Document 2qomExyv6m1jaR9MGBQYw02jb

CC D. B. E. R. W. R. Petterson Semple West C. Stites C. Waggoner Johnson BABY PRODUCTS COMPANY RARITAN N.J. 08869 February 14 1977 SUBJECT Asbestos OSHA Activities File No. 0503.01 CONFIDENTIAL TO Mr. G. Lee This brings of 88 talcs us up to date on the for asbestos content Bureau of Standards as recently status of the assaying underway by the NBS Nat'l commissioned by OSHA Situation at OSHA I arranged clearance through Deputy Secretary of Labor Concklin's office for permission to review technical aspects of the OSHA program at NBS and was turned over to the OSHA officer responsible for that work a Dr. Byung Kwon I had found it necessary to go through the top of that organization having previously learned that NBS did not have the identity of the talcs they are analyzing but that OSHA did Kwon has the breakdown code of the identity of the talcs but says he purposely obtained them sealed up from NIOSH and will not open the code until NBS has completed the work and has placed their written report in his hands Kwon promised to telephone me with the information I requested from him on the day that he receives the NBS findings namely 1 whether or not any of our talcs or talc products are in the study 2 whether or identity of our talcs if in the not OSHA set and has 3 complete the NBS results on whether or not any federal fibers by OSHA or NIOSH definitions were found in any of our talcs or talc products I left it at that for the present visit and was well satisfied with that promise from Kwon OSHA and Kwon specifically are under considerable talc asbestos pressure right now This arises from four sources 1 As soon as President Carter announced the appointment of his Secretary of Labor Marshall Vanderbilt Co. delivered a blast to Marshall implying the incompetence of OSHA staff and the inadequacy of the NIOSH methodology on asbestos determination in talc Apparently to Vanderbilt's surprise fili Tok ac 0088220 JNJ 000297214 01 Asbestos OSHA Activities the blast came down to Kwon who got in touch with NIOSH to learn of recent unfavorable findings on ray pathology of Vanderbilt talc workers Kwon recommended withdrawal of previous field memorandums which had latitude Kwon's recommendation was out and puts Vanderbilt talc matters given Vanderbilt some immediately carried in a worse state than ever heretofore 2 Pfizer also sent a dispatch direct to Secy Marshall possibly along That was deliverebdy messenger to Kwon there talking to him this past Thursday similar lines while I was sitting afternoon 3 Dr. Corn had submitted a lengthy report of his accomplishments and future needs for OSHA when he resigned as top man a couple weeks ago One of the points Corn made clear was that OSHA lacks technical expertise in the Washington - headquarters and Kwon seems to have taken that personally 4 President Carter visited Labor last Wednesday and the OSHA contingent came away feeling that they will be reorganized but expect to be able to add about 150 new technical people to their Washington staff Kwon was a little shook at that and explained to me that he Kwon had cited Carter's peanut operations for dust violations a few months ago Situation at National Bureau of Standards I visited Dr. Heinrich last Wednesday and delivered a copy of the current Mt. Sinai article on Talcum Powders together with a copy of the critique of the article as submitted to me on a personal basis from Dr. Krause of the Colorado School of Mines Heinrich had not yet visited Dr. Langer but intends to have him to do so within a few know of the technical days It was critique from very timely Colorado and he is unusually appreciative of that information Although we were the first industrial scientist to present Dr. Heinrich with a reliable set of asbestos minerals and a cross section of usable references we are no longer alone Pfizer's Norwood and Stanley have offered him their help to use their methodology and Vanderbilt has been in constant touch with Heinrich's bosses during the recent episode arising out of the recent Health Research Group accusations I feel good realize the work They about the attitude of NBS because they now fully intricate technical web in their asbestos are as equally concerned that some of their 0088221 JNJ 000297215 Asbestos OSHA Activities good findings on the and Heinrich is talc assays will be taken out of context going to try to qualify his findings and the method limitations in his report to OSHA For the longer range it is important to have learned that OSHA has funded 250,000 and assigned NBS the task of re- solving differences of opinion on asbestos and defining what asbestos is and what it is not The estimate is that the work will take 1-2 years to resolve The above longer range undertaking by NBS will of necessity have to involve agreement with other agency science people Naturally the mineral specialists in the Geological Survey etc. are not the Bureau happy with of Mines NBS getting the assignment to define a mineral class As for right now the most important thing for us to do is to keep on top of the NBS study scheduled to be completed about March 1st and released shortly thereafter W. H. Ashton by : W.H.A. 0088222 JNJ 000297216