The Nation - News from March 13, 1988

About 65,000 Americans a year develop lung diseases from on-the-job causes, making lung disease the most common preventable cause of job-related illness and death, the American Lung Assn. said in New York. Long-term exposure to cancer-causing substances in the workplace, for example, is blamed for 16,000 lung cancer deaths a year, the association said. Among the workplace substances that cause lung cancer are arsenic, a hazard in the oil refining, smelting and mining industries; asbestos, in asbestos milling and manufacture, insulation and shipyard work; chromium, used in glassmaking, potting and battery making; nickel, in nickel refining, and petroleum products and oils.