Document 3e3ygJb64a5YXvj9oEdrDxYJJ

/ ..i Ey Robert Sherrill - Shipyard work attracted about *.5-ftMUon Amer icans into its ranks at one time or another during World War U. and an estimated 3.25-mj]lior> of those people are stilt alive. If they think about the cjrpcricr'.e at alt these days it is probably to again remind themselves with satisfaction that things could have been worse. Whether they went into the work simply for a paycheck, or as a kind of emancipation (at some shipyards nearly one-third of the workers were women), or as an alternative to the military draft, those who built and repaired America's ships took comfort in supposing that however dirty and boring the work sometimes be came. at least it was safer thao being in the front lines. Now it appears they may have been wrong to think so. The fatality statistics are still too scat*. .sered and iffy to yield a solid conclusion, but there : arB-TOm<:dUqtitetipy hypotheses to,t*hdiira,fr6m: such.eases as that of.the New York^r^eeKipimy- executive we shall call -Charles Armin.because hta; fatfiUy-preftrs to'keep his real. name, out of thl'. Annin had never bad a serious illness in'hli'>lifh< He was a 200-pound, robust,, heirty'leliow-'wbb' looked much younger than.his age/60.. He-enjoyed' sailing in his spare time and ran a taut ship oh' the job. too. " '..Then in December, 1971, he began getting sharp, pains in Ms chest, enough to worry about, enough- to send him to the doctor. Tests showed .his. heart was in fine shspe/asd thrlur.g X-ray; showed rsoth** Ing wrong. Still, the pains persisted and grewwersv end in April.the doctors dedded to go in for a'look*, They found that Mr.. Annin was suffering'from1 mesothelioma, a kind of.canter.that has.ontyrsme' into the medical fraternity's conversation In recent^years. Mesothelioma, which has "been-to rare that-' it is not separately categorized in,.international . .medical classifications, is cancer of the chest, lining of Of the abdominal, lining. Everyone who gets it is going to die from it within a yeac.because it covers the whole lung area from apex to base, or infuses the whole abdomen, and no surgcon can take out so much and leave a survtvable' . patient. It is a painful disease .and progressively so. The cavity lining fills with fluid, which-must be drawn off periodically; when the disease strikes the chest area the pattern slowly suffocates. None of the usual cancer palliatives do much good, and 'T ^ jv"-. ""!~v - '/ 5a*...5'-x - 'T 35. ':,y .. . - : '; *. 5. -j . > . .. - Robert Sherrill is the Washington correspondent MeaotheKomo, a 'cancer of thecheet or abdominal lining, nuxy oeeur-irt-worheTs 'who have inhale?* Of The Nation, . ' . . tos particles, vtn for relatively' brie/.periods. Here, tm,X-rey.photograph o/_ nonnsl.rung*. y. J-i . > 4 ' 1' ,1, ^ * 1 *- - V' s..'y RBB 00773 SC-ELEC-05595 there it oo known cure. Mr. Annin's meso- was discovmd in April He was dead .14 weeks later. . .The thing that makes bis c*sc among a cumber ' ' ;Oi others--seem so ominous to some occupational health experts is that they know what caused it, and they know chat the same Cause has touched the lives of* millions of other Americans. The cause was asbestos. *. . * Now. asbestos can be credited with saving many lives:' fireproof clothing, fireproof &- -.baildings, safer and sore durable toake etc. - "But sow asbestos is beginning to reveal its other . side, not -cnly in the -appearance of the compare' lively rare mesothelioma* hut, on a much broader cancer rate 800 per cent higher than smokers in scale, as a catalyst of Just plain lung cancer,-and the general populating. of asbestorts, a crippling disease -which scan the Occupationally, probably five million or so lungs and interferes with the passage of'-oxygen Americans--insulation workers, construction work into the blood:"Anyone with an advanced case of . tts. oil-refinery workers, etc.--breathe a significant asbestosis will probably feel more comfortable amount of asbestos dust every day they go to work. climbing the stairs backward, so that he can Sit The hazard also crops up in distinctly nonoccupadown on each step. He also can be certain .that tionai .places, such es the Northside Elementary because of the presence of the asbescosis he has - . gjhrtni in Lander, wyp, which recently was dosed cs much cltance of developing cancer as of by the state health department because asbestos escaping it Heavy doses of asbestos-In the-hmgj * which had been sprayed as an insulation on the also encourage the carcinogenic effects of tobacco . ceiling was beginning to come loose and mix with smoke to a remarkable degree; studies have dtown . the air in dangerous amounts. But wherever en tht asbestos wuiicm who emoke have a lung countered, the hazard is especially insidious because it is like a long-term time bomb: For masons .doctors don't fully understand, the diseases related to asbestos do not explode for many years after the patient breathed it in. Mr. Annin, for example, had had nothing to do with asbestos since World War U.wtea, from 1941 to 19(3. be was.1 tinsmith in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He helped insult fiber glass in destroyers' refrigeration holds, and he also secured asbestoscovered pipes with bangers and straps. Alter 1943, be got a white-collar Job away from the shipyard and never again worked with asbestos. His 29-year lag between contact and illness was not surpn&tr.fi-. indeed, for asbestos disease. 25 to 30 years is the normal period between exposure and development of symptoms, which ia why medical scientists who have specialized in the occurrence of asbestos- related industrial diseases believe that the first big Wave of cancers from World War a shipyard ex* ' posure may be at hand. -. Among those who think so are Drs. living J. Sehkofland E. Cuyler Hammond. Dr. StUkoff of . Mount Sinai School of Medicine, City University . of New York, is at least among the three or* four top authorities on asbestos disease. Dr. . .Hammond is vice president of the American Cancer Society in charge of epidemiology and statistics, o-who already has gamed a slice of immortality os > the fellow most responsible for statistically d*m- anstrating the relationship between smoking and cancer. To some high officials at the U.S. Depart* -. went of Labor and to many high officials m the asbestos industry, these two doctors and ihcir " colleagues represent a kind of reform plague. Indeed,. Selikoff ia seen by some leaders ol the asbestos Industry as a cruel showman. F. J. Solon Jr., vice-president for environmental affairs of Johns-Manville Corp, the nation's largest producer . of asbestos, cays. "To terrorize people who worked in shipyards 30 years ago. and now can't do a g.d, -'thing about it--that's something I couldn't square with my conscience-'* .* Of the shipyard dangers, Selikoff says this: "We do know that there are a targe number of meso theliomas in Great Britain. Probably over 1.600 : - newspeople who worked In British shipyards sun* ing in 1935. They are five years ahead of us. so Britain casts its mesothelioma shadow over the United States. We know it's a large number, but - what the count will actually be we do not know. Nor do we ki*3W the percentage Of incidence in `Britain; they don't have what we call a population ' base. But any percentage would be a terrible situation. The only data that we do have, that gives percentages, is a new paper just come out The cancer mayappew suddenly, decodes after the victim worfeed with asbestos. Here, an X-ray reveals . by Dr. D.Fletcher In Barrow, England, who followed 'dense cancerous growth farrow), Tcp, facing page, a microscopic view 0/ asbestos particles. . L_ ^ , (Continued on Poge 58) ! ' THB NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE/JANUARY 21. '.STS . 13 lit fe:7:- RBB Asbestos fCcntvmca from Page 13) you remember when we first * got married? In 1935. you a group of shipyard workers worked in that brake-lining from 1963 to the present, and place." ''Oh sure," said Kerr, he compared chose X-ray stigmata of who had asbestos ' "but l only worked there for six months as a weaver/' ^ { exposure with the general. "And here's his film on June , hmi population in that area. He found a three-times in crease of lung cancer among those who had X*ray evidence of asbestos exposure." ' (industry spokesmen note that the British experience may not be wholly compar able to the American, since in British yards asbestos was ap plied with a spray process not 7, 1972/' says Setikoff. "You ; can see the white stuff all \ through the lungs. Bob's re- - tired now, 50-odd-yesrs old, ' living in Florida.' unable to -I breathe, can't even do M& \ own lawn. Six months in. - 1935! Came up from Florida j to see me to make sure he j had no cancer. He doesn't He just can't breathe." -j used in the U S.)_____________ A number of asbestos-com* * The thing that is so alarm* pany officials and asbestos- ' ing to Selikofrs group is that union officials who rose some nsk applies not only to through the ranks have found : asbestos workers ionly one- that they are no safer for '4 five-hundredth of the ship having been away many years yard payroll), but to every from the actual handling of body who worked downwind asbestos. Raymond Rider en or in, the general vicinity of tered the asbestos trade in - the asbestos jobs. In ship building) fhi* anybody who has worked within the confines of the ship's struc 1947. but in the nineteen-six* ties he became an official with New- York Local 12 of the International Association ' r .. ture; welden. shipfitters. of Heat and Frost Insulators ' machinists, pipefitters, elec and Asbestos Workers, and : trician*. carpenters, boiler for 10 year* be didn't touch ' makers---the whole gang. the stuff. But he had breathed "You don't have to work enough in his early career. \ with asbestos for 30 yean to X-rays taken in Jan., 1971, 4 develop mesothelioma or some showed he was still in the * other cancer or asbestosis clear, but by 7eb,, 1972, they 1 from it/J SHikoff explains. showed mesothelioma. Since -4 ``Absolutely not Because then he has had lung surgery, ' ` once you get it in your Jungs- 24 cobalt treatments and- ex- '[ it stays there forever, and as tensive chemotherapy. His fa- . .* the yean go by your lung - iher, George Rider, also a < continues to be exposed even union officer, died of the same '' though you may be out in the disease. [ Rockies. The nice air in the The response of the Indus-. - Grand Canyon won't protect try and especially of the Fed* you because you've already era! bureaucracy, has been * got it in your lungs." strangely indifferent. The ran- In 1$S1,- the lung X-rays of dom breathes may sot care, Robert Kerr looked normal. even though asbestos can He was a little short of breath, bans him too--tf, for exam* and Dr. Selikoff couldn't un pie, he inhales asbestos derstand why. but he put it thrown into the air by the down to ail that dust Kerr demolition of buildings. But ; j 4 J j . 4 was breathing at the quarry where he worked. X-rays in 1954 showed Kerr developing some lung scarring, it booked tike asbesums, and Setikoff the asbestos worker feels very lonely with his special demon. William G. Bernard, secretary* treasurer of the Asbestos Workers Union and himself a j ] ; j asked Kerr if he had ever victim of lung-scarring, com* worked with asbestos. No, he plains, "You know, we have said, never. He told Sdikoff damn near as many, or more, his whole employment history people who work with as j and asbestos work wasn't part of it. By 1958 the X-rays showed scarring in both lungs. SeJikoffs suspicions in bestos as there are coal miners in the country. But nobody cares about us, because we don't have any disasters. The ' ** ' ( creased: Was Kerr certain he had never worked with as bestos? Sope. 3 Sever. But as he talked to Setikoff. Kerr's wife interrupted. "Boh, do miners have a disaster and their pictures show up on Che front pages with dirty faces, and everybody feels sorry. So they put a black lung bill \ : 4 1 ; through Congress. We have a. that, similar increased death: higher percentage of people "Occur in every single grou; dying of respiratory trouble, Of asbestos workers chat', but nobody gjvc* a damn beeo rarammed." And he con about it" dudftK ,*Ttus is sunpty ar occupational disaster without P*ralfel in American history." (In Jan. 1. 1943, Such an.alarming finding is Locals 12 and just now beginning to pene 32 of the Asbestos Work trate the thinking of workers, ers Union in New York and - ^duch is rather odd, since asNewark, N. J. had 632 mem* . bestas industry officials and bera. t>r, Setikoff and his col tbe U. S. Public Health Servleagues have -traced the 625 lf and the U.. S. Department wh matter .here (seven died of Labor have known for early, mostly of acciden years that asbestos could be tal causes)... Given their a serious hazard. For more age, 203 ;of those men- than 60 years cases of asbes would normaJly.bave been ex tos disease have been posipected to' die by the end -of lively diagnosed. 1962. Instead. 255 had died Deaths due to asbestoses excess ".OTCf ithe normal were dearly defined at least death irate.of. more then 20 ** *arly as the nineteen* per cent. About seven should twenties. The association be have died- fronr lung cancer, tween lung cancer and ochut 4S-diad. of.ta-Instead of Ct!OatinnaI jypnsure to ashx- the normal nine or 10 death, TM was proved in a paper from cancer of the stomach, published in-iasg by sir colon or rectum, there were. Btdhard Doll.- then, chief sta 29---not so unexpected," ax tistician. of the British MediSetikoff points out. for "any dal Research Council. Ln 105 body who inhales dust also "oseoitive autopsies at one ingests it. Any worker is al asbestos plant in England, he ways spitting out the stuff found IS deaths due to lung you think he's only inhaling." cancer. And in 1963 an equalAnd whereas nobody in the V conclusive connection was general population dies of established between asbestos ssbestosis--scarred lungs--12 and mesothelioma in , paper men in this study group died published by Selikoff, Hamof it during the first 20 years, mood and Dr, Jacob Churg ini 4 ii*i of mtsolittlioma. in The New England Journal That left 270 of the group of Medicine. Since then, there still alive on Jan. 1. 1963. Be has been an explosion of tween then end the end- of literature on the occupational 1971, 73 of. them should have hahards of asbestos, encour died If they followed the pet- aged by symposia such as the tent of the general popula- one held recently in Lyons. tion.-Instead, Idg died. "And France, by scientists from why? The same thing,- says atound.the world. Setikoff. "Them should have The asbestos industry and been four or five,lung-cancer *j U. S. Department of La deaths in- tbls.igroup.; -There bor have not seemed exactly wen 43.'there.'should have overjoyed to receive all this been no .deaths of-mesothe new data; indeed, their haste lioma--that-doesn't occur in. response has been a combina the general-population. There tion at defensiveness and were 23. There, should have hostility and fintiveness. in been, three-deaths of cancer, 1964. when Selikoff was orof' the' Stomach' or rectum. ganixing. an international There were 12. And of course there should have been no deaths from ; scarred ltmgs. There were 20. , ' 'Tf we total up this one small group of workers from symposium, he received a let ter from the law firm repre senting asbestos textile com- jwnies, informing him that the industry was aware of What he was up to and imply. An. 1, 1943, to Dec. 31, 1971, ***8 that if any derogatory almost' 20 per cent died of remarks about asbestos that lung cancer. Out of the 430 might harm its sales should men who died, one out of emanate from the conference, every five asbestos workers he could expea to see them died of lung cancer. Almost m court. The U. S. Public seven per cent died of meso Health Service conducted air thelioma. Almost 10 per cent samplings in a couple of died of cancer of the stom dozen asbestos plants in 1964, ach, colon and rectum. Over , but It refused to disclose its seven per cent died of as- findings to Selikoff. or. as he hestosis." puts it, "apparently the key Nor are these figures pecul- to the file cabinet was lost." tar to the locals in question. Though workers in shipyard* Selikoff goes on to cite more today are-subjected to much extensive studies confirming the same asbestos hazards as vT' RBB 00775 in World War II. Nsvy medi asked the asbestos company's ring: nine had nothing and 30 cal officers generally refuse officials to let him look at had some scarring. Less than :o c^ljc accc: ;r.i crcbiem or :hc;r personnel records, they one week, and they had ab :o c;sc-s$ wn;; they ere said they had lost them. But normal X-rays!" says Selikoff, if cr.>-L-_rj. :o protect workers in the yards under their command. Sehkoff's crowd has run into this wail since the begin ning. In the early fifties, bav ins recently won the Ameri can Public Health Associa tion's Albert Lasker Award in Medicine toe his part in devel oping a drug crucial to the control of tuberculosis, Dr. Selikoff opened a clinic in Paterson, N. J., to continue his research into pulmonary diseases, Among his first pa tients were 17 men who worked ir. the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company plant, which started production m Paterson in 1940 and closed in 195-1. At that time, aU 17 mea were strong and work ing, and appeared likely to go on doing so for many years. because the factory's output who never ceases to be had been used in war produc amazed by the statistics he tion, all its employes had had and Hammond use. "So the to be cleared by the FJJJm so. .problem is not only how much a list of the workers on the you work. Of course, the factory's payroll during the more you work, the worse it war years 1941 to 1945 did is. But even those who had exist, 3nd by a process Sell- very little exposure, if you koff prefers not to discuss, he live long enough you're going sot his hands on the names of to have problems." the 933 workers of that era, Intrigued, and wanting to "That's all we needed," he throw his net more wide recalls. "That and a lot of ly, .Selikoff went to Johns* work, because, we had -to Manville Corporation in Man- trace those 933 men. Surpris ville, N, J. He was not wel ingly, we were able to find come. "Somehow," he says, 877 by the end of 1971." "the company couldn't find The effort proved reveal-, itself able to cooperate." Nor isg. According to Dr. Ham could the Federal Govern mond's calculations, in- a ment-find funds for the re normal. population group of search. But Joe Modrone, that size, considering age and president of Local 800, United sex factors, 299 would have Papermakers and Paperwork- died by 1971. But in this; ers, which has jurisdiction at group, 484 were dead. Nor-. Manville, took Selikoff .into . j But within seven years, six - maliy 50 could have been ex-, .the basement of the union's [ were dead, and today, only pected to have died of some headquarters and scratched ; two survive. Seven died of kind of cancer: in this group, . around and came up with the lung cancers, one of meso 143 died of cancer. The. .seniority list for-Jan, 1, 1959. thelioma, one of stomach greup's lung cancer rate was There were about 3,090 names cancer, one of colon cancer, nearly 700 per cent higher . on the list* Of these, 689 had \ ft>ui of asbesiosis, and one than the general population's: worked at the plant for 20 : of other" ailments. Some- its stomach .and colon cancer years. SelikofPs men set out i thing strange was developing, rates were twice' as high. to track them down. | and Selikoff wanted to Seven men had died of "Let's see now what hap- j broaden the investigation to mesothelioma. - - <- pened to them--and mind, I find out what had happened In those war years, many this is only the beginning of. to all the men who worked in of the workers had been em what, will happen to them,** - that plant from the time it ployed for only brief periods .. says Selikoff. "Given their, opened- He needed money, at the plant. "Of those who ages, there should have been and he asked the U. S. Public worked for one week or less, 134 deaths among the 689. ' Health Service for a grant It when X-rayed 30-years-later There were 199. And again. : turned him down. When he half of them had some scar why did . these people die who ! i The shin of the salemander Asbestos, a name that embraces a num ber of fibrous mineral silicates, has been used by man for thousands of years, and s for most of that time its qualities have' produced confusion and mystery and myth. In the aggregate it is a rock with all of a typical rock's rigidity, but broken up it yields fibers that can be spun and woven as easily as flax or cotton. For centuries : it was commonly assumed that asbestos was a vegetable rather than a mineral. There was something obviously strange and wonderful about fibers that seemed 1 so gossamer and yet were as strong as steel wire; an ancient explanation of asbes. tos' most mysterious power was that the material came from the skin of the sala* mander, a mythical animal that could endure fire without harm--a notion that was useful to poets even as late as last century (Southey*. "Fly, Salamanders, on Asbestos' wings, To Wanton in my Delia's fiery glance"). Asbestos remained primarily a curiosity i until the L870`s when --because of its flexibility, its tensile strength, Us invul* nernb.ky to heat and ands and alkalies-- it was first commercially mined. In the tr.ter.'er.mp vc;.*3 it h-o become a prized ingredient in thousands' of industrial products: floor tiles, filters in the manu facture of beer and other foodstuffs, electrical tape, paddings of all sorts, paper binding, paints, etc. Nearly four million tons are mined annually throughout the world: the United States, though it contributes little to the total production, is the world's largest consumer of the mineral- The Bureau of Mines says we used 758,971 tons in 1971. U.S. use of asbestos has grown LOO0-fold in this century, compared to an 80-fold growth for petroleum. Ninety-five per cent of this is chrysotile asbestos from the open-pit mines of Quebec, Canada, probably still the world's most produc tive source, although Russia is beginning to challenge Canada's production lead. Amosite asbestos, most important for shipyard work, comes largely from South African mines. Rudolph.Wild, the brilliant engineer whose work a generation ago persuaded the U.S. Navy that amosite ?sb*sto$ was superior for shipyard insu lation and should be written into Navy contract specifications, paid for his in volvement with the magic mineral. He died of mesothelioma.--R. S. ii I l RBB 00777 | were not expected to die? level of five fibers per cubic j ; Eight should have died of centimeter. These findings j i Jung cancer 27 actually d:d. And 15 died of mesomeiiam*." Two or three times as many died of cancer of the colon or were withheld from the work- era. In I96S, because the Tyler plant turned out asbestos in- solution under a Navy con- [ i cancer of the rectum or of the tract, it was subjected to an | | stomach as normally would be inspection by the Labor De- . i expected. Ten per cent died of partment under the Walsh- I j asbestosis. "It was becoming Healey Act. The company I monotonous--a hell of - a could have been heavily fined 1 monotony! So not only in the or even closed because of its plant at Paterson but now in - health .violations: the M&nville, too, the same pic - Labor Department took no ac ture." tion at all. But while SeLikoff and That's the way things stood Hammond and their crowd until 1970, when Congress did everything they could to ' passed the Occupational Safe uncover evidence of the dis ty and Health Act With that aster that was occurring in act, BOSH. was phased oat the asbestos industry, indus .and. replaced by N1QSH--the try and Government remained National Institute of Safety unmoved. and Health. With the change The most impressive case of of initials came a change bureaucracy/industry indiffer- ' of bureaucrats and attitude, ence occurred at the Union too. Among them were Dr. Asbestos and Rubber Com Joseph K. Wagoner,-, who pany factory in Tyler, Tex.' became director of the Divi This is the same outfit that' sion of Field Studies nd had operated the factory in Clinical Investigations, and Paterson. N. J,, before elonag Dr. william M. Johnson, a re It tn !S5i Union Asbestos cent product of the Harvard utcr sold oat to Pittsburgh School of Public Health, who Coming Corp, But under any became Wagoner's assistant name, the Tyler plant was They inherited a medical : still a foul place to work. chaos, a bunal ground of old I Reputedly, in some areas of statistical bones hastily cov the plant the asbestos dust ered up by their predecessors. was so thick workers couldn't "We even inherited about see across the room. Medical 2,000 air samples that hadn't facilities consisted of two been counted,1* Johnson re first-aid cabinets, one with a calls, "because the previous broken glass door admitting inspectors had been out col asbestos dust lecting data without ever i Beyond the factory itself,' coming.-to,grips with what i asbestos waste was dumped they were doing. They would in nearby fields, sometimes to just keep rescheduling sur a depth of three feet, that veys, sometimes a second or children sometimes used as a third time around at a plant playground. Bags In which as without really giving any bestos had been shipped to thought to what it was really the plant and which were still showing from a health stand coated with - asbestos dust point" were sold to local nursery Buried deep In the files he : men who do a tremendous found Tyler, Tex,'Why had business in roses. Public Health Service and La It is futile to guess at the bor Department officials number of nurserymen and covered it up? "I could say ; customers who breathed an they were stupid, or that it injurious amount of asbestos was criminal negligence, or dust from the sacks, but the bureaucracy, or 1 could say factory workers can be- they were afraid that if they - counted. Personnel records did start getting concerned j microfilmed by the Public about this that their right of Health Service show that be entry would have been cut - tween 1954 and 1972 at least off,1' says Johnson, "but the : 895 persons were employed fact is, I don't know." All be there. They were working un did know immediately from ; der deadly conditions and the the records he uncovered was ; U. S. Department of Labor that "the plant had no busi- j and the Public Health Serv ness operating." J ice were aware of these con But still the higher bureauc- ditions at least as early as racy balked. "We transmitted: 1967. But they kept quiet. our sampling results to the . Inspectors from the old Labor Department," says . Bureau of Occupational Safety Johnson, "and also followed ; and Health (BOSH) took air up with a comprehensive re* ; samples in 1967 that showed port." The report showed that the count of asbestos that of a sampling of 17 men ;. j fibers was in some parts of who had worked in the plant - ; j the plant 60 times higher than 10 years, eight had asbestosis. ' today's officially declared safe "The Department of Labor ;. would not honor our samples. level, say they haven't even from the shipbuilding indus They wanted to take their bothered to get their workers try, 12 executives from the own for compliance. They X-rayed yet, though a U. S. asbestos industry, and a went in--I don't remember Bureau of Mines report ex health group of ll doctors the exact date; 1 believe ft was posed the danger last March. and technicians, all but two November, 1971--and they As for the enforcement of or three of whom reputedly took some samples and came health standards established have been "consultants" to up with citations. But they under the Occupational Safety the asbestos industry at some didn't mention asbestos in the and Health Act, Federal offi time in their careers. citations and the citations cials have conceded in testi The Advisory Committee on only added up to $210 in non- mony before Congress (hat if Asbestos Dust told Hodgson senous violations." they were going to enforce he should drop the standard So much public ridicule and health standards properly, to two fibers. NIOSH's panel bod publicity greeted that they would need about one agreed that two fibers was punishment that Labor felt hygienist per 35,000 workers. none too low. But Arthur D. obliged to reinspect the fac So far as can be determined, Little concluded that five tory and levy a $6,990 fine. the Labor Department af pres fibers was perfectly safe and Two weeks later, claiming the ent has 60 hygienists --- or that dropping the standard to fines were too great a burden about 1 per 12 million work two fibers would cost indus to bear, Pittsburgh Coming ers--to enforce oil health try far too much money. In decided to close the plant. standards, not just those relat addition, four days of hear* Le/c behind were many Tyler ing to asbestos hazards. ings were held at the Labor residents who wilt eventually Since there seems to be no Department offices in Wash die of asbestos disease. great rush to-enforce any as ington, with industry contend Are there other asbestos bestos health standards, it ing that Seiikoff is right up to . outfits still humming away in hardly matters whether the a point, but that he goes too \ the same condition that filled standards are the proper ones. far and Interprets his find the lungs of Tyler? Some are But the manner in which they ings too wildly. Matt. Sw- trying to shape up. At the were decided may give some tonic. Secretary of the Asbes JohnS'Manviile plant in New further indication of what the tos Information Service, a Jersey, for example, company laboring man can expect in New York health data distri officials claim--and union of the way of protection from bution center funded by the ficials agree--that in 90 per the Federal agencies and the industry, says, "There bas cent of the factory the asbes industry. been considerable controversy tos fiber count is already be At issue was whether to set low the five-fibers perc.c. max the standards at a maximum imum set by Federal health permissible air content of two standards. The dust is sucked asbestos fibers (each longer up through hoods over the than 5 microns) per cubic machines and captured in a centimeter or i five asbestos central bag bouse. And at J.* fibers. In either case, that's M.'s asbestos mill In Asbestos, quite a bit of dust A cubic Que., the bagging of the centimeter is about the size mineral Is done entirely by of a small thimble of air# and machines: everything is en a workman will inhale about closed; human hands don't six to eight'million of them touch it, and the dust is re in a typical day. So the issue portedly carried away in 70. was whether to require the 000 separate suction opera-, companies to maintain condi ttans. Jobns-Manville is also tions which would prevent a with Selikoff not so much on the effects of asbestos, but on the best means to control it and what sort of levels are necessary to control various asbestos diseases.** Industry people, says Swetonic, be lieve that the perils of the in sulation workers^--who face periodic massive doses of as bestos-laden air--ere too often confused with what In dustry contends are the man ageable low-level exposures of the asbestos manufacturing factories. . _ ''considering" hiring only non worker from having to Inhale In the end, Hodgson, insist smokers in some.of its opera more than 12 million to 16 ing that he had arrived at bis tions. 'This corporation has a million fibers of a certain' decision by an Independent conscience SO miles long/', length, or 30 million to 40 mflv- appraisal of all evidence, re says J.-M.'s Vice President. Hon fibers. With a substance buffed his own advisory Solon. "We've sent out in that the Labor Department ' group and said that a five- structions to clean up or close concedes "is causally related fiber standard would be In down, but t won't tell you to asbestosls and cancers,** effect for the next four years. the whole industry takes that the multimiltion differences (Coincidentally, Johns-Niait- attitude." were obviously no trivial vilie Corporation the same Or. Johnson, despite the matter. ' . day notified its stockholders fact that he has only a re With what appeared to "be that Che ruling would not stricted view of the industry, an effort to get the best an hurt their sales and earnings.) says he knows of "about a swer, Labor Secretary James Selikoff points out that this half-dozen plants" tn which Hodgson early in 1972 ap ruling was designed to set a the asbestos levels are four pointed an outside Advisory safety level for asbestos!*, not to eight times what the Labor Committee on Asbestos Dust for cancer, and that in any Department concedes is the made up of scientists and en case, qualified scientists sim maximum safe level. But ac gineers and labor officials. He ply cannot be sure enough tually, nobody knows how also had the assistance of an about the nature of asbestos widespread the hazard is. Fed inside advisory group of med related disease to say where eral funding for inspections is ical men and scientists put the level should be fixed. In at a rock bottom minimum. together especially for this this light, he argues. Hodg And unions may be as leth- ` problem by NIOSH. son's ruling was at best in argic as industry or Govern Also from the outside he - cautious. "There's a Jot Of ment when it comes to in hired Arthur D. Liuie, ln., a published, evidence that in two forming workers of the risk. consulting firm, to come up fibers per c.c. mesothelioma oc Officials of the United Ce with some advice on the curs, lung cancer occurs, as- ment, Lime and Gypsum economic feasibility of re bestosis occurs. An industrial workers, which has jurisdie- quiring industry to get rid of hygiene practice in our coun tion at a plant where asbestos its asbestos dust. Arthur D. try has been that when there dust concentration Is said to Little's panel of experts was is a serious risk, you build in a be over 100 times the safe made up of 13 executives big safety factor. But what T1 RBB 00778 Ci-astider i' 4 s^! - '.M ` ;1 % , ,,> ^yrfr*-Jjyv if V' -:**<* t ,-v' - 'S-i./;-r.*;. Dr irving /. SeUkojJ, in hh laboratory at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Becotue of his efforts to axpo** The dangers of handling asbestos* some Government owl industry officials con* sidsr Sd-.kcij and hts colleagues "<t fe/uJ of reform plague*" .. I The Labor Department has The A.F.L.-C.I.O.,' agreeing tapers came up to see me. To ; done is say, 'We don't know with Selikoff. has sued Che . make a long story short, that tor si4ro what level wtU cer Department at Labor in the week one of their men was . tainly causu cancer and with \J. S. Court ot Appeals, charg operated on for lung cancer. 1 out this Knowledge there is ing that Secretary Hodgson So we cut the lung; the elec no requirement for extra cau- did not consider the evidence tron microscope showed ft . lion/ i*.:>cead of saying. "These or act to protect workers as was loaded with asbestos. \ . are li.e fives cf hundreds of the iatv requires him to do, This is a new trade, began in , , i thousands of American and demanding that be re - 1946 or so, right after the workors that -v;e are respon view the evidence again and war--everything became dry- se lor and therefore let's set tougher sUndards. From wall--most of the guys in It set the most prudent level/" the opposite direction,, how ; for only 10, 15, 20 years. We Gv continuing the five-liber ever, comes pressure to 'ease ; just began a survey at the ^U..0.-.rd tor another Tout up further. The National'In L union's request. We've' years---a punod that will sulation Contractors Associa X-rayed our first 17 men, and . ; proonbiy sue 100.000 or so tion has petitioned the Labor nine ot the 17 have asbestosis. new min enter asbestos-re- Department to give its mem- . These are the old-timers, with ; kttfd industries--Selifcoff pre* her companies--who septet 125'years in the trade. Very' diets the J-4hor Department sent a large segment"of the " mild, because these are early hsj doomed &Q.QG0 to un industry that hires . asbestos : cases so far.- But we know, necessary luns-cancer deaths. workers--a year's deferment ' what's in their lungs." And so- 7rtte0 to unnecessary tneso* from monitoring require another group -. falls under theJioma deaths. 7,000 to un* ments. The N.l.C.A, promises ' Seltkoff* cloud.'; '" . j T; ,, ' ' nectary asbestosis deaths as that if the asbestos workers ~ Bur of course.-'1 as in any f well deaths of other can* will cross their fingers and scientific, confrontation, there ' cccs. ,A;\d that's not counting combination effects--asbestos plus tobacco smoke, asbestos plus the coal-tar pitch work- hold their breath until the end is always the possibility of ' of 1973, virtually ali of the miscalculation. Perhaps Seli- - . insulating companies by then 1 keif and Hammond and their ' wilt have switched to ashes- colleagues at ML Sinai Hospi- ' . vfs like roofers must handle. tos-free materials such as tal and in the American Can-' , ret in aiJ. SeJ&off predicts fiber glass. cer Society shouldn't frighten' that "Uy a stroke of the pen, 5000C more fives were thrown down the drain." | Siclure Credits ' 1--DC wATHE OALfiVMELE ! E-.TWC EEa TCEE TIMES/ CECEcE T/IME5 I r; :s--ccuateit at i c.a, i rvi/.E j. ieukoft ( !II1--IL'I-', thepheco/Iime I -H-AJ, u: -.I-.,/ time me,: ! c/.iois.- prei '.CL.LI .-AELiEiLAWEBA PEEit , 3S---.-i.'ET/JEECLEI OEKOIi TT-si-MiCii.iE Colo Etli--1EE TPEE TIMES/ ALf/SO .,-OEeEV. sill AU.E* w--MfCil.tL COLO Meanwhile, Selikoffs Hying: shipyard workers and painters ; wedge continues relentlessly , . and pipefitters and insulation T down the field. Not long ago, . workers and the rest. Perhaps ' 1 Seltkoff was having some dry- Assistant. Labor .. Secretary wall construction work dona .George C. Guenther--who \ in his office. He sat there once defended the small fines q watching the workmen and levied . against corporate. t all of a sudden it occurred to health violators /by saying ' .* him: "I,said to myself, well,, that "we are not in the fund- hell, if these guys have been patting up that stuff-watchthem spackle it and sand it: c raising.; business"--was cor- ` ' tect to .upbraid Seltkoff for, '.having chosen, its Guenther -judged it,' "to overdramatiie tj; J, V down so you can't see the, . the matter," It is not, how- joint--they're net immune, I' -ever, sc argument that evades " had enough, background" knowledge to know that the resolution. Those who have--' Ell worked around asbestos for, . ,- taping compound has asbestos any length of time will, soois_. in it. So I got in touch with er or later, find out who was . ^ the painter's onion, and their right a - - ' T-V. ml 989007^