The Safety and Health Hall of Fame International Irving Selikoff

Professional Experience:
Dr. Selikoff joined Mt. Sinai as an assistant in anatomy and pathology. His Career there was eventually to span more than 50 years. From the start he was an excellent clinician, with time and attention for each of his patients. After conducting a number of clinical studies on respiratory and pulmonary subjects, he began his ground-breaking research into the treatment of tuberculosis. This was followed by his growing interest in a group of patients who exhibited devastating fibrosis of the lung. All of those patients worked in a factory making asbestos insulation. Over the next decade, Dr. Selikoff and others identified and elucidated the role of asbestos exposure in occupational disease. To extend and refine such research, Dr. Selikoff established the Environmental Sciences Laboratory at Mt. Sinai, which later became the Division of Environmental and Occupational Medicine. By then he had ranged far beyond clinical studies and developed a research approach integrating several disciplines-medicine, industrial, hygiene, molecular biology, statistics, epidemiology-to analyze exposure-related health effects in the environment and the workplace. More than 70 different clinical studies on over 20,000 individual subjects were organized and directed by Dr. Selikoff. He authored more than 370 articles and edited 13 monographs on a wide variety of health and safety topics.

Career Highlights:
Dr. Selikoff's first major contribution to medicine was a breakthrough in the treatment of tuberculosis. He conducted clinical trials of the drug isoniazid and achieved dramatic improvements in tubercular patients, for which he won the coveted Lasker Award in Medicine (1955). His next major contribution was to identify and explain the health effects of occupational asbestos exposure among workers in construction and other trades who used asbestos products on the job. With his colleges, he identified and explained the mechanisms by which asbestos exposure causes various diseases of the lung, upper airways and gastrointestinal tract. This work involved hands-on investigation in factories and job sites. When such access was denied, medical histories and clinical results were gathered from exposed workers in union halls and rented schools. For his dedication, Dr. Selikoff was made an honorary member of the Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union. Along with studies in to the hazards of smoking, asbestos research led him to conclude that a new science of environmental medicine was necessary, in which he became a pioneer and, eventually, a world leader. Through his studies of ocupationally and environmentally induced cancer and other diseases, Dr. Selikoff raised public awareness of health hazards, brought about more stringent legislation and controls, improved health and safety standards in the workplace, and helped ensure the well-being of future generations.