Document 44dQpzOvDZ1132ENB7EZLZwMG

JOE SAFETY AND HEALTH REPORT March 29, 1971 . LARGEST ASBESTOS COMPANIES FORM HEALTH INFORMATION.ASSOCIATION ' Information about asbestos, and health, including industry efforts and. accom- . plishment's in identifying and controlling asbcs'tos/hcalth hazards; will be circula ted by a newly formed Asbestos Information Association/Korth America. Formed by eight of the largest companies in asbestos manufacturing, the AIA/RA will correct the "many misleading or erroneous impressions" of the nature of the occupational . and possible public health hazards associated with the manufacture and use of asbestos and asbestos-containing products, the Association announced. . Current actions on asbestos cited by AlA/NA's Secretary, W. F. Raines, include: (1) HEW is preparing report recommending new Federal dust standards for asbestos processing plants and mines; (2) medical experts committee of Rational Academy cf Sciences is drafting recommendations for control of asbestos dust emissions into the ambient air under grant from EPA's Office of Air Pollution Control; (3) number of state and city governments, including Hew York City and Philadelphia, are considering proposals to ban or strictly regulate use of certain asbestos products, primarily .asbestos-containing spray insulations employed in high-rise building construction. Asbestos is basically an occupational health hazard, Raines said, and there is no evidence, of. hazard to the general, public, from exposure to the minute amount's of asbestos that may be in community air. Some doctors, writers, and others have "translated the occupai.ional hazard to the general public without considering the vast differences in the amount of exposure between the two groups." A worker employed at. a level, of 5 fibers per cubic centimeter of air, recommended as safe by the American Conference of Governmental, and Indusi.. j u 1 F.yiunists for ccor,.< tior.r.l expo sure, has an exposure at least 30,000 to 100,000 * times higher than that of the average New Yorker, who in a lifetime.of 70 years would bo exposed to an amount to greater than a mine or plant employee would experience in tvo-and-a-half working days, he said. ', ' .***."* * *................ .. "Low occupational levels of exposure have produced no disease,'Raines stated, citing epidemiological study of occupational groups in England,.the U.S., and Canada. Asbestos-related disease at higher than normal incidence "was found only -among long-term employees exposed to high concentrations of dust in their work." " Asbestos concentrations in both the workplace and in community air can and, in most instances, are being satisfactorily controlled,. and there is therefore no reason to ban the use of any asbestos-containing product, Raines said. President, of AIA/NA is Harold McNabb, president, Piping and Plastics Indus tries Division, Certain-teed Products Corp. Directors are from the National Gypsum Co., GAF Corp., Flintkol.e Co., Jo'nns-Kanvillc Corp., Panacon Corp., Woodward Iron Co., and Raybcstos-Manhattan. ` i . . CAPCO JEN 0004-356