American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (retired), 1330 Kemper Meadow Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45240
Herbert E. Stokinger, Ph.D., was an innovative and dedicated scientist who relished the challenges of experimental and industrial toxicology and the realms of occupational and environmental health. Although his contributions to these fields of endeavor are significant and recognized on a global scale, Stokinger is probably best remembered for his active leadership and ofttimes controversial role for 25 years as a member, 15 as chairman, of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLV®) Committee. Stokinger was rightfully proud of this role, which endeared him to or antagonized many of his colleagues, while ensuring worldwide recognition and use of TLVs. In spite of imperfections, TLVs have become one of the most significant contributions for the protection of workers' health. Stokinger's pioneering efforts also brought the value of biological indices and genetic factors into the setting of occupational exposure standards.
Stokinger was born in Boston in 1909 and graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in chemistry in 1930. Following 2 years of research in organic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University, he undertook a doctoral program and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and immunology from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1937. While pursuing his doctorate, he taught chemistry at New York City College and continued this vocation until 1939, when he became a research immunochemist at the University of Rochester Medical Center in studies of gonorrhea, syphilis, and leprosy.
In an unexpected entry in 1943 into the field of industrial hygiene, Stokinger worked with Dr. Harold Hodge in the industrial hygiene section of the Manhattan Project at the University of Rochester to determine the inhalation toxicology of uranium, beryllium, and other potentially toxic materials associated with worker exposure in the development and production of the atomic bomb. During the 8 years he was involved in these studies, and while serving as chief of the inhalation toxicology branch, Stokinger's contacts with Hodge and other experts in toxicology and industrial hygiene greatly influenced his future career. His research also contributed significantly to the 2200-page, 4-volume treatise on The Pharmacology and Toxicology of Uranium Compounds, edited by Voegtlin and Hodge (1953).
Recognition of Stokinger's accomplishments at Rochester, as well as a renewed emphasis by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) on occupational health, prompted the PHS in 1951 to recruit Stokinger for the position of chief toxicologist in the newly created Division of Occupational Health in Cincinnati, Ohio. Stokinger continued for 26 years as chief toxicologist of the PHS occupational health programs, through their numerous transitions to the present-day National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In 1977, he retired as chief of the Toxicology Branch of the Division of Laboratories and Criteria Development at NIOSH.
Stokinger's research activities in Cincinnati encompassed several areas of industrial toxicology, with animal inhalation studies of ozone, oxides of nitrogen, beryllium, and vanadium compounds being prominent components. In addition, the development of early indicators of response to occupational exposures through biochemical, immunologic, genetic, and predictive tests of hypersusceptibility were significant. In his remarks upon receiving the ACGIH Herbert E. Stokinger Award in 1992, Dr. John Doull stated, "During his long and distinguished career, Dr. Stokinger made major contributions to toxicology, and the research which he and his associates carried out in the Cincinnati labs continues to provide the most relevant database for many of the compounds which confront industrial hygienists every day ...Herb Stokinger understood the essential role of toxicology in the process of setting exposure limits, and he brought that wisdom to the TLV Committee and used it to establish many of the principles and procedures which we continue to rely on today."
Stokinger's broad spectrum of scientific interests and activities are reflected in over 130 technical publications, including authorship of 800 pages in the 19811982 edition of Patty's multivolume Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology (Clayton and Clayton) and numerous contributions of well-documented toxicity and other data to texts and reference books. Stokinger was particularly proud of three of his many publications: "The Spectre of Today's Environmental PollutionUSA Brand: New Perspectives from an Old Scout," 1969; "Sanity in Research and Evaluation of Environmental Health: How to Achieve a Realistic Evaluation (In Seven Commandments)," 1971, for which Stokinger received over 20,000 requests for reprints; and "Hypersusceptibility and Genetic Problems in Occupational MedicineA Consensus Report," 1973.
During his illustrious career Stokinger served as a member and sometimes as chairman of at least a dozen committees, including U.S. PHS liaison member of the ASA Z-37 Committee of the American National Standards Institute; Committee on Toxicology, National Research Council; Industrial Health Foundation of America; Subcommittee on Toxicology, U.S. PHS Drinking Water Standards; Advisory Committee on Air Standards for Manned Space Flight, National Academy of Sciences; Expert Committee on International Limits for Industrial Air, World Health Organization; and (for 20 years) the editorial board of Archives of Environmental Health.
Stokinger's many honors include the ACGIH Meritorious Achievement Award in 1965, the Donald E. Cummings Memorial Award of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) in 1969; and the Society of Toxicology's highest honor, the Merit Award, in 1973. In 1977, ACGIH established the Herbert E. Stokinger Lecture Award to honor his singular contributions. This annual presentation, now in its 24th year, is given to an individual who has made a significant contribution in the broad field of industrial and environmental toxicology. Dr. Anna Baetjer, the fourth recipient of the award, noted in her lecture that Herb Stokinger and her predecessors who had received the award had "...one trait in common which has been an important factor in the development of industrial hygiene, that is, their willingness to share their knowledge at any time ..." with anyone who might need it. Stokinger's nom de plume of "Mr. TLV" is a result of his practicing this trait on an international scale. After his many efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of the TLVs in Europe and the Far East, attendees at such meetings began to routinely identify him as "Mr. TLV."
A profile of Herb Stokinger would not be complete if it did not include his 47-year marriage to Helen Ackerman, M.D., a specialist in pulmonary medicine, and the birth of their daughter, Janet. Herb's trademarks also included an addiction to Tabasco® sauce, a bottle of which he carried to every restaurant, whatever the occasion and in whatever corner of the world. He was a dapper dresser with proverbial bow tie and boutonnière, and he also loved tennis, playing well into his 80s. Among his colleagues, Stokinger was a leader and pioneer. That some were at times taken aback by his acerbity or did not agree with his philosophy was of little concern to Herb. His response was "Well, I never was one to endlessly engage in a polemic on things. If they didn't like what I had to say, well, that's too bad."
In 1977, Dr. John Zapp, past director of DuPont's Haskell Laboratory for Toxicology, was the first recipient of the Stokinger Lecture Award. In his presentation on the concept of an acceptable level of exposure, a theme inherent in the concept of TLVs and dear to the heart of Stokinger, who was in attendance at the lecture, Dr. Zapp stated that "...if there is such a thing [as an acceptable level], threshold limit values have scientific meaning. If, on the other hand, there is no such thing as a no-effect but finite level of exposure, then the TLVs must be considered in terms of that which is socially and politically acceptable, rather than in terms of what is scientifically correct" (Zapp, 1977). The science must always prevail. Dr. Zapp closed his presentation by expressing "...a wish on behalf of myself and all of us to Herb Stokinger. It consists of two lines from Goethe's Faust and goes as follows: `Gesundheit dem bewährten Mann/Dass er noch lange helfen kann,' or, as it appears in one of the translations of Faust, `To him, preserved, good health, good will, and may he live to help us still.'"
Herbert Ellsworth Stokinger died February 11, 1998, at age 88.
REFERENCES
Clayton, J. D., and Clayton, F. L., Eds. (198182) Patty's Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology. Third Revised Edition. Vols. IIA, B, C. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Stokinger, H. E. (1969). The spectre of today's environmental pollutionUSA brand: new perspective from an old scout. Am. Ind. Hyg. Assoc. J. 30, 195217.[ISI]
Stokinger, H. E. (1971) Sanity in research and evaluation of environmental health. Science. 174, 662665.[ISI][Medline]
Stokinger, H. E., and Scheel, L. D. (1973). Hypersusceptibility and genetic problems in occupational medicinea consensus report. J. Occup. Med. 15, 564573.[Medline]
Voegtlin, C., and Hodge, H. C., Eds. (1953). The Pharmacology and Toxicology of Uranium Compounds. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Zapp, J. A., Jr. (1977). An acceptable level of exposure. Am. Ind. Hyg. Assoc. J. 38, 425431.[ISI][Medline]
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