Document 2qaN1NmD89vVppq1KXowwdb56

FILE NAME: Shipbuilders Council of America (SHIP) DATE: 1978 July 14 DOC#: SHIP015 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: ABC News Transcript - 'Asbestos-The Way to Dusty Death1 . RADIO TV REPORTS, in c . A435 WISCONSIN AVENUE. N.W WASHINGTON, D C. 244-35- PLAINTIFF'S > EXHIBIT | FOR THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION SBCA 5051 } program ABC News Closeup STATION WJ LA-TV A8C Network DATE J u l y U , 1978 10:00 PM CITY Washington, O.C. SUBJECT Asbestos: The Way to Dusty Death JULES BERGMAN : A s b e s t o s is a common mi neral, easily mined, to make textiles, cement, insulation, and hundreds of com me r c i a l prod uct s. The d a r k e r side is t h e dust. When inhaled, it can start th e body t o w a r d s cancer or i r r e v e r s i b l e lung d i s e a s e years later. MAN: Sometimes it's so dusty like a foggy day. And one time l asked he said to me, "Well, we know that i t 's but it won't hurt no bod y." t h e r e t h a t it was just my s u p e r v i s o r , and all a little uncomfortable, BERGMAN: Before this century ends, asbestos will Kill or c a u s e ser iou s d i s e a s e in h u n d r e d s of t h o u s a n d s of people. MAN: Th e real e ffect of t h e d i sease is the living death. Th e person is cr ip ple d. He Is a r e s p i r a t o r y cripple. MAN: asbestos to any Ia+ed canc e r . Fifty percent of those people who' v e worked around degree will die of lung cancer or some other re- MAN: It's the same as putting a gun to your bead and pulling the trigger, and the bullet has 20 years to get there, what you b r eat he tod ay is going to kill you 20-30 years from now. WOMAN: My m o t h e r died !Q years ago from p I e u r o m e s o t h e ` lioma. And my father died last year of metastatic edena passa- noma (?), a form of cancer. And I was stricken last May with p l e r u o n e s o t h e l i o m a . I d i r ectly a t t r i b u t e it to asbestos expo sure. MAN: CCoughingH OFFICES IN- NEW YORK LOS ANGELES CHICAGO . DETROIT AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES Va!**taJ &y Raao TV Reports, wvl may b * lor fl! and rfffwenc# purposes c/rty. ft may not b * fS*ofluead. i zxi ZJ po'-ety sra t*d ct <h[ 2 BERGMA N: T h e real t r a g e d y Is t h a t this need not have h a p p e n e d . T h e r e w e r e cl e a r w a r n i n g s , but t h e y we r e ignored by industry, by a negligent government, and by the medical profes sion. All failed to warn m i l l i o n s of w o r k e r s in time. MAN ain't no need just short of Csingingj: of tryin'. dyln'. T h e y tell m e i c a n rt w o r k at ail, there B u t livin' like some u s ed-up thing Is BERGMA N: In t h i s p r o g r a m we'll look at what happened to the workers and other victims, and who allowed this human dis aster to take place, who led them on the way to a dusty death. * # * BERGMA N: G e o r g i a Tech had some g r e a t football t eams In the early '50s, and Franklin Brooks was part of them. The Yellow J a c k e t s p lay ed in four c o n s e c u t i v e bowl games, and F r a nklin B r o o k s p l a y e d In all of t h e m . T h a t ' s him, number 60, making the tackle. This is the Su gar Bowl g a m e of 1956. was voted the most valuable player.. Franklin Brooks Su mme rs, he worked in an insulation plant, like this, wi th a s b e s t o s board and pipes. It was dusty. N o - o n e to ld him it was d a n g e r o u s . coach. Football was his life. First as a player, then as a By age 42, he was back at Georgia Tech, an assistant coach. Then he got sick: asbestos cancers. mesothelioma, the most deadly of FRANKLIN BROOKS: I'd say it's w o r sened lately, because I h a v e t h e m o s t s e v e r e pain th at ! !ve had and I h a v e a real s h o r t ness of bre at h. I 1ve had to get an oxygen t a n k in my room. And I h a v e n ' t used it yet, but it w o n ' t be long b efore ! t h i n k I'll have to use oxygen. 1 ca n' t w a l k fast or w a l k up s teps. If l do, I g e f o u t of breath. That's an indication that things are not as good as they were, the shortness of breath and the severe pain that f have. BERGMAN: The asbestos dust that does the damage has to be m a g n i f i e d t h o u s a n d s of t i m e s b e f o r e you can see it. Two hundred and fifty thousand of these specks laid end to end would equal one inch. it was ju st such s p e c k s t h a t c h a n g e d Frank l i n Brooks' life. BROOKS: I was just about a 200-pounder, and that's what 1 we i g h e d when I became til. I'm down now to about 140. I wear my turtleneck to hide the loss of my muscles. 3 I'm not talk to it, you I ha ve tw o c h i l dren, one y o u n g s t e r 20 and a d a u g h t e r 16. sure th at t h e y r e a l i z e how s e r i o u s it is. I've tried to them at times,, but they're very reluctant to talk about know, and my wi fe is r e l u c t a n t to t a l k about it. MRS. and 'it's going for a miracle. BROOKS: I think one day it's going to alt disappear. But 1 guess not. Well, maybe. Because we love him. to get better I'm hoping J[CIip of woman saying prayers with Frank Cullen^ B E R GM AN; F r a n k C u l l e n is too s i c k to go to chur ch , so the church comes to.him. CC I1p of pray ingU BERGMAN: It's been more than 30 years since Frank Cuilen last w o r k e d with a s b e s t o s . T h a t was d u r i n g World War li. CCI Ip of p r a yi ng] BERGMAN: Frank Cullen was a boilermaker during the war, serving on destroyers like the U.S.S. Davidson. -- FRANK CULLEN: Every time you did 2000 hours you'd have to remove the asbestos on the lines. WhTIe they were doing this, you'd be w a l k i n g in all this g a r b a g e , a s b e s t o s all ov er t h e place, soot. You na me it, it was all there. MAN Csi ngi ng] : l did my part in W o r l d War II, got for the nation. Now my lungs are a l ! shot down, there ain't pensation. I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time. going to go to work on Monday one more time, one more tine. going to go to work on Monday one more time. wounded no com I'm , I'm BERGMAN: Frank Cullen never worked with asbestos again. He left the Navy, married, had eight children. Now he has eight g r a n d c hildren as well. Th en, in 1977, he s t arted to cough u n c o n t r o l l a b l y . DR. IRVING SELIKOFF: These are Mr. Cullen's X-rays. This fi rs t film in 1975 was normal. A c t u a l l y , his lung at t h e t i m e was no t nor mal, but we c o u l d n ' t see it on the X - r a y . A little overa - year or a year and a half later he began to have some problems. And t h i s fi lm is in April of 1977, and you begin to see s o m e t h i n g growini here on the lining of his chest. And that's unhappy news. That turned out to be a mesothelioma. BERGMAN: Ho sp it a I . Dr. Irving Selikoff of New York's Mount Sinai 4 DR. SE LI KO FF: Our t r e a t m e n t for m e s o t h e f i o m a is not v e r y e f f e c t i v e in m o s t cases. BE RGM AN: M e s o t h e l i o m a is caused by what? DR. SELIKOFF: for it i.s a s b e st os . Well, so far the only cause that we know CUL LEN : My s t r ength is all gone; I ha ve no s t r e n g t h anymore. I can't even take the top off a catsup bottle. Alt I know is t h a t I fm 60 years of age r i g h t now, and my whole I ife has taken a complete turn. 1 was figuring on retiring at 62. Now -- I'm not going to be a bed case, but l'm not going to be a b l e to do a n y t h i n g like l used to do. I used to do a lot of woocworkjng and stuff like that. I'm restricted now. I d o n ' t sl eep in a bed; I sleep in t h i s chair. And ! have t o e l e v a t e t h i s chair. I c a n ' t l a y in a flat bed. 1 have to sit up. Otherwise I -- once I lay down, the coughing starts. ' " '-'N I'm at the point now when 1 have four children married, and these are the times when you should enjoy your family. But the wa y it is now, you c a n ' t even have too m a n y In your house at the same time. You've got to be every mindful' of colds and disease a n d e v e r y t h i n g t h a t c om s In. B e c a u s e any kind of a r e s p i r a t o r y disease that you get, you have a problem. And the biggest danger is p n e u m o n i a . If you ever g o t pneumo n i a , f o r g e t it. You don't' h a v e a c h a n c e in hell to get over it. BERGMAN: About every month, Frank Cullen goes Into Mount Sinai for a week of chemotherapy. CULL EN: If this d o e s n ' t work, th en t hat's it. nothing else open for me at the present time. There's S o m e t i m e s I feel t h a t my lung is pulled up golf bail, and I get a little pain, but'not anything then it goes away. Y o u ' r e never c o m p l e t e l y free of, where you can see you were really feeling good. tight as a too -- and you know, B E R G M A N : F ran k C u l l e n is d e e p l y in debt. T h e V e t e r a n s Administration has denied his claim for compensation, saying he can't prove that his illness came from his service during World Wa r 11. He Is th e v i c t i m of an i n d i f f e r e n t Navy, a Navy that for too many years deliberatefy ignored the dangers of asbestos. And we'll look at that next. ft * with than BERGMAN : In a sense, it all began back in t h e f r n a t i c e f f o r t to bui Id e n o u g h ships to win a million men and women worked around the clock World War II the war. More in thes e s'h Ip- 5 yards, and the use of asbestos jumped dramaticaI Iy. Part of what w e 're s e ein g today, a sharp increase in a s b e s t o s disease, goes back to those days. A s b e s t o s is safe and useful as an insulator and fI anar e t a r d a n t as long as It r e m a i n s intact or is s a f e l y covered . T h a t ' s wh y so much of it is used on ships' boilers and pipes. But when it b r e a k s down or is d i s t u r b e d , the s u b - m i c r o s c o p i c a s b e s t o s dust is released, can be inhaled, and ultimately cause cancer. In t h e rush to build t h o u s a n d s and t h o u s a n d s of ships, no one really considered the health hazards. Ships to carry goods to our fighting men and allies around the world, and warships, a hugs fighting fleet, all using large amounts of asbestos. CHARLES A -- WO: The Navy, during the early war years, they built a tremendous armada to rain havoc and hell on the whole world. And we did that. BERGMAN: Charles Eye of the Asbestos Workers Union at the Long Beach Naval Shipyward. A '/ -&: And today we have workers who are dying as a result of t h a t t r e m e n d o u s Navy. T h e on ly t h i n g t h a t ha ppened is the guns quieted but the disease that we built into that ship now has turned on t h e person who built it. And we con t i n u e to kill our own at the -- actually, at a rate faster than we did -- or, number-wise, more than what we did during the war. BERGMAN: The Navy could have avoided today's disaster. ABC News has obtained Navy documents never before made public that ( tell the behind-the-scenes story. ItrfrSL9:49?s?ffet's^:owrtS'sa fe-tyzr'ev lew>:wa r n e d";o f,r,the-.-.da n g ers'olf ,asbesto5\'d.ust~'.-;:"lBuT":Lt7"tpok~ a Imos1^~30 years' for the Navy to act ^ Ft na ! Iy;> V F fr -T97'4;7~'the-'Navy sa id- it- would limit the use of asbestos^ a bo ar d its,.ships.? At about the same time, shipyard unions at the Electric B o a t Company, in Gro to n, C o n n e c t i c u t , which m a k e s nuclear sub ma r i n e s , b e c a m e co nc er n e d . They called in Dr. S e l i k o f f ' s s p e c i a l i s t s from Mount Sinai Hospital. DR. SEL1K0FF; We examined a thousand men who were actu a l l y in th e yard at the time. We d i d n ' t e x p e c t to find too much, b e c au se , in ge ne ra l, when you e x a m i n e p e o p l e w h o are working, well, those are the healthy people; and the fellows who are sick aren't there anymore. And we were rather surprised to find that about half of them had changes on their X-rays which were rather typical of what we find with asbestos. BERGMAN: Half of them? 6 DR. SELIKOFF: Yes. And mind you, we tended to examine o n l y t h e men who we re t h e r e 15 or m o r e years. V/e examined c a r p e n ters and electricians and riggers and machinists, radiation tech n i c i a n s , gua rd s, t r u c k e r s , all sorts of men who worked in the yard, weiders, for example, boilermakers, painters. And among them, 50$ had abnormal X-rays. BERGMAN: The Navy and Electric Boad, did they help you? Did they let you see worker records? DR. S E L 1 K0 FF : No. T h e E l e c t r i c B o a t Company, in any ca se , d i d n ' t seem to t h i n k it was wi se to s h o w us any records. BERGMAN: Did they,help you at ail? DR. S E L I K O F F : We 1I , no. BERGMAN: Even today, Navy yards aren't as clean, and therefore not as safe for the worker, as they should be. The Navy did take some positive steps at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, with high-powered vacuum cleaners and protective clothing for the asbes tos workers. This was a demonstration put on just for us, using an asbestos substitute. The Philadelphia yard was the only one the Navy would would let us film. But ABC News has obtained internal Navy reports which show that its own inspection of that same yard found numerous violations: damaged asbestos insulation, Inadequate vacuum cleaners and protective masks, and loose asbestos scrap around the yard. And t h e r e is the same pat ter n of v i o l a t i o n s at o t h e r yards. Norfolk: personnel protection inadequate, new workers 1 not properly trained. And at Puget Sound: lack of proper protective clothing, improper use of respirators, and a weak enforcement program. Th e c o n c l u s i o n is inesca p a b l e . jeopardized. Workers are still being John Cleary of the Metal Trades Council at Puget Sound. JOHN CLEARY; So t h e y get in t h e r e with saws, saber saws s o m e t i m e s , wh ic h blow air around; and they just" chop it away, s o m e t i m e s with h a m me rs, even. And it looks like a s n o w s t o r m when y o u ' r e in t he re , p u lli ng t h e s e v a i v e s and t h e s e s t e a m lines out to ta ke them back to the shop to work on them. BERGMAN: T h e N a v y ' s medical p r o g r a m is also d e f i c i e n t . A l t h o u g h it m a d e a big show of e x a m i n i n g 5000 w o rkers at the P h i l a delphia yard, the medical procedures were inadequate. You cannot do a proper study for asbestos disease without using specially 7 qualified doctors to read the X-rays. They're called B readers. The Navy did not bother to hire B readers for the Philadelphia medical survey. The result was that the Navy found only five per c e n t of Its shipyard w orkers had a s b estos-related lung changes, a figure far below any other such study. Nor were there any B readers at the Long 8each Shipyard several years ago when Charles Eye became suspicious of the Navy exams being given. A 'f *&TE: Everyone was told the same thing: " E v e r t h i n g 's all right. E v e r y b o d y 's in good s h a p e . " We d i d n 't beli eve it. We started getting suspicious after looking at some mortality rates. And so my local sent 22 X - r a y s to Dr. S e l t koff, which is a cross- s a m p l e , a g e - w i s e , d u r a t i o n of trade, t h a t s o r t of thing. And 17 of the 22 came back with asbestos-related disease. B E R G M A N ; S o m e of t h o s e 17 have a l r e a d y died. C h a r l e s - E y e 's father, also a shipyard worker, has died of asbestosi s and cancer. And Eye himself now has a problem. Ai PfE: I h a v e about 25? of my lung capac i t y is gone as a result of asbestos disease. 1 tire very easily going up and down stairs, doing any type of physical, hard physical work. I become .very fatigued very rapidly. But o n c e you get it, i t 's irreve rsible. t i n u o u s thing, and u l t i m a t e l y I ' ll die from it. I t 's a c o n BERGMAN: Finally, the Navy has started using qualified doctors to interpret the X-rays. t In t h e s t u d y just c o m p l e t e d at Long Beach, covering 664 0 e m p l o y e e s , they found t h a t 1061, a l m o s t 16? -- t h a t 's I out of 6 -- with asbestos-related abnormalities. That was for the whole yard. But for older workers, those who have worked at Long 3each for more than 22 years, the figures doubled. One out of every three of t h e m has a s b e s t o s d i s e a s e , and were told t h e r e is no cure. At Pearl Harbor the Navy seems more concerned about-bad publicity than about the health of its workers. Four years after the asbestos-control program began, only 237 out of 3000 workers have been examined, and only 72 of them have been X-rayed. A record so bad, the y a r d 's commander wrote other yard commanders urging they move more rapidly to, quote, get ahead of the power curve before the media m ake us look like we are being dragged k i c k i n g and s c r e a m i n g into doing wh at is legal and the right thing, end quote. At the Mare Island Navy Yard, the unions, not the Navy, a r r a n g ed for a study by Dr. Polakoff, an occupational health s p e c i alist from Berkeley, California. Dr. Polakoff examined 359 shipyard 8 workers, and found that 59$ had lung abnormalities. was one of them. John Morris JOHN MORRIS; Hey, when you're down there, this stuff exposed, you know. It's laying there, it's d o r m a n t - 1 i k e , you know. And o n c e you hi t it or tear it, it's going to fly on people, it's going to get on them; and i t 's going to kill them, you know. And t h e r e ' s nothing that the y ' r e doing about it right now. MAN; !tfs not the government that has to answer to the widow. The widows call me up and say, "Where do we go from here?" It's not the government that has to answer to the worker who's coughing and short of breath. It's not the government who has to try to file a claim so workers who worked for the government or In p r i v a t e Ind us fry for 30 y e a r s can get s o m e c o m p e n s a t i o n , w h e t h e r he's alive or not, to help his children get through school. It's no t t h e g o v e r n m e n t w h o 's a n s w e r i n g t h e s e q u e s t i o n s . BERGMAN: The Navy has been just as law with its ships as it has wi th its s h i p y a r d s . I t 's older s h i p s w e r e built with a s b e s t o s . It's newer ones are s u p p o s e d to be a s b e s t o s - f r e e , whei-- ever suitable substitutes can be found. But these insulating pads containing 80$ asbestos came off two brand-new vessels, the U.S.S. E l l i o t t and t h e Li.S.S. T a r a w a . Both ships w e r e built by Litton .industries at th is s h i p y a r d in P a s c a g o u l a , M i s s i s s i p p i . When we asked, Litton told us flatly that it used no asbestos on the ships. B u t t h e s e pads came from t h o s e ships, and t h e r e is a s u i t a b l e s u b stitute. So the Tarawa and the Elliott join the rest of the fleet, still using asbestos insulation. And the Navy can't seem to control asbestos repairs at sea to cut the down the exposure of its own crewmen. Last October, the Navy again prohibited asbestos repairs at sea unless stringent safeguards were met. The directive com plained that some ships were not complying with the original orders, and they were not because they could not. U.S.S. comply board . Again, unret eased Navy documents. The Commander of the E n t e r p r i s e , r e s p o n d i n g to t h a t d i r e c t i v e , said he coul.d not because the necessary filters and respirators were not on More recently, and more damning, a Navy study of the A t l a n t i c fleet found that 85$ of the ships inspected had no controls at all on asbestos repairs performed at sea. ha pp e n s . And so it goes. The N a v y issues orde rs, and nothing much MAN; You have this giant marshmallow Navy, and where' do 9 you grab the corner to get a marshmallow down on its back? And it's hard to p e r s o n a l l y get mad at -- if you had so mebody stan din g t h e r e d e n y i n g it, one single person could s ingle out, then the unions could go after that. But we've got the Navy and we've got all their subordinate agencies, and they're contracting this work out. And all of them deny that any of them have an asbestos p r o b lem, and that they're doing their best. And as Charlie said, they just snow you under with paperwork. BERGMAN: We confronted the Navy with its own reports, s u r v e y s and aud it s, it refu sed to comment. Why? The m a j o r reason h u n d r e d s of m i l l i o n s of d o l l a r s in u n s e ttled claims. T h e g o v e r n m e n t has f i n ally taken a t e n t a t i v e step by a d v i s i n g sh ip ya rd w o r k e r s to see t h e i r doctors. it d idn't offe r to pay for the exams. now, yard B e f o r e o u r a s b e s t o s e p i d e m i c is over, many years from those claims will climb into the billions, not only from ship workers, but others as well. And we'll look at that next. * * * BERGMAN: The"riverside section of Paterson, New Jersey, a grimy part of an old industrial town, an area full of small fac to r i e s and warehouses. Up on the hill, rows of modest houses. Ail in all, a drab and d e p r e s s e d area. When the h i s to r y of a s b e s t o s is written, this building, now a pa in t w a r e h o u s e , will piay a g r i m l y p r o m i n e n t role. It used to be the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company, UNARCO for short. D u r i n g Wo rl d War II, it m a d e a s b e s t o s produ c t s for our ships. At the time UNARCO operated here, there were no controls at all. The pl an t was filthy. And we now know th at as little as half-a-day's heavy exposure can start the deadly cycle. The men who worked here have been studied more thoroughly than any other group of asbestos workers. About 35? o f -them have already died of cancer and other asbestos diseases. That's more than three times as many as would normally die of cancer. The study, now 10 years old, Is still going on. WOMAN: Your father worked at Union Asbestos and C o m p a n y in 1944, and we are interested in what he has been s i n c e then, and to see If the e f f e c t s of the asbestos dust fest themselves 30 years later. Rubber doing mani BERGMAN: The UNARCO studied. So far, 35? of them, T h e family c o n n e c t i o n is a new workers' as well, concern. families are also being have lung abnormalities. 10 lungs was insulator A week before this removed. Her only in a M a s s a c h u s e t t s interview, one of Mrs. exposure came.from her shipyard. Barbara father, Gury's an MRS. BARBARA G U R Y : When he came home, his clothing was c o v e r e d with a s b e st os . And i don't know if you know what it looks like. it's a c h a l k y s u b s t a n c e when it a c c u m u l a t e s and dries on c l o t h i n g , and it forms like a d u s t - l i k e p a r t i c l e when it's touc hed . And t h a t was my exposure to asbestos, being hear his -- near my dad when he came home from work, and when my mother took his work clothes and shipped them over the porch to take off the excess dust before washing them. BERGMAN: You had mentioned you used to run down and meet your father at the bus stop. MRS. GURY: Yes, very often, and give him a big hug. And he w a s c o v e r e d at t h a t t i m e with t h e a s b e s t o s , and it would d i s s e m inate in the -- you could see it flyi ng around tn the atmosph ere . REPORTER: How did you react when the doctor told you? MRS. GURY: I was frightened, frightened to death. I knew -- 1 recalled every day of my mother's illness, recalled my l a t h e r ' s illness, and krfew w h a t was In s t o r e for me. And I was that much more well-read, and I was frightened to death. I'm a 35-yeai-- old mother of two children, a happily married woman with e v e r y t h i n g to live for. It sort of puts a d amper on e veryth ing for m e . . R E P O R T E R : Ed, how did you feel when you first heard it? ED GURY: I cried. I -- I wasn't angry, i don't think. 1 l think I was very upset and perplexed. i couldn't believe it. I didn't know anything about asbestos or anything at that time. I knew her fa the r had w ork ed with it, and t h a t ' s what caused his cancer. And I knew that the mother had also had mesothelioma. And I c o u l d n ' t at th at p a r t i c u l a r m o m e n t In t i m e r e late B a r b ara' s m e s o t h e l i o m a with the parent s. But as t h e year w e n t on, boy, it got m o r e b i z a r r e and m o r e bizarre. And I can h o n e s t l y say t h a t if it hadn't been for God and the gift of faith, that I would have pro bably jumped out a window a long time ago. I have two small children whom I love very, very much. And the other day 1 was -- I left the hospital and 1 went across the street here to Central Park, and I sat on the rock over there to get a little fresh air and sunshine, and 1 saw this father playing with his five-year-old boy and his six- or seven-year-old daughter, and they were playing baseball, which I do at home with my two kids. And the girls wasn't as good a hitter as nine, but the -- I just sat t h e r e and cried my eyes out, b e c a u s e th at is what it's done to my wife. BE RGM AM: M e s o t h e l i o m a , o n c e very rare, Is b e c o m i n g almost commonplace. OR. SELIKOFF: From 1930 to I960 we saw three cases, o n e ev ery 10 years. And we're a p retty big hospital; we have 1200 beds, we do almost 20,000 operations a year, and so forth. And imagine, we on ly saw t h r e e cases In 30 years. Now, why, Dr. Holland had three cases on his service at any one time. BE RG M A N : It cost Ya le U n i v e r s i t y $ 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 to g e t rid of its a s b e s t o s proble m. Evry c e i l i n g in its n i n e - s t o r y Art and A r c h i t e c t u r e B u i l d i n g had to be removed. T h e y had all been sprayed with asbestos. Two thousand students use this building every day. D e s p i t e all we h a v e known a b o u t a s b e s t o s , it was p e r f e c t l y legal until 1973 to a p p l y it inside buildings. During the '50s and '60s, thousands were built that way. Dr. Robert Sawyer- of Yale's Health Service set t he clean up In mot ion. DR. ROBERT SAWYER: What drew our interest was the facts that these open and exposed ceilings, as we found them, had begun to break apart and to dTsintegrate. .And, for instance, these books t h a t w e r e up near the c e iling were -- if you put t h e book In, it m i g h t s t r i k e th e c e i l i n g a little bit. It w ould be covered with the asbestos material. The people would blow them clean on opening them... BERGMAN: The layer of asbestos dust... DR. SAWYER: The cloud of dust would come up- T h i s we found in persons doing m a i n t e n a n c e w o r k in the building or doing custodial work, dusting. For instance, we found that the custodians would go through the library area holding a p l a s t i c bag in front of t h e i r face and dusting the fallen deb ris into the bag. And we used personneI-nonitoring devices to find out what the exposures to these individuals were. We were quite s u r p r i s e d to find t h a ^ the levels found in such s i t u a t i o n s , npt only in th is b u i l d i n g but in many, ma ny m o r e that w e 've looked at since, can be in th e v i c i n i t y of or indeed, on oc casion, exceed industrial standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for industrial exposure. BE RGM AN: This is the World T r a d e C e n t e r in Nev/ York. That's asbestos dropping on the worker below. tos . A n o t h e r bui ld ing in New York. The du st contains a s b e s An a p a r t m e n t c o m p l e x in New Jersey. C e i l i n g s t h r o u g h o u t 12 were sprayed with asbestos. Some tenants are suing the builder because they consider the asbestos a health hazard* Even after 1973, you call ed It d e c o r a t i v e . that use. a s b e s t o s could still be sprayed if It took EPA five m o r e years to stop School buildings, too. Thousands of them had been built wi th s p r a y e d - a s b e s t o s c e i l ings. A g o v e r n m e n t inspection in N e w Jersey of 48 schools showed two-thirds of the ceilings were d a m aged, with considerable risk of asbesfos contamination. The government now recommends they be removed. And in t h i s country, what goes u p 'e v e n t u a 1 iy comes down.. Most buildings, except the very oldest, contain some asbestos; and demolition spreads the dust into the area, an unintentional d a n g e r for a p r odu ct t h a t s erves man in m a n y useful ways. A l m o s t e v e r y o n e w h o lives In an urban area has s o m e a s b e s t o s dust in t h e i r lungs. Despite all that was known about asbestos, the EPA only recently tightened up regulations for house wreckers to keep the dust from sp re ad i n g . But t h e r e a r e still m a n y p eople who work with asbestos and don't know that if can be dangerous. All drum-brake linings contain asbestos, some as high as 73?. As they wear down, or when they are replaced, asbestos dust is rele as ed . Three years ago, government scientists recommended that the asbestos dust be vacuumed out instead of blown. But the Occu- ! pa+ional Safety and Health Administration ignored the recommen dation. A 1976 study found that 25? of the mechanics sampled had lung abnormalities. Nine hundred thousand workers are exposed to brake-lining dust. Nor is t h e r e any r e g u l a t i o n on labeling b r a k e - l i n i n g boxes. Of the five we examined, one had rather detailed precau tions printed on It. Two had caution labels, one on the bott o m of t h e box, w h e r e It was not likely to be seen. And two o t h e r s had no warnings at all. And the a r g u m e n t of how m u c h a s b e s t o s is too t o s still goes on. T h e c u r r e n t s t a ndard is t w o fibers centimeter of air. The government wants that lowered. resists. much asbes per cubic Industry Dr. Paul Kotin, Medical Director and Senior vice Presi dent of John s-Ma nv I I Ie , the largest a s b e s t o s c o m p a n y In the world. DR. PAUL KOTIN: In the case of a s b e s t o s , I t h i n k that Hp' (~. 13 we are creating no asbestos disease: or GI cancer, as you -- at two fibers career . lung cancer, mesothelioma, per cc or less for a working BERGMAN: Then why do the government's top experts want t o s e e th e t w o fibers per cc lowered to .5 or even less? DR. KOTIN: Because the government experts have been wrong before and they're wrong now. BE RGM AN: D i d n 't you on ce say that t h e r e is no such thing as a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen? DR. KOTIN: I sure did, and I said it as part of the S u r g e o n G e n e r a l 's c o m m i t t e e in 1970. And l guess I 'm g o i n g to tell y o u I 'm s m a r t e r now. BERGMAN: A lot smarter now, but smart enough to prevent a recurrence of the past? Dr. Kotin thinks yes. Most other doc tors disagree. Over the years, industry and government too often be lieved that t h e limits then in e f f e c t we re good enough. And time -and a g ai n, t h e y we re wrong. known W h a t Is m o s t for decades, and * disturbing no one did * is t h a t t h e d a n g e r s a n y thing a b o u t it. * have been BERGMA N: I t 's not as if t h e d a n g e r s of a s b e s t o s have just been discovered. We've known about them for 70 years. 1907:- A s b e s t o s d i s e a s e Is repor t e d , for th e f i r s t time/, fn Great'-.Bn:T "ta 1918: T h e first r e p o r t in the Unit ed States. The g o v e r n m e n t says t h e r e is an u r g e n t need for m o r e investigatio n of the health aspects of asbestos manufacture. But no one was listening. The war to end all wars was ending. America was about to enter the Roaring Twenties. Even if the w o r k e r s knew a n y thing a b o u t a s b e s t o s -and they d i d n ' t -- th ere w a s n 't mu ch th ey could do. T h e y had few rights. They could be fired at will. Unions were either weak or nonexI stent. :r9 2 tourral reports on asbestoS. No one seemed to care. A mericans were more intrigued by Babe Ruth's 60th home run; and an adventurous young pilot, Charles Lindberg, flew the Atlantic ail alone. President Calvin Cooiidge said the business of America was business. He didn't say anything 14 about the worker. 1928: The Journal of the American Medical Association r e p o r t e d on a y o u n g woman who died of a s b e s t o s i s . It wondered why asbestos disease wasn't getting more attention. One reason, Ameri ca ns w e r e living it up. P r o h i b i t i o n had been in effec t . f o r alm ost IQ years, but t h e r e was still plenty of booze to be had. P e o p l e w e r e h a v i n g a good time. No orte cared. Jt'930 r/XThe. Br i t i s h ar eJnow s u r a . Dr. E.R.-'Merr iweather? examT'necf-360--Text-Lie w o r k e r s and-Tf ound a s b estos is in 265 of T h e m . Shor-fi y.- T h e r e a f t e r Bri ti sh '.took t h e f irst: s t e p s - t o rred ucar ^asbas.tos-...dust:::t (T^the.'^workp lace .,;^Mo,:p n e _he re dj.d .anythj^ng,6. By this time, America was deep Into the Depression. were hard to come by. Jobs C C I (p of song, " B r o t h e r Can You S p a r e a D i me?"! BERGMAN: Workers competed for what jobs there were. Occupational health got tow priority. Nothing was done. 1934: The British medical magazine Lancet reports on 100 c a s e s of a s b e s t o s i s - a n d the first cases of lung cancer in "asbestos workers. 1935: in th is country, Dr. A n t h o n y Lanza, in a study d o n e for th e industry, r e c o m m e n d s d u st-control m e a s u r e s In a s b e s tos factories. The industry, he says, seems quite uninformed of t h e haza rd. Little, if a n y t hing, is done. There were other things to worry about: asters, drought creating dust storms. natural dis l C [ ip of song, "I'm a D u s t Bowl R e f u g e e " ] BE RG MA N: By th is time, a s b e s t o s produc t i o n is growing, from un de r 100,000 tons in 1910 to 700,000 tons at the end of W o r l d War 11. M i l l i o n s of p e o p l e ha ve been exposed. And still, little is done. 1949: Dr. Ken Smith, Medical Director of the JohnsM a n v i M e Company, studies 708 asbestos workers and finds 534 with Jung changes. John M c K i n n e y , the P r e s i d e n t of Johns-Manvit te. Did you know Or. Ken Smith when he was your corporate med icaI d irector? JOHN MCKINNEY: Yes, I did. BE RG MA N: You know he did a study of 708 Johns-M anv ii !e e m p l o y e e s and found an a s b e s t o s d a n g e r way back in 1949? MCKINNEY: Yes. BERGMAN: ' Smith called for a warning label on asbestos p a c k a g e s , and has since -- and it was o v e r r u l e d , he's t e s t i f i e d , for b u s i n e s s p u r p os es . He was told it w ould hurt business . MCKINNEY: I know nothing about that, that that was the reason for it* 1 know that Dr. Smith has testified to that, but I don't know that that's accurate at all. .; BE RGM AN: Well, itjs sworn t e s t i m o n y in a federal court. MCKINNEY: Undoubtedly. We think Dr. Smith was mistaken about a lot of things, including his own policies. ports eyes, BERGMAN: on asbestos. and did very By the '50s and '60s, t h e r e are scores of r e But the g o v e rnment turned its back, closed its little. sician. Dr. William Johnson, a former PubJic Health Service phy DR. WILLIAM JOHNSON: The U.S. Public Health Service condu cted surveys of these plants under assurances of c o n f i d e n tiality. They essentially shared the data between themselves and the c o m p a n i e s , and in a few instances with state agencies, which t r a d i t i o n a l l y have not been very a g g r e s s i v e as far as occupational health protection. BE RG MA N: W h a t y o u ' r e s aying Is t h a t the g overnme nt, state governments, and companies worked together. DR. JOHNSON: Yes, very much so. BERGMAN: Doesn't that amount to collusion? DR. JOHNSON: fair to say. If you want to cai l it that, I t h i n k it's Unfortunately, I think there was an attitude of, "Well, l e t 's -- let's tr ea t t h e w o r k e r as a g u inea pig out t h e r e In that - plant, and let's expose him over a lifetime. Let's see how many of them develop problems with asbestos-related diseases. Then m a y b e in that way, ov er a long time, we can d e t e r m i n e what a safe level of e x p o s u r e to as bes t o s is. DR. SELI KOF F: Wh at w e ' r e seeing now is the result of ou r i n a d e q u a c i e s of the past, of r e s e a r c h that w a s n ' t done, of inspections that weren't made, of regulations that weren't pro- 16 d u c e d , of laws that weren't passed, of studies that were never started. And now, unfortunately, we're paying that price. Unfor tunately, too, it's the people who worked under those circumstances that are paying the price; we're not. It's unhappy to think that these people, like Mr. Cullen, went to work thinking that somebody must be looking at the situa t i o n to see that it was safe; or they knew a b o u t g o v e r n m e n t d e p a r t ments, industrial hygienists and scientists, and so forth. And there was no somebody. MAN Lsinging]]: I did my p a r t in W o r l d War II, g o t w ounded for the nation. Now my lungs are all shot down, there a i n 't no c o m p e n s a t i o n . I 'm g o i n g to go to w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time. I 'm going to work on Monday one more time, one more t im e. I 'm go in g to w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time. The doctor s a y s 1 s m o k e t o o mu ch, he says th at I 'm not t r y l n '. He says he d o n 't know w h a t I got, but we both know, h e 's a l y i n '. I 'm going t o go to w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time. I 'm going t o g o to work on Monday one more time, one more time. I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time. The last time I went near my job I thought my lungs we re broken. C h e s t bound down like iron bands, I c o u l d n 't b r e a t h e for c h o k i n g . I 'm going to go to w o r k on M o nday o n e more time. I 'm g o i n g to go t.o w o r k on M o n d a y o n e m o r e time,o n e mo re 1`ime. I 'm g o i n g to go to wo rk on M o n d a y m o r e m o r e time. The d o c t o r says both lungs are gone, t h e r e a i n 't no way shake it. But l c a n 't live w i t h o u t a job, s o m e h o w I've got to take it. I 'm r-. go in g to go to w o r k on M onday o n e m o r e time. ! 'm going to go to w w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time, o n e m o r e t im'e. I 'm going to go to work on Monday one more time. They tell me I can't work at all, there ain't no need of t r y i n '. But l i v i n ' like some use-up thing is j u s t s h o r t of dyin'. I 'm going to go to w o r k on M o n d a y one , m o r e time. I 'm going to go to work on Monday one more time....