todd@uop.edu (Used to be robert) (01/24/88)
A friend of mine's grandfather was a worker in a ship yard when
he was a younger man.
Now it seems he has his vision failing. We are guessing it is because
of the arc welding he was around.
My question is this.. can anything help him?
It has progressed quite rapidly to the point of not being able to
read a wall clock from 10 feet or so..
The reason I suspect the arc welding is that his central vision is
dominantly effected, and the peripheral vision is not as markedly
impaired.
His grandfather is going to older docters, as he does not trust
the younger ones. We are afraid that the maybe the older ones may
not be up on the latest available treatments..
(a debate on which is unnecessary at this point, as well as undesirable)
Please help!!
Please e-mail
Thanks in advance..
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...eunetv!unido!\ ..sun!ptsfa!\
...mcvax!uunet!lll-winken!cogent!\
...rutgers!retix!uop!todd What will *you* do,
...ames!ucbvax!ucdavis!/ for a Klondike bar? bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) (01/25/88)
Posting-Front-End: GNU Emacs 18.41.4 of Mon Mar 23 1987 on bu-cs (berkeley-unix) >A friend of mine's grandfather was a worker in a ship yard when >he was a younger man. > >Now it seems he has his vision failing. We are guessing it is because >of the arc welding he was around. > >My question is this.. can anything help him? The first thing you might want to do is see if there exists a NIOSH (Nat'l Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health) book on arc welding, there probably is one. If there is even a strong suspicion of the syndrome you allude to above they should discuss it and reprint some papers in there. To get your hands on these try either a good University (possibly medical) library, getting in touch with NIOSH directly, calling OSHA (do they still exist?), or even calling a local school of public health (often part of a medical school) and asking for their Occupational Health dept or even epidemiology. They look like Schaum's outlines physically (slightly oversize, softcovered) and you should be able to get them from NIOSH for a nominal charge. Armed with some information you might be able to make more progress, perhaps get a copy for his doctor also. Former ship yard workers should be interviewed about possible chronic asbestos exposure also tho I don't believe the symptoms you describe are related to that, I just figured I'd mention it while you're digging into his occupational exposure(s). -Barry Shein, Boston University
geb@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Gordon E. Banks) (01/26/88)
In article <963@uop.edu> todd@uop.edu (Used to be robert) writes: > >The reason I suspect the arc welding is that his central vision is >dominantly effected, and the peripheral vision is not as markedly >impaired. > Welding years ago is very unlikely to result in delayed damage. Either the retina is burned at the time or it isn't. He probably has senile macular degeneration, which even the most elderly of ophthalmologists can probably tell him, since it is a common affliction, but diagnosis without looking at his retina is impossible!
pwallich@caen.engin.umich.edu (Paul Wallich) (01/28/88)
arc welding can cause cataracts, also retinal damage, though the delay period is unclear. With rapidity of onset, could be something else entirely.