Document 10Dxyz0xxB6jmedqxep46vvo

FILE NAME: PHN (PHN) DATE: 1976 PHN022 DOC#: PHN022 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - Asbestos Processor Finds Itself Center of Attention AA t s1b:esto/ sr i ? 1V * : itself center of attention B y TOM HORTON For most of the 60 y e an since Fred Mett established the Powhatan Mining Company in what has become suburban Woodlawn, no one paid much attention to the cluster of old tin buildings where 20 to 40 tons of asbestos rock is crushed!*) a - fine powder and bagged for shipment weekly. I But "almost everybody and their broth t j r t telling us what to do now," says Fiances Mett, who took over the operation. lq 1969 after her father died. To make her. point, she produces a stack of about two dozen business cards left by state, federal f l local health and environmental agen* dfc* -There is ample reason for their inter e s t For more than four decades the medi co) evidence has mounted to an inescapafaft conclusion: Asbestos workers die at ex traordinary rates from cancer and lung impairment, the results of inhaling minute fibers of the m ineral.. Most frighteningly, it now seefns d e a r that fatal damage occurs In some humans from only brief contact with asbestos dust and a t extremely low levels of exposure. The symgjDmrtisuany do not show up unt i m T o 40 years after first exposure. By the time they are detected, treatment is often useless. Enough asbestos-related deaths health effects have been among non-asbestos workers to lead Environmental Protection Agency study airborne asbestos limits for the | eral environment No such limits < Jyexist But exposure limits for workers places like Powhatan Mining have been j effect for several years now--and hatan has consistently violated them, cording to Bureau of Mines records Pittsburgh. In a "spot inspection" in 1972 the mines bureau's just-organized Mining En forcement Safety Administration (MESA) found several workers at Powhatan over exposed to asbestos dust Conditions in the mill were described as generally "dusty." The only action taken was a suggestion by MESA that the company modify some of its equipment to keep the asbestos dust down MESA inspectors made their first full-scale inspection more than two yean later, in September, 1974, taking 21 sam ples of the air at work stations in the Powhatan mill. Several samples showed asbestos lev els in excess of the legal exposure limits. Some*were recorded as having three to five times the allowable asbestos coocen-. trations but, according to technical papere SwtOZK.AS.CeLl Asbestos tiflii f~ ;focus of attention i`. f. ' r } .v l j TOXIC, from A1 > . 5 from MESA' Denver laboratory, actually showed jadDcnts ojLasbestos fiber "too heavy to count" fc* i ' { * The plant was ordered in November. 1971, to dose , briefly (for about a day) to dean up excess asbestos d u st The files note that air samples taken in May, 197$, , jliQSA's next inspection, found that the company still was , exceeding worker exposure levels in several instances. The conditions for which Powhatan was closed down for a jday in 1974 had been "abated," however, the inspector re ^ ported. . ; The only action noted after the May Inspection was V * roe-month extension to Powhatan to bring its asbestos, / ;lexelsinto line. 1 * In August, 197S, Powhatan was Inspected by an o th efi^ regulatory agency, the federal Occupational Safety adg^f. Health Administration. OSHA cited the company for " e i ,T 'cessive exposure" of several workers to asbestos and fin o D J*owhatan. f 1,370 for numerous health and safety viola*!.1 U` Sf? I li ' In succeeding months, OSHA's authority to Inspect Powhatan was challenged successfully in federal court by the Bureau of Mines, which argued that a crushing mill Wps an extension of the mining industry, which it has sole . authority to regulate. 1 i : OSHA withdrew its-fines. Maryland's occupational ' safety and health unit recently cited this withdrawal as the main reason it has never inspected Powhatan. "Our ; Jurisdiction is roughly the same as federal OSHA's," said DneO M. Banks, the head of the state unit 1 In its next lull-scale inspection in November, 1979, MESA found continuing excessive levels of asbestos d u s t' h t the mllL The agency recommended that the company adjust its ventilation. > The most recent Inspection, one made by MESA in ' February, 1976, shows no violations of the current ashes* . los exposure standard. r However, efforts to cleanup the plant are having dlffl* colty keeping up with restrictions on asbestos exposure. Increasing evidence of the mineral's disease-causing po tential is expected soon to result in MESA's more than halving the current exposure standard. ; That will almost surely put Powhatan "back on the boi^ derline," said Robert H. Dickey, a supervisory mining e* Uoceriflth MESA. e During a walk through the Powhatan mill In late July (It was during the lunch break), the problems of limiting Asbestos dust exposure were apparent jT h e buildings are old, with cracked wooden flooring and exposed rafters and other skeletal members. The N per cent pure asbestos trucked In from mines in GeorgHT '^North Carolina lies In piles, waiting to be shoveled by I into an open conveyer. Its consistency ranges from . iks the site of a softball to a fine, sandy texture. { At one of the bagging stations the crushed asbestos femes down n pipe into the open mouth of a large vinyl hipping bag of around 80 pounds capacity. At this point ^ jm.i i - -- the asbestos is almost like flour--if you grasp a fistful It Tpocfs" from between your fingers. J Tbe stork force--it varies from six to a dozen men de* ng onorders--is required to wear respirators, simple I with breathing filters to block out the asbestos. But one, Including Miss Mett, admits that respirators are ____lfoptable to work in and are not worn regularly. X Many health researchers now feel that zero exposure, Or something aproximatlng it, is appropriate for any prov en carcinogen (cancer causer). "It the trend toward lower ynosnre limits continues, 1 wouldn't be surprised to see Outfits like Powhatan go dowo the drain," said Mr. Dickey. * "And probably unjustifiably," added Andrew J. Nawa, (be MESA Inspector who has dealt with Powhatan. Mr. Nawa, who formerly was head of operations for a Bethle hem Steel Corporation coal mine in Pennsylvania, says Iflas Mett has "always been cooperative They've got They a&t f t f t f c l e n f o r c e whatev er standards they are charged with. But they also makeU. clear that MESA does not want to be responsible for shot ting down a company like Powhatan. , Unlike OSHA, MESA does not have tbe power to levy fines for violations, although it can go to court to sho^ws company down. To hia knowledge, it has never done VOy Mr. Dickey said. Most of the workers a t Powhatan declined Interviews ( with a reporter. Two who did talk asked that they no th ! ( identified in any way for fear of repercussions on the M l j Another who talked retired some time ago, but still diclast 1 want to be Identified. Generally, they felt that Powhatan w u trying h a n d keep the dust down and had made definite im provedol --"It used to be so you couldn't see tbe opposite wall," ooe ] recalled. None of the men, in lengthy questioning, exhibit* | DOCS She iCCl IOC OU oecn running a uaugctv nui> pUte? Definitely not, Miss Mett replied In i recent inter* vie. y She said that chest X-rays and pulmonary function teste the company now runs on workers show "no prob* Jem" with anv of the present work force. \ That is not quite the case, according to Dr. 1 Woodlawn physician who has been""" ` * i for about sis years. I he has (oulC T ung abnormalities" In. "I t's (asbestos) not as bad as people think, in my opto- Ion," one worker said. "11*1 (Powhatan) just soothe; mill/* he said, adding, "the farther away from me the govern^ m ent stays, the better. It's easy for them to pot e padlock on the door, but better jobs are hard to find right dow." ' ."You can do things yourself to keep the dust down," so other man said: . ' . \ "Like when you shovel the asbestos, you just remember m handle the shovel easy-Ilke, then you doo*t raise the or six employees who have spent s e v e ra l/ intbemilL There is no apparent exposure of residents te Wood- Almost everyone there is a heavy smoker, so their lawn to asbestos dust from Powhatan. The nearest resi problem s are most likely a combination of the dust and dent, other than Miss Mett, who lives on the grounds, Is Cigarettes," Dr. Brecber said. He added he has found do several hundred yards away. The mineral comes in In cov pmg tumors In any of the workers. ered trucks and leaves' In sealed bags. There are no visible i Only three current employees in the mill have worked emissions from the buildings into the air. ; y . y. there more than 10 years, and only one has been there However, in a shed behind the plant a 5-foot deep pile ftaore than 15 years, which health experts say Is about the of asbestos wastes is piling higher each day. Powhatan ftilnlmum time in which disease from asbestos exposure osed to dispose of it on a farm er's land, hut is prohibited Manifests itself. from that by the state now. (*; , i Dr. Brecber saids he forwards results of his examina "Where am I going to get rid of It?" Miss Mett says. tions to Powhatan, but has "never been asked" for any "Y outeOm e." ...... . ... . .. /'''/suggestions.He said he did not know whether the company Frank Swoboda and Peter Behr, Sun ttaffen, also ' (hows the tests to workers. took p a rt in the preparation of this article, thefifth in : He does routinely discuss the results of each examina* a series. ,. tion with the workers, and points out the vastly increased TOMORROW: Maryland begins hard task cf dahger to smokers from asbestos, Dr. Brecher said. matching cause and effect. /Their reaction is unreal," the physician said, "they Just don't seem to care. They say it's dusty up there and C. H. LEARS. I then they aay they don't even w ear their respirators." Dr. Brecher said he had no health records for employ- , teabefore he started regular physical exams. Miss Mett laid there has been so much turnover of employees during I file fife of the company, which is non-union, that it would Superior Elegance I t e impossible to keep track of former employees. *- The hazards associated with asbestos were becoming known by the late 193Q's, according to most literature on Hie su b ject But it was "sometime in the 19S0's," Miss M ett recalled, "before anyone at Powhatan was aw are of ; From then until the MESA inspections began in 1972, <be said, about the only formal worker health safety pro gram consisted of periodic chest X-rays and having respire atcra around. r " It'i like with anything else, there's always room for Improvement, but what really disturbs me are the people who come in here from the agencies and say this must be done and yon have to have it done PDQ. I `3 can't understand why," she continued, "it wouldn't ' Be possible to live with the [worker exposure] standards / we have right now .. . I can't see why this is not what I call Ijvabie, good air. ' "ilw second reason," Miss Mett added, "is we just can't afford to [make extensive modifications] in a little indus try such as Powhatan." "If this company doses, an important product will be lost," Harry W. Ferkier, Miss Mett's attorney and an offi- cti of the company, pointed out during the interview. Powhatan, according to Mr. Ferkier, is the only compa ny remaining in the United States that processes its par- tio ila r variety of asbestos-antbophyllite, as opposed to &chrysolite asbestos widely used in insulation and brake ags. i (Federal exposure limits apply equally to anthophyl- $2,495.00 Breakfront 72*xl6W*a83*H Bte, chrysotile and the other four types of asbestos fibers. U jere is no evidence to show any is m ore or less danger* uin rdjuiuble UhM th. nr* enter d a than the others.) .1 ] The bulk of Powhatan's product goes to big chemical Companies like Allied Chemical for use as filler in plastic rfodncte. But U also manufactures, using asbestos import* Top recuoo loon mo eoeered with aottU>l framed with ratlawood inlij end pverity. Fn W p is lower portion of door it Mtinwood. Lutherville only! db Ih x n A frica, the highly specialized Gooch filters used i i most of tbe world's chemistry laboratories. The process was invented by Mist M etfs father and a Dr. Robert CJhJeA1^^5^ `a a a j Mr. Dickey and Mr. Nawa of MESA say that Powhatan q the only purely asbestos operation within their multi- state jurisdiction; and they adm it that v*- vears ago when their newly geared up agency began 1 spections, they Were mostly mine-safety oriented and Knew little about the health end of tbe job. _ ___________ Downtown 417 N. Howard St. Phoae 685-3463 Open Daily 9 to S OpenIlian. Ereninp Lutherville Seminary Are. at the Phene 296-S2XX _ Open .,Thurv, Fri. Em. k / A Sat. 9-5:90