Authors' Note: Only a minority of occupational toxins produce cancer. Asbestos, ionizing radiation, radon gas, and secondhand smoke are the best-studied occupational chemicals that do so. The most prevalent carcinogen encountered by workers is tobacco.
Often the pattern of body sites affected is characteristic, e.g. soot/scrotal cancer, asbestos/lung cancer, radiation/bone marrow cancers, etc. In many countries, the lifetime risk of developing a malignancy is in the order of 25%. A small increase above this background rate would be highly regrettable, but difficult to discern and to distinguish from random variation.
The effects of potentially toxic substances are often not well-characterized. As with other harmful effects, study of the situation during plant operation, and efforts to make all exposure as low as reasonably achievable (a principle known as ALARA) , with the cooperation of workers and management in the process, is critical.
For the purpose of this blog, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 15 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format proceed in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year.
Generally, OEDILF has not been enormously welcoming of multi-verse submissions, but Giorgio Coniglio has persisted, and the OEDILF number for each accepted multi-verse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse.
To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (April 2021), proceed to 'Glock-toting Phyllis' (bipolar illness).
To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (February 2021), back up to 'the Word on GERD' (gastro-esophageal junction) .
To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.
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