Monona Rossol on fri 1 oct 99
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 11:00:01 EDT
From: James Blossom
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: health suvey: was WAX
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hi All.
This is for Monona, and all others worried with safety, and the effect of
our avocation/vocation on our health. It has occurred to me that the
members of the clayart discussion list consist of a statistically valid
sample of potters as a whole. We are international, professional, amateur,
full time, part time, old, and young. Why not a simple questionnaire-based
study on our health? It could not be double-blind, but it *should* result
in a valid paper about the health effects of potting, as well as providing
the list members with some useful data. What are the major health risks of
our occupation? Do we suffer more carpal tunnel syndrome, cancer, etc.? Do
we as a group live longer or shorter than the population as a whole? I
would personally participate by providing health/ lifestyle information for
the statistician. Would enough others do the same? All that is required is
a baseline questionnaire, and somebody to compose the questions and compile
the results. To be most useful, these must be further broken down by
category and tracked with new surveys over time, yet it seems useful, and an
opportunity for anyone seeking a research tack.
Mike Blossom
Sleeping Dog Designs
Albuquerque, NM
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Artists and craftspeople are really hard to study. While potters all pot,
painters all paint, the amount they work, the materials they use, the rest of
their life styles are so varied its really hard to draw conclusions. The
very things that you note--the different levels of professionalism, the wide
age range, etc., actually would make this study more difficult, not easier.
The best epidemological studies workers who have a lot of similarities and
who all do precisely the same thing for 8 hours a day for years.
Back in the 1980's there were three fast and dirty studies of professional
artists that did show higher rates of cancer--and recently another big study
of bladder cancer in which higher rates were seen in a number of professions
including painters and printmakers. This is consistent with exposure to the
benzidine pigments and dyes.
And there are many studies of pottery industry workers over the
decades--especially silica and lead exposures--and a number of third
world studies of pottery cottage industry workers with their incredibly high
blood lead problems. Most of the common metals to which we are exposed
in colorants have been associated with occupational illnesses in workers in
other industries.
In other words, there's no question about the link between what we use and
diseases. The only real question is how *much* we are exposed to.
Epi studies are not cheap either. In order to get good data the
questionnaires must be done by trained epidemiologists. Believe me, it can't
be done by the seat of the pants. There's a lot of data collection and
analysis involved. We'd have to get some funding somewhere.
But its an interesting idea.
Monona Rossol
ACTS
181 Thompson St, # 23
NYC NY 10012-2586 212/777-0062
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