General Motors' model and pattern makers show high cancer rates

The rates of colon and rectal cancer for General Motors workers who make wooden patterns and models are almost three time the national averages, according to the latest of several recent studies, all of which have indicated an excess of colorectal cancer in General Motors woodworkers.

The preliminary report of G.M.'s cancer screeningprogram, released in November and written by Dr. Victor Hawthorne of the University of Michigan, found increased rates of colon and rectum cancer in G.M. model and pattern makers aged 50 or more.

According to Hawthorne, no conclusions can be reached without further analysis of the workers' "Socio-economic status, smoking and drinking habits, employment histories, and familial presence or history of cancer." Hawthorne also said that the relatively small size of the study, which included 5,007 General Motors employees, may have distorted the findings.

But Dr. Michael Silverstein, occupational health physician with the United Auto Workers, declared that the studies, all showing a high incidence of colorectal cancer, indicate that "model and pattern makers are apparently at a high risk for getting these kinds of cancers." Nine cases of colorectal cancer were found, while the national average for a group of the size included in the study would have been 3.14.

"The union's basic position," Silverstein said, "is that faced with a series of studies that show an apparent excess of cancers, a series of efforts has to be made" to reduce risks in the workplace.

Silverstein said that the union is recommending a "three-pronged approach" to the cancer problem. First, continued study should be done on the incidence, cause, and control of the cancers; second, exposure to wood dust and potentially carcinogenic chemicals should be reduced; and third, the, program of medical examinations for workers should be continued.

"Because we don't know what chemical might be causing the problem," Silverstein said, efforts should be made "to control all possible causes."

The screenings were initiated by G.M. in March, 1980 after union officials and news reporters brought to the company's attention a series of cancer deaths among pattern and model workers at a G.M. facility in Warren, Michigan, according to G.M. spokesperson Bruce MacDonald. A second round of examinations is planned, and Hawthorne recommends a long-term study be conducted over a period of years.