Art Glass Hazards

In the art glass industry workers run increased risks of dying from several types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and cerebrovascular diseases. This paper considers the diseases of glass workers in relation to exposure to particular elements, a high degree of correlation being found for some of them. Case-referent evaluations showed an association between stomach cancer and exposure to a mixture of elements, namely, arsenic copper, nickel, and manganese, and to some extent also to lead and chromium. For colon cancer, a clearly increasing trend in risk was seen with increasing use of antimony and to some extent also with increasing use of lead, the two elements being strongly correlated. For lung cancer no obvious correlation with any metal could be found. In addition, the risk for death from cardiovascular disease was fairly evenly distributed, although slightly more related to increasing consumption of the strongly correlated metals nickel and copper.

(The following abstracts are reprinted with permission from Section 35 of Excerpta Medica.)

Art Glass Worker Hazards

Epidemiologic studies of occupational cancer as related to complex mixtures of trace elements in the art glass industry - Wingren G. and Axelson O. - Department of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital, S-58185 Linkoping SWE - Scand. J. Work Environ. Health 1993 19/Suppl.1(95-100), summ in English.

Art Hazard News, Volume 17, No. 4, 1994

This article was originally printed for Art Hazard News, © copyright Center for Safety in the Arts 1994. It appears on CAR courtesy of the Health in the Arts Program, University of Illinois at Chicago, who have curated a collection of these articles from their archive which are still relevant to artists today.