Word: livered
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...toxicity has been around for years. Production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was begun in 1938 by B.F. Goodrich Co. That year experiments showed that the vinyl chloride gas used at the plant was dangerous to animals. A 1949 Russian study showed that vinyl chloride (VC) caused nonmalignant liver damage in 15 of 48 workers exposed to the chemical; surveys in other European countries over the next decade and a half confirmed the connection. In 1966 and 1967 British scientists examining PVC workers reported a high incidence of acro-osteolysis, a condition partially characterized by distortion of the skin and bones...
...cancer was first made in 1970 by Publio L. Viola of the University of Rome, who found tumors in the lungs, skin and bones of rats exposed to high concentrations of the gas. The link was strengthened in 1973 when researchers from Bonn University found evidence of liver damage in 19 out of 20 PVC workers at a single plant. The bombshell really burst early this year when B.F. Goodrich Co. reported that three men who worked with VC in its Louisville, Ky., plastics plant had died of angiosarcoma of the liver since 1971. Since then doctors have identified nine...
Their findings are all the more significant because angiosarcoma of the liver is so rare that it has been reported only about 100 times in medical history; a major hospital in Los Angeles found only one case in 52,000 autopsies. The discovery of a dozen closely linked cases thus constitutes a sort of mini epidemic of the disease. Since such cancers may not develop for at least 15 years after initial exposure, environmental health researchers suspect that more cases will be uncovered. Says J. William Lloyd, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): "I would suspect...
Some recent research indicates that even social drinking can have both immediate and possibly long-range deleterican have both immediate and possibly long-range deleterious effects on the body. According to Dr. Peter Stokes, a psychobiologist at Cornell University Medical College, the liver becomes fatty and therefore less efficient after only a few weeks of downing three or four drinks a night. But in the early stages, at least, the condition can be reversed by abstinence. More moderate imbibing-two drinks a night with meals, say-almost certainly does no harm to most people. New studies link drinking to heart...
Inevitably, the alcoholic develops a fatty liver, and his chances of developing cirrhosis, a condition in which liver cells have been replaced by fibrous scar tissue, are at least one in ten. A severely damaged liver cannot adequately manufacture bile, which is necessary for the digestion of fats; as a consequence, the alcoholic often feels weak and suffers from chronic indigestion. This may be made worse by gastritis, which is caused by alcohol irritation of the sensitive linings of the stomach and small intestine. The troubles of a heavy drinker do not end there, and through damage to the central...