Document 155DVRknN7pV82m598zgzk6mK

.Asbestos, long known as i ; a life saver, is now recognized as the leading industrial cause oi cancer. ..,>'** S9 . * *... * in> i iw ij ra>atoiwnijmadtotostotoM>afcifcaa^de* Mii I'to* Ai fCtApiny towns rp* Manville, New BY BRUCE PORTER he wfll eventually suffocate. t " 4 tioot'-lS.'OOO), hat taoeh One Manville resident-who Is bn* __ ht.-bwAet deriving to. of-Forelen Wan heD to the $10,000 too well acquainted with asbostoti* ; /from :ii>e .,'&25 >|obe pro-, needed for beer and hot dogs at the George Smith---"Sm!tty* to his friend John*MaavlUe Company 'annual volunteer firemens picnic. --who moved to New Jersey twenty ~be'*Hdoo'i. larflMt maabfectorer of V But;now, it turns out, Manville drt- years ago from a Pennsylvania stec isfbei<bi6<i<>l this: town enjoys . sent have been paying a high price town. He was thirty-nine yean old a .number.^fringe benefits. In the late for such largess. The inddenoe of hing the time, and he was active and health) :lUte Jd&^MenviDe donated $100,000 i cancer among Johni-ManviUe employees was always off bunting or fishing.' 'lpr>` Wgh' eebool building. .Over the Is four times the national norm. Meso- Smltty told me. "1 couldn't stand not t- toaft.<dweo<>eais `Jt'.hu*given another . theboma--a form of chest or abdominal be doing something, yon know." A yee ($100,000 to Sotnenet Hospital In nearby cancer that accounts for only one out ago last fall, after seventeen yean r . rpoibervffle.' 'The - company;. has abo of every 10,000 deaths in the general - making asbestos-lined sewer pipe In th- '.ftlckedttm Uw'fatB (or a Urge part of population--has in the last eight years Johns-Manville fectory, Sroitty cam. / 'Maif^nea f ItSjOOO worth of ambulance claimed the lives of at least fi/ty-clght down with asbestosis. *1 didn't Vno* r*nid:lescoe'vehiclo*, and It has donated Manville residents, most of them work* what the hell It was," he recalled. *T jkome't.lESO.OOp worth of. pipe for the ers In the Johns-Manville plant. Asbes- was just a little shortness of breath, yw tiownV sww -towage system. Town ear* tosls, or "white lung"--a severe scarring know, and I'd always been as health) ` VlP b dumped al the company's refuse of the lungs caused by inhaling as as a horse 11 my life. The hat docta jskee torvioe worth toother $100,000 a bestos fibers over the'course of many l`d seen was when 1 was bom. At firr year, >P atmeDqraieele the company years - -is another disease that plagues 1 thought ft was Juit something the- ai ian tdiy'touch foe.-everything uom the company town. Beginning as a mere would pass, but then It started getttnf ` Veterans shortness of breath, asbcslosts develops worse and worse, until one day 1 cam* Into near paralysis that makes breath to work and I could barely move. . JontOf'Fcrta, lohaepeciedUnstn writing ing and bodily movement increasingly didn't think I'd make It through th leaches [ioheoeSeaiiiat Bmofcfaa'CoOrge. For* difficult. function In tlie end the victim's lungs so marginally that, if the In * Lnltty Is now virtually kesnohije ........... VI---S(gaits * dividual does not suffer death from Unable to work, be sfts afi day IstW respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia. kitchen of the j h j-Petketeoenocse*. RQ8006 0722 SCF-FA-0039 ' PRODUCED BY FORD <aeorge Smith, a victim of asbestosis: "God help the man who ties up with anything like this!' : - . -Jr f ^jr.rnr E;S|i K&idiiiii:' | ae*i \/vU&fc- afr-riru-Ijarri ni-K? ,! Hj. VlanUeCc " ` *W??Sgisfes88tj h street from the plant. At night Smlty hobbles back to hb room above ii. iy'1 Tavern--a one-block Journey hat lakes him nearly twenty minutes wtame he must stop to catch his with every three steps. Hb body b hir ond frail, and when he talks'the mill rutile out of hb mouth in a fries of hoarse belches. "Even U my ritt ats would take me, I don't think I ould fish Anymore, because if 1 got a ite I couldn^t do anytliing about it." niiitv said. "I'm finished. ) can't work, rvii'i do anything. Cod help the mult 'ho ties up with anything like thb." While the effects of asbestos-related iseasei are. in themselves, fearful, (he rospect of the toll they may take in lain-lllc in the near future b even more i. In the next few years, physician* wlto i\t studied the problem'`predict, the umlm of deaths resulting from as.nUa-related diseases ran be expected reach near-epidemic proportions, bis b so because tlie gestation period r sibeslosb and mcsntlirlintna ranges itween twenty s'nd forty years. Hence, ocker* who joined the plant in the le 1930t and ]&40i are just now be ginning to suffer the wnscspieiiee*. A urge the most iiilr-use efforts tu ennirr study of 689 Jnhns-Monville employees that we do not ismthiuc to make these tliat'wsi released lust May xlimved mistakes. Too mam mm uud women that out of seventy men mid women luive died of our liluudriv already." who had worked ill least twenty years in the plant's furmerlv very dusty tex ' Perltaps mi other mineral b sn woven tile division, some twenty-four of tlicm. into thi- fabric <( Amerk-ini life as Is or 34 per cent, hud died. Tills death aslK-xtos. lni|NT`ioii to lieat and fibrous rate b nearly triple that of a similar --It Is the onlv mineral that can lie group in tlie' general population. woven lulu t-lntli---aslicstini is spun into *The next five or ten vears are going fireproof dnthiug and theater curtains, to lie rough in MaiivflkO* I was ink) In as well us into such luiiiscliuld Items ns Dr. Irving J. Selikolf, director of the iioncnmliiislilik- drujies, rugs, jail hold Environmentnl Sciences Ulsirutisy at ers. uml imuing-lxurd lovers. Misesl Mount Sinai Hospital in \rw York'ami into slurry, udjcslm b sprayed nntn the scientist who conducted the study, girders ami waits to provide new build "because a kit uf people are going to In ings with firepnxtf iiisuLition. It is used dying, and so far no mir koou-s what in llmir liks. roofing fells, and in must to do nlmnl it." Dr. St-liknlf adds: "What pListrrlxmrds and walilioarils. Asl>estos b tragic is that this is u mati-inailc is iilsu an ingredient nf plaster and slue- dlsease. It b uni a visitation (mhii <si ami uf muiiy paints and punk's. This heaven. It was preventable. Tlie w "mineral uf u tlKMisniid uses*--an olwo- rlous situation that nmv exists is a nv- U'ti' itkinanie: tlie present tsimil stands ord of failure on the pail of os all-- at around 3,000 uses--is probably pres scientists, iudiisln. anil gmernuu-iital ent In Mime fonn urntber In every Imme, luilltiNily. And iiuiuslry Is correct, in my m-IkkiI. nlliis' building, and factory in opinion, in pointing mil dial wliul we're , Ok- isnmlrv, Used hi lirake fillings am) seeing now h a icsult of our mistakes dutch (acfiigs. In nmfflers uml gaskets, in the past. Has'iug said this, t would in sealants am) caulking, and extensive- *7 8006 0723 PRODUCED BY FORD ^I Open spraying of asbestos on construction sites has only recently been banned in some Eastern cities. ly used in ahlps, asbestos is aim a com cstublislied llieir first adielii-|>rnduct ponent of every modem vehicle, includ plant in xvluit was tlmi culled tlie town ing pace ships. ship 0| Hillslxmiugh. Soon tlie idaul was An estimated five minkm people-- receiving so much freight addressed tu mer. and women employed in asbestos Julias.Munville that railroad men nick- plar ts. Insulallim workers, construes ion limned (lie place Munville. In 1920 this wor m, steamfitlers, carpenters, tile inline was lunnally adopted by (he com settm, and the like---dully breatlie in pany town.) " sign Scant amounts of asltcslot filters. Located wane fortv miles southwest Durng Work) War II some 4.5 million of New York, Manvjfle is a plain, pre Armricans worked In the shipbuilding dominantly Pntish-Americun town .In till Industry and were thus occupationally out mi eilltcr side of a long nuiin exposed to asbestos fibers. An estimated street punctuated by a single traffic 3.85 million of these people are still light. Xlost rif tlie houses that line the alive. Medical scientists fear that tlte tide streets ore posl-Workl Wur I) him- Sevinties will brine the firtt big wave gabrevs and Cape Codders, each with of aibestovindueed cancers amimg this tts sirudl front lawn and backyard. Tlie segment of the population. tall factory stuck and the sprawling In a study publlslted Inst March in (simplex of dingy okl and spanking new the Journal of the Notional Cancer In buildings' of the Jolins-Muuville plant Mute, Dr. Xlerle F. Slunton, a scien tist at the National Institutes of Health, ranked aslttstos second only to cigarette smoke among the. known In visible hlfwards in Invisible ssvirh In big title*. Each tiuu- u ear mccliatiic uirlioses out a brake housing, lie spreads uslwslos filters thmiigli his garage. Each domiiuitc the scene. I 'wot to Mnnvtlle, not liec-ame tlie asltestos plant lime was Johns-Manville's biggest and longest estubltsbrd, causes of cancer. Dr. Stanton's study time a do-it-yourself or professional but liecaii.se tlvc town's working popula points up the fact that asbestos fibers curjienter sows' up xudlliuiirtl nr plaster- tion lead Iteen studied more closely iliun pose a threat to the health of tlte gen- Inard containing uslicslm. lie releases thal of unv other asbestos compans ercl public. It is a threat that most filters into tlie air. So iihk|till<ms town, | went also because I htnl n-a I cflm and towns and federal agencies. is uslieslos that one tends to forget ulmot (hr conditions that laid Inni; Met most aslicstus-products manufactur it is time at all. Last fall tlsr New prevailed ul' the Manvillr plant, an.I ers. have been slow to recognize and York City Department of Air lie- which had Isevn sliowu to Ire the < slnv. to respond to. For yean the sight sources tested wx-eral Inaiiils of pow of ll*c haul plague, uml liecmise I J..< i of .'lurries of nslrestos filters finnling dery papier-mache mix widely used in licanl of new policies that priHiiisi-il down from construction sites was com ck'inentary sclwol. and found that great. If late, improvement in tiiuse con. mon; Lice In American cities and towns. some samples contained 50 jkt wot or ditiniis. ) saw Miinefllr, New- Jersox .is It w: s not until Febninry of last year more uslirstus. o' hil>oratory in which to study the phe that New York City banned, outright, ' Tlie United Stales is tin- xxxtrld's fore nomenon of a grmtp of businessmen He use of asbestos in sprays used to fire most entisumcr uf iisU'stos. In tlte span and industrial workers trying tu si|k- proof buildings. And New York was u uf years fnmi HKrt to liNt!) Ainerk-an wilh ||h* painful diwsnrry that lln-ii leader in this field. (List December tin* maiiufarHiirers purrhas<<d almost one- Imig-ciierisiKxl means of livelihood h is a Environmental Protection Agency--foi- third of tlie world's uiit|uil uf as- lethal side In It. It is u phenomeiiou lh.it. Win;* the example set by New York. liestos--sill average of KtKl.OOO tims I suspect. Inis ncnirrrti. and will rvjn-.ii Roitou, Philadelphia, and the statr of per year. Jnlins-Maiixillc is the giant of cdlv occur, tu the (nurse of this century llliaoii--look the first legal steps to Amevica's Iwoming. S l-hillimi uslmitos tu W'hk'h industrial progress ulwav- ward banning emislrnclinfi site spray- ' tiiaiuifm-tiiring husiuess. Aivurding to mvto* lii nulslrip mans knowledge ul lug and "the visible emission of. asbestos Matt Swelonic. secretary of tin- AsIk-s- the lull liinnuii (sinse(|iK-uees ol sneh particulate matter* during repair am) tos lufonnutioo Association. an industry- progress. Fw, ones- im tlie move. in demolition of buildings throughout tlie funded data ilistrilintinu center w lilt dustry U usually Ion pmicisipied l< nation.) How mauv New Yorkers were )w*adi|itarten( in New York City, Johns- pause, look luck,'and lu-ip out. breolhlng live sluflT in? Two years ago MauvilU' manufactures Ivtunn .T*i^ ** Evkh-nic that udieatws fibers cause Dr. SclikoflT and his armclalfa at Miami uml 40 per (xnt ol tla- lull ion's usIknIik lung iliiniugc was oil liaud even beiurc - Sinai studied .lung ttv-uo* from 3,0(10 filter. In 1971 iIk- xTlNi-mlllinu (iit|sna Inline ml Munville started up mm- consecutive autopsies jxerftinned - at tion netted ii-12.7 injllitm; kisl year it nlions in Ni*w Jersev. Hut. as Paul liro three differcnl Nrsv York hospitals; netted $.V5 niilHun. Ol tin- inunlry's deur nbscrxrO in "Tlie Xlaglo Mineral,*' they found truces of asbestos in 4H..1 per / ttXI aslu-stos-products pl.it.u, *s lik*li .-.ti an ailiele published in The S'nv Yorkf cent of them. The air in New York max Iilov a total of 31.(KM n,.-I, .,< f uimiii-i. in "(siyivss oil tlie part of imiux not be typical of Hint in other s ilk's, luit oliii.s-MiiiivlIle owns litis the, the trx, timidity ini the part of Libor, uml the st.-itistics stand as a warning. - largest of Its plants In'ing tin- mb- in iihtusi-ueM 'nil the jwrt of tlie medical Tie filters to which tlic general pub Munville, New Jersev. (In 1**12 Henry uoli-scMMi often (smihined tu make early Jlic truy lie exposed do uol come only W. Julius, Jr. and 'I'lromas F. Munxflle nxcstlgatiiNis into tlie iN'altli of usbcsln* 88 PQ8006 0724 PRODUCED BY FORD jti.n electron microscope reveals asbestos fibrils found in the air of an asbestos worker's home. mcaninglm." Then, h I9M iiktcoscd >n wmt^jerar in Jim. Such IV2W. the chief medic.) Inspector Tilfri'ipipm llurtop* may have been suf ' RritiO. ItiKnr Office's factory dr- ficient to monitor a slowly developing <: "-ent examined 363 adiestox-textile case of udiettoti*. but they were less i.-.-l-r* and found that morr than 2J> useful us a means nf colchiug a victim s -cut nf them showed evidence of uf n swiftly developing corner, panic- <i ' iog from asbestos!*. In 1B31, on iikirlv inrsolhelinm*. a disease that nor- > .?'<* of the Inspectors finding*. Par malty nnrs-ct fatal six mouths to a year I '-Mit made the disease compensable after (he cancer shosvi up in X-ray pic u among other measures, instituted ture*. (To Jiunp from post decade* to i dical checkups for workers engaged no illustration from the resent pail: ; articularly hazardous processes in in Dciemlier JV7I Danny Muriboriki t Industry. Next, in 1955, Dr. Rich- a forty-nine-year old ex-maYine who i 5. Doll, director of the Statistical had svorkrd for Johns-.Manvillc for thir oearrh Unit of the British Medical ls- years, checked in at the tomiiany search Council, completed a study dispensary for his biennial physical anil U3 consecutive autopsies of men sva* given a clean bill of health. A fesv > had been occupationally exposed ssrek* Liter, however, lie felt a strangr aslieatm for more than twenty years. M-iisnliou in hi* abdorrieir--as If his IN study showed that the extent to xlotnm-h sven* "getting bigger," n* he lirh they had risked lung cancer over on Itesv dull I nlllllll IIJIIl|lliil III mill III pot it--and ss-riit to see a prisute phy * whole' period was eleven times as a*TMult. coostdffed llw Vtniivflh. pUni ,, sician, whrt hi turn sent him to Dr. sat as that of men in the general pop- sare plate ||` Mm. mol women-- Borins-. Borins-'* tests showed that Ma- tion of England and Wakes. Biodetir svho svnd-ftl in .iK^-fi/iOx n'lxirski had a malignant tinnor of the rervet in his pioneering article on and Sixties, however, failed to inrUce iiu-inhraue that line* the iilulominnl i subject: "From then on, many doe-, tjuit_' the new equipment amide uny ap t-jvily--in other ssxird*. incxithelioma i were convinced that a causa) re- _ preciable difference. "There wereifnies "I knew svhat it wax liecause es-erybrxly gfflhtfl between asbestos-exposmr ' vJlifirflre air was ' thick with oslicstiM at llie plant kiuns-s ulsmt aslK-slinii end I King cancer bad been demonstrat- -oltKbugK almost no part of thevast utos -hidotiy"-cfther acknowledged dust hi wime plus's lliut vim couldn't even see.* ) was told liv a textile divi sion worker who has liren with llie com- inesotlielioma now." Macihondd told a rejvirter for the .Wu York Fori. "I woni'l surprised or slaN-lisI almnt It .... I Yelityimblp-or found it advisable to puny for thirty-two years. "Sometimes just askesl ll)r. Hoimv). 'Hnsv kmghavr ~the* independent researcher* who It was men impossible to limillir with u J gut?- r Macilain.lt da-d List fleptem- e investigatingjtt.' . respirator liecause the fillers would gel tier. Hr Listed at king its la- did liecause Tie hcahh~Hnurd posed by asbestos so clogged with aslieslox." (Respirator* lie svas willing to go to (In- doctor every ie home to ManWIle in 1WV3. when are generidlv unpopular among iidtextos Isvo weeks to lias-r up to eight ipuii's Maxwell Uormv--aJoc-ul phvskian. worker*. The wearer sweat* nod hi* if iluld puinned nut uf Ills uluhnneii. ttTUmt seventeen townsmen had eyes smart. For workers wlai lia\r car- JuhnvMuiis-ilfc paid .Mueilmrski's medi- I c! mwnthelloma-svithin the span dine or |Milnuniary problems. hrcutliing d expenses, aiul, ns provlihxl by Ncsv nre year*. Four years later llonrss- lliriHigh iiii ordinary respirator adds In Jersey state i\unt>ciixatiuu lass*, it is inhnrMmtWllelor 63,000 to :.ee T'dispby 10 rdueote both workant* the medical profession tit large llie strain ini llicir longs and heart. Afr-otohsl respirators that supply air to llie wearer arc bulky mu) nistlv.) pis iog his ss-idow- S7ff a sit-ek--n sum that ss-itl (Imp In 672 this lime, svheu la-r eklest smi will turn eighteen.) as ux.tos-rekited diseases; his re Even iHitskle tlie factory tlu* air xvus NVhv, throaglanit llie Fifties and Sis- it was turned down. Bonrw sub- frequently full of (lie potentially deadly lie*, diil men and women (rintinoc' to Jtn*lv approached the workers' fillers. In llie laist Valiev- Mf-tani lit si-oik hi tlv- pkuil if (snulitiiHU svere so a, Lccat HOO of the United Paper- town--an area dowuwiml Inan tlu- fac liawirikais? Iltc answer ssmild seem In er end Paperworkm: the union tory--the filter talk ml would gel mi base as inueli to ihi ss-ilh |rsvelMikim- as wised the collet a m .of (lie needed . thk-k llial launrowiH'is had In laise tin- ss illi esMiMiinh*. "It's funny.'' says ('lies- sinIf off llieir lanises. Directly in front ter Itaerkoss-ski. u forts aiuc-ycar-ohl 'hy h:d Johua-Manville declined to nf tlu1 plant conditions wi-ie eseii wurM-. inacliinist and union simp steward at out? "It sva* our opinion" jack "W'heu I'd direct tralfie there." Sgt. lU- plant, "IniI llie imle |ieopk- who n. the corjwatiou's vicc-prwtrfrril George Kalman uf the MauvflL' jmlks- M-etn searesl of this stuff isane fnnn out' Iratgi1 uf cits iiiininii t d iHulri. ex recalled, "tlaie weie days when it was siilc tlu- oanmiinllv." To Itut-Aowski. reel to me, "that in JHlfi there was like we were has iog simisv Hurries in sslai has worked at tin- plant sini-c la- fid to leapi mure almnt im-sotlM-li- July. I'd take off ms hat. anil it would svas eighteen, hit Job it a ss-uv nf life before a relatkmship with admin* In* insured with this ss-liile dust. that In* lx mil ulaiut to give up |u*t be i l>e sffinned nr denied." Resides. Nleauss-liile, i-sniiiinaliiiM.s Its- sum- cause uf a line "scare stories' in tlu- jsmis- UiK-tm I vw-turned riuTofily dime, Isivs*. "Y<)u and I can svork in a place es-rry tssu wars--a schedule that wu or thirty-five year*, nnd maylie you get ^tyyyxy^aenyay^rw was *-- t '* . . lliV.i- .- / 8006 0725 PRODUCED BY FORD An asbestos-induced mesothelioma may take up to forty years to develop. Here, an X-ray photograph of normal lungs. cancer or rawthlng end I don't--who's lo say? Dr. Barow lay* he'* an expert on this mesothelioma or whatever it'* called. Mow do I know? Muylrc I'm fatalistic, but I'm a Catholic, and 1 figure you die when it'* time to die." One |hing Raciknwski does know is that he would find it diffirsdt lo leave his Job at .the Johns-Msnsrifle plant. As a firsi-cbuu machinist, he earns (4.25 an hour, has a five-week vacation, and is entitled to a generous hospitalisation program. "Where eke could 1 get all these benefits?" Rackowski asks. Raczkowskr* Attitude--fatalism mixed with a sense of being pretty well off where he Is*--is one snared by the town's officials, most of wliom work at the plant, loo. Manville's mayor is a factory supervisor. A majority of the members of the local board of health, with conducting envirunmrntiil unci whose duties include seeing to it that medical research necessary to drvekrp the town's air is fit to breathe, are also safe Industrial standards, qnd empow employed by lohns-Msnville. Last ered tlie Lalxir Department's Occupa spring, when the town belatedly de tional Safety and Health Administra cided to ascertain whether' asbestos tion (osha) Io promulgate and enforce fibers were still sifting down on Man- tliese standards. Shortly after the act vflle, it seemed only natural that the become effective, in April 1071, Local board should ask the company to do the 800 in Manville filed a complaint which monitoring. The air was found clean. Irrought inspectors in. Violations were Indeed, by 1072 Johns-Manvifie had found and citations issued. taken a series of steps to clean up its Then, in Knvemlier 1U7J, under the factory, thereby improving the quality provisions of the newly effective act, of die town's air. Much of the impetus the industrial union department of the for Improvement came fn the form of ari-cto requested then-Secrriary of a 158-day strike in the winter of ]069> Labor James Hodgson tn promulgate 70. The main issues Involved fn the emergency standards for asbestos dust strike Included such conventional Hems and lower lire acceptable filter count as overtime pay und job security, hut from five so-called long filters per cubic it wasn't until the union brought the centimeter of air to two. (A long filter issue of health into the talks that ft Is one greater than five microns in fnund real clout. "It was tlten," I wns .length.) Hie arx-c.'io request claimed told by Wilbur Ruff, former plant man- that five million American workers were ager'at Manvflle and now the factory's being espojed to increasingly druse director of community and employe cnncentratkms of airlairnr asbestos fi relations, "that they started getting a lter* and licit the situation called for lot of sympathy in the press." Finally, prompt aclinn. Hodgson took hi* time. the company agreed to admit union Early in 1V72 lie appointed mi Advi representatives lo the plant's environ sory (aimniittee on Aslresln.* Dost and mental committee, thus allowing them hired Arthur D. Link-. Inc., a cmmilt to examine fiber counts made in the ing firm with a lilteral rcpirlatkm. In factory, and to lri worker* see their own provide atlvkv on llio economic feasl- company-kept health records. . liilitv of lowering liter filter omut, Two powerful nudges, fell hv lire (Arilmr I). Little. Inc. .ivinbk-.l m entire Industry, came later tn 1A70 and ' bralntnisl isiusisting ! thirteen in 1671. In .December 1070 Congress ecotivcs from the sliipltml.ling imlns. passed the 'Occupational Safety and- Iry, twelve emotive* limn lla- u\In`*Io* Health Act, which rslahUshcd the Na industry. ami eleven dm-hirs. most ol tional Institute fur Occupational Safety wliom hud previorrslv sen <d us con- and Health (kkkii), a body charged iirllattls lo the asbestos Irtdiistry.) Meanwhfle xkkii pul together a till advisory grruip of medical retca m In look Inin the fiber-count probl Both the Hodgson.nppotnled AtlviCommfttee mi Ashetto* Dust and KKMti pane) recommeiKlcd lowering count tn two fibers. Tl>e Arthur D. lie panel, on the other hand, concluthat tire five-filter count was safe that bringing the nmni down ivook prohibitively expentise for. all in. triallsts concerned. Then, in June, i days were set aside for public hear: at' tire Labor Departments offices Washington, D.C. Predictably, Dr. Sellkoff urgued the lowest ptrssilile count. ISn, too tlie last few months of his life, Dsnrty Maciborskj, whose uppearu at the hearings rate Johns-Manville fk*ial I tolked lo referred to ai has been "In bad taste.") Dr. Selikoff po cd out that, while researchers In that a worker must Ite exposes! to doses of Bihrslos dust before he i Irorls atbeslosis. they also know t considerably lets exposure y.tn cn mesothelioma. (As far back ui the r 1000* medical researchers in such Hung part* of the world as Jnham Iturg, London, mid Pittsburgh s craning up with reports on large u lsers of mesothelioma victims who had no direct occupational expusur. usbcsltw: wives nr asbestos uuri who hud inhaled fillers when slml out their husbands' work dot) isenple wire hud simply lived \\ii hull a mile of un asbestos factor * fourtecn-year-okl law wltose only i tuct with' the fibers oecsirred when la'ljscd his fulher saw and inslull plus' lioard. I Lowering the filter count wo rtxlotr the inckleiNvuf nslrestosi*. tb lint it wnnkl lsot necessarily solve problcoi of aslsestos-reluted cancers, this point, Selikoff win able to cite > dencr from his lost completed study tire 881) Manville workers. It dem< struted that, under uinu) factory c dilions, us the incidence ol asbextr declines the Incidence of cancer ri* Iti his survey f workers in the loomhigh-filter-ctiiiiit lesttU'.dlvision, for stance, .Selikofl iuirnrl llmt 39 per mu' tire workers' deaths resulted from asb tosh. 24 per cent firms varioos typecancer. whereas in ureas svltcre the fil count svas cwnparetis'ely low (thm not as low at counts recently achie* 90 PQvaewi. t 8006 0726 ' PRODUCED BY FORD Once active, mesothelioma spreads swiftly. This X-ray photograph shows a lung covered with cancerous growth. the Manville plant), such u the com- ny's research laboratory or its mainuance shop, cancer accounted for 40 v cent of the workers* deaths, asbest- for approximately 5 per rent. Tial was happening," 1 was told by r> Wflliam J. Nicholson, an associate ' MAoS't at Mount Sinai, "was that, itbout atbestosis, these people lived nger, which gave them time to die am cancer, aim caused by asbestos.**) A second point made by Selikoff was at the monitoring techniques used to certain the fiber count set by the Desrtment ef Labor record only long fi ts, although shorter fibers are equally rpablr nf causing cancer. Moreover, . a cuWc-centimeter sample of air conMng lltr admissible count of five tsjt Man thrre may be ten to 100 net as many short fibers. And it is eee uncounted ones that remain in air the longest. (In a recent conration 1 asked Dr. Selikoff what esc figure* meant in terms of the ambers of fibers an asbestos worker tn he asked to breathe in tbe course : an eight-hour work day. Each of us spires approximately one million cubic mtimeter* of air in an hour, he lained. Thus, in eight hours men and omen assigned to sections of an asbets plant where the five-fiber count obJns respire some forty million fibers. If so-catled short fibers are taken into count, tbe number of fibers respired sfly rises to around four billion.) While Dr. SeHkoff and other medical searchers stressed health factors at the nbor Department hearing, asbestos inurtry spokesmen emphasized economic nridemtions. Henry B. Moreno, JohosIsnville's senior operating vico-presImt, asserted that , to achieve a two-fitr-cuuut level in all of its .asbestos faerries would cost about $12 million in ipital expenditures, phis some $5 milcn in additional operating expenses sA year. This would mean, he jaid. sat the company would simply Itave to Ime down the dustier operations in the Itnvifle plant and fire 800. employees afl but killing off the economic .life f the town. Nor, he argued, would tin* Sects of a two-fiber standard stop ere. Other asbestos companies would e forced to layoff workers; they wniikl avo to begin buying asbestos materials em abroad, "it is ohvkrm,* said Mo ra, "that the overall effect of lowering > the present [standard] to two fibers per cc. would have a very substantial effect on our nation's ecooomy." In July Hodgson--rebuffing both his Advisory Committee on Asbestos Dust and the* mosh panel-agreed to allow the exposure standard to reinaiu at five fibers for four more years; only in 1970 would the standard be lowered to tbe safer-sounding count of two fibers. Johns-Munville welcomed Hodgson's decision. The new occupational health standard for asbestos issued today.* declared a company notice to stock holders, which came out the same dav as the Labor Secretary's decision, "will have'no tangible effect on tale* and earnings of Johns-Manville Corpora tion.* The release unit on tn my that between now and the department's 1976'deadline company officials woukl have to study tie "economics and over all profitability* of tie Manville npent- Aabealoa Fiber Countdown The chan below shows percantsQos ol asbesios-liber-counl samples obtained at work stations representative ot all those m lull operaiion ai the nmc ai Johns-Manviiie's Manville. New Jersey, pianl during tour years lor which such counts are avaiiablo. Lets Vian 1 fibers mi. 15.6 1Hf l. itn 14.0 1972 910 i-s fibers 24 ft 13 7 9.0 Mora Ml than fibers 11 liber* 51.3 6.3 25 5 61.0 439 14 9 irigvift a>fr>.ot* to Sid0A Ssniutit. ancto> nr rwaiis *>ie |1>"l lot |k A/l-C'O* iMaiimi vn.cn eraewaj Imni before rlecidiog wlelbrr il would meet the reduced exposure standards or close down much of tie plant. (Apropos of Johw-Manvillc's priorities, it might le noted that, while the company ex pressed qualms about spending more nronev to make its factories safer places to work in. it recently spent >25.9 mil lion to transfer its corporate hcadrjuur- tors from New Yurk City to n pristine setUng twelve miles outside Denver.) Dr. Selikoff took a different view nf Hodgson's four-more-yean decision. Estimating that aosne 100,000 men and women will enter ashestos-rrlated In dustries before the fiber count It low ered in 1976, he predicted that 20.000 of them might be expected to die of long center. 7,000 of mesothelioma, and an other 7,000 of other canters and ashes- losb---u high rate of death from thear diseases that could, and should, have been lowered. 1972 proved to le a paradoxical year in }ohns-Manville history. In Washingtnu, os we have seen," mie company spokesman after the other hmtt pn- dieted dire financial results not just for the Industry but for the entire econ omy if the finer count were lowered. Back in Manville. Itowever, company engineers were Winging the count way down, without earning n dip in Utc divi dends. At the hearings Slnlkm Samuels, director of health and emironmmtal af fairs for the afl-cio's industrial union department, had told spokesmen fur the industry this ccaild W done: the spokes men had insisted it couldn't. Ffher-couul statistic* provided by Samuel* (see box] are revealing in a number of wavs. Not only do they make dramatically clear iww vastly lire situation at Manville improved In 1972; they also indicate that cnittrob were slaclc well into the supposedly safe Sixties. . With HI per cent of tW' plant now operating within the standard set for 197ft, things arc looking up at Manville. Even such critical uhservets ax Dr. Hwmr and Dr. SeHkoff say that they use impressed by Ibe changes made. Stiff, tlieie tardv improvement* are small comfort lu people Hke Smhty, who "--i`t do anything." Nor sliall they rfit those Manville citizens who in tV* next few yean wiO suffer from hav ing worked at or lived near the plant ttkm ouuditions were far more haiard- cam than thev are today. Mr* ---- 8006 0727 PRODUCED BY FORD