Serious Employee Medical Issues

As you would expect in a large pharmaceutical corporation, there were a few serious medical issues caused by working there. While Occupational Health surely kept track of these, numbers were not something that would be publicized. The three serious medical issues I was aware of are:

• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome happened a lot, particularly in production, and I knew a number of people in Building 41 who needed to have carpal tunnel surgery.
  
  

• Mesothelioma is a disease caused by exposure to asbestos. It is often fatal. Upjohn had blown asbestos insulation above the ceilings in some 1950s/60s era buildings, including Building 88, the corporate headquarters in Portage. Employees working above ceilings were exposed until the danger of asbestos was discovered. I’m aware of one long-term worker in the shops who was diagnosed with mesothelioma.  He retired but Upjohn Occupational Health told him he should come into the Building 41 employee clinic for checkups and treatment. After three years of this, they abruptly told him to start seeing his regular doctor. What Occupational Health had not told the employee was he had three years to file a personal injury claim for his medical condition. Occupational Health deliberately ran out that 3-year clock and then dumped him.
  
  

• A number of unusual cancers occurred in laboratory workers. This is not a surprise. If you work with new and experimental drugs for your whole career, you can’t avoid some exposure to them, even if you think you have taken every precaution. I knew of a number of aggressive brain cancers like glioblastoma that were fatal, plus a number of other cancers like lung and stomach that were successfully treated.