Irving J. Selikoff (January 15, 1915 – May 20, 1992) was a medical researcher who in the 1960s established a link between the inhalation of asbestos particles and lung-related ailments. His work is largely responsible for the regulation of asbestos today. He also co-discovered a treatment for
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
.
Background
Irving J. Selikoff was born to a
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
family in Brooklyn in 1915. He graduated from
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1935 and attended Royal Colleges Scotland for his medical degree, graduating in 1941. He later interned in Newark, New Jersey, and joined the Mount Sinai Medical Center as an assistant in anatomy and physiology.
Selikoff was married to Cecelia Shiffrin.
Occupational Safety and Health
In the 1960s, Selikoff documented
asbestos-related diseases
Asbestos-related diseases are disorders of the lung and pleura caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibres. Asbestos-related diseases include non-malignant disorders such as asbestosis (pulmonary fibrosis due to asbestos), diffuse pleural thicke ...
among industrial workers. He found that workers exposed to asbestos often had scarred lung tissue 30 years after exposure. His research is credited with having pressured the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...
(OSHA) to limit workplace exposure to asbestos.
In the 1950s, Selikoff had opened a general-medicine practice called the Paterson Clinic in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.pleural mesothelioma were diagnosed in a year—the expected incidence was about 5/100,000. (The new cohort (asbestos workers) were still a small fraction of the clinic's patient list, but this small group faced grave and novel risks.)
This anomaly led Selikoff into an examination of the relation between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. He became aware of hundreds of articles previously published on this issue. He engaged in additional studies of groups of asbestos workers, in particular shipyard workers including those at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. By 1965, he had conducted various studies, published several articles, conducted special scientific symposia, and been interviewed by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Each of these raised public awareness of the issue, which had been known to the occupational health community but which had not yet reached widespread public awareness. One of the most well-known and important was the international conference on the "Biological Effects of Asbestos" under the auspices of the renowned New York Academy of Sciences. The results of these presentations were publiced in Volume 132 of the ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'' published in 1965.
He has received awards from the
American Public Health Association
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is a Washington, D.C.–based professional membership and advocacy organization for public health professionals in the United States. APHA is the largest professional organization of public health pr ...
, the
New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...
, and the
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''.
History
The society w ...
. He was also awarded the Albert
Lasker Award
In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...
for Clinical Medical Research in 1955. In 1982 he co-founded the Collegium Ramazzini along with Cesare Maltoni and other scientists. He wrote more than 350 scientific articles and two books, edited 11 books and founded two journals. He was the former head of the American Thoracic Society, the Collegium Ramazzini and New York Academy of Medicine. He was a consultant to the World Health Organization, the National Cancer Institute and other agencies, businesses and unions.
U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney presented a Congressional Record tribute in honor of Dr. Selikoff in October 2015. The tribute was presented at the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sina ...
and is on display at the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health.
Prior to Selikoff's publications in this area, the US "had been the world's greatest consumer of asbestos." Part of the contrary perspective was presented by a Nathan A. Schachtman, an adjunct lecturer at the Columbia Law School. He stated that Selikoff and his supporters organized a lopsided medical conference, writing "One can only imagine the hue and cry that would arise if a defendant company had funded a lopsided medical conference, arranged for the conference to feature defendant’s expert witnesses, set out to give short shrift to opposing points of view, invited key judges to attend the conference, and paid for the judges' travel and hotel expenses". This quote from Schachtman came from a web site he maintained, unlike the quote from McCulloch and Tweedale, whose comments were published only after being accepted by reviewers for a refereed academic journal. Selikoff's efforts to publicize his research and that of others placed him at the center of controversies surrounding asbestos. In efforts to protect the industry, criticisms were made of Selikoff exaggerating the risks of asbestos and even committing medical fraud. However, most of these claims were inspired by the asbestos industry or its sympathizers, "and for much of his career he was the victim of a sustained and orchestrated campaign to discredit him. The most serious criticisms usually more accurately describe his detractors than Selikoff himself".
Mount Sinai and the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health
In 1966 Selikoff founded and became the director of the Environmental and Occupational Health Division of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the nation's first hospital division dedicated to the field. He retired as division director at Mount Sinai in 1985 but remained active in research. After his death, it was renamed the "Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine" in his honor, and subsequently named "Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health".
Irving J. Selikoff Award and Lecture
The Irving J. Selikoff Award and Lecture was instituted in 1993 by the Collegium Ramazzini. The award is given periodically to a scientist or humanist whose studies and achievements have contributed to the protection of workers' health and the environment.
Recipients of this award include:
* 1995 – Professor Cesare Maltoni
* 2006 – Professor Yasunosuke Suzuki
* 2007 – Dr. Morando Soffritti
* 2008 – Dr. Philip J. Landrigan
* 2009 – Dr. Stephen M. Levin
Death
Selikoff continued to research the effects of asbestos up to the age of 75. A resident of
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a Village (New Jersey), village in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Ridgewood is a suburban commuter town, bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown M ...
, he died on May 20, 1992, at the age of 77 from cancer at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.