s
Refinery
rate high
for cancer
THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1*79
POK1 ARTHUR — Medical de
tectives are planning further re
search into a preliminary National
Cancer Institute study that suggests
there are abnormally high brsun,
stomach and lung cancer rates at
two big oil refineries.
A spokesman for NCI at
Bethesda, Md., said statistics
suggest workers at Texaco Inc. and
Cun Oil Corp. local facilities face
unusually high cancer risks and that
talks were under way to arrange
studies with both companies.
The preliminary report was based
on statistical examination of 1947-
1977 records of the Oil, Chemical
and Atomic Workers Union and
Texas death certificates, the
spokesman said.
NCI studied the records of 3,105 '
deceased workers and examined
statistics for five plants with more
than 100 deaths each. The apparent
high rates at Gulf and Texaco
emerged from the preliminary in
quiry.
At Texaco, researchers studied
475 white and non-white male death
records and found five brain and
central nervous system cancer
deaths among whites with the union
10 years, a rate three times that ex
pected for all deaths.
The study also showed five
stomach cancer deaths among
non-whites, again three times the
•expected rate for all deaths and
twice that for deaths from all forms
of cancer.
At Gulf, researchers studied 413
death certificates and 13 lung cancer
deaths among non-white workers,
triple the rate expected for all
deaths and twice the rate expected
from all cancers. •
Both companies expressed con
cern but cautioned that the results
were incomplete.
“Texaco points out that the Na
tional Cancer Institute study is not
the final statement concerning fatal
disease risk," said spokesman Larry
Bingaman. "It is a preliminary or
hypothesis-generating report and
caution must be observed in inter
preting the results of the analysis. "
Gulfs Jim Catten said that “since
the findings are preliminary and the
sample size is small we are in
agreement with the author that
more in-depth studies are needed to
evaluate the significance of the
data.”
Carson to
*
Grads to receive alumnus awards
Texas A&M University will honor four of its graduates
with Distinguished Alumnus awards at spring commence
ment ceremonies today and Saturday. The honorees are
from left: Robert H. Allen of Houston, Fred R. Brisen of
College Station, Bill W. Clayton of Spring Lake and H.C.
Heldenfels of Corpus Christi.
Rural areas suffer as result
Country doc is
earing
United Prvu fatfenudooai
HOLLYWbOD — Jbhnny Car-
son said it wasn’t so — at least not
this year.-"
"We’re going to be here for a
while,” Carson said Wednesday
night, reappearing as host of “The
Tonight Show." He was absent for
two weeks that were filled with re
ports of a’struggle with NBC over
his desire to quit two years before
hfs contract expires, saying he is
tired after 17 years in the job.
Carson, who usually draws the
raw material for his humorous open
ing monologue from the headlines,
made no exception for himself, re
ferring to the present contract that
requires him to work only three
nights a week.
"People have asked me a lot of
questions; the same question keeps
coming back.
"Last night I was asked, "Can’t
you do it more than three times a
week?’
"And I said, Joanna, I’m taking
the vitamin E, I’m trying the best I
After a string of such jokes about
hiiftself and the network, Carson ^
believed to be the most valua c
single performer on television -
got serious. - . j *
“Originally, I had intended to
leave at the end of our 17 th, y e * r > »,
which would have been Oct., 1,
Carson said.
“I intend to stay past thait time,
he announced, drawing wild
applause.
United Press International
HELENA, Mont. — Concern is
growing over the disappearance of
the country doctor from the. many-
rural communities of the West.
Physicians say he is becoming an
endangered species.
State medical associations in
places like Montana. Idaho. Wyom
ing and Nevada find themselves
diagnosing the problem, and admit
ting to no quick cure.
While doctors are attracted to
larger cities or, for example, to
Western Montana’s scenic splendor,
they tend to shun small, less-
inviting communities.
“It’s tough to practice in the
boondocks," says Dr. James Cope,
past president of the Montana Med
ical Association.
THE FORSYTH, Mont., physi
cian, who established his practice in
the Eastern Montana town 30 years
ago following graduation from
Western Reserve Medical School in
his native Ohio, concedes that "this
is not an ideal place.”
“W'e have no skiing here, no shin
ing mountains, no trout streams and
very little recreation. Cope says.
It’s hot in the summer, cold in the
winter, r
Eastern Montana is sparsely
populated over a 70.000 square mile
area. Even for the doctor who likes
the countryside, he finds it hard to
retain enough patients to support a
practice in a region where the popu
lation is so scattered.
Cope and one other physician
serve Forsyth, a town of fewer than
3,000 residents, not far from Col-
strip, the hub of Montana's recent
coal-boom area. There are no doc
tors and no hospital in Colstrip,
which now is larger than Forsyth.
AS COPE NOTES, the problem
is not numbers of physicians, of
which the United States has no
shortage. It's what he calls "maldis
tribution."
Dr. Robert St. John, president of
the Montana Medical Association,
uses the same term, adding, "We re
actually looking at a physician ex
cess.”
St. John is a gynecologist-
obstetrician in his hometown of
Butte, in Western Montana, where
the mountains, trout streams, ski
ing, hunting and similar attractions
apparently have helped to nearly
double the number of physicians in
that city in the past 10 years.
Robert G. Smith, executive direc
tor of the W’yoming State Medical
Society, also points to what he calls
the "distribution problem
“Physicians are agoing to congre
gate where they are needed and
where they can practice their skills,
specialists especially.”
NEARLY 40 PERCENT of
Wyoming’s doctors are located in
Cheyenne and Casper, that state's
largest cities. Smith says.
Dr. Neil Swissman of Las Vegas,
president of the Nevada State Med
ical Association, says his group “for
years has been active in promoting
practice opportunities for physicians
in rural communities.
In Oregon, a report by Lee Lewis
of the state Medical Association
called attention to Oregon’s “livabil
ity” as the primary reason for a
growth in the statewide physician
population. Lewis said it was "dif
ficult to support the proposition that
we have a great manpower short
age, but she too mentioned “some
problems with the distribution of
medical manpower."
DIRECTOR DONALD SOWER
of the Idaho Medical Association
says that while the association has
been relatively successful in placing
doctors in many of Idaho’s small
immunities in recent years, that
has not been the case in '‘remote
areas." •
“I don’t know if we’re ever going •
to get them there," says Sower.
Idaho has more than. 1,000 physi
cians, but more than 200 are in the
Boise area and nearly 400 others in
and around Twin Falls. Idaho Falls,
Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene.
Of Montana’s estimated 1,000
doctors, -about 220 practice in Bil
lings, and another 300 are in Great
Falls and Missoula, the state’s three
largest cities.
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