Stuart Millheiser: What Funeral Directors Should Know About ALS

By Jason McDonald


Certain jobs entail higher levels of risk than others. Those who perform manual labor, on a daily basis, are more likely to experience discomfort or injuries than those who take up office jobs with little physical activity to account for. Anyone who has been involved in medical practice or awareness, like Stuart Millheiser, can attest to this. With that said, I think that it would be wise to go over the work of funeral directors, and the connection that it may have to ALS.

According to an article on TIME, it would seem as though funeral directors are at higher risk of developing ALS. The main reason for this is the exposure that these workers have to formaldehyde, which is a natural chemical compound that has a number of uses. These include - but are not limited to - space heaters and smoke for cigarettes. As one can imagine, this compound is quite frequent in the work of funeral directing, according to Stuart Millheiser.

The Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry published that went into extensive detail about deaths tied to ALS, in tandem with formaldehyde exposure. There was a study that sampled a total of 1.5 million Americans with individual jobs. Of course, you may already imagine that exposure will vary from person to person, since not everyone possesses the same type of employment. Regardless, the results of said study were shown and they were, for lack of a better term, surprising.

Funeral directors - mostly men who were exposed to high amounts of formaldehyde, were approximately 4.5 times more likely to die from ALS, than those who worked jobs with little to no exposure. Andrea Roberts, who was one of the authors involved in the study mentioned earlier, stated that females usually had different job descriptions compared to men in the field. More often than not, Roberts said, female employees tended to work more with clients, as opposed to becoming involved in embalming, which is where formaldehyde exposure was most prominent. This is more worthwhile information to be highlighted by the likes of Stuart Millheiser.

To say that this type of research is interesting would be nothing short of an understatement. Researchers are always looking for more information about ALS, whether it's in terms of causes, the people who are afflicted the most, or what have you. The study mentioned earlier is definitely a step in the right direction, not only for researchers and medical specialists but those who'd like to raise awareness in general. When it comes to ALS, as a whole, new information is always welcome.




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