Document 5Dpn8jvXYXy7d8rV5EkL90paJ

FILE NAME: RT Vanderbilt (RTV) DATE: 1974 Jan 16 DOC#: RTV 188 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: BF Goodrich Letter to J-M RE Jan 15 Meeting Concerning Asbestos & Health Hazards M M nmmw O 5 5 V T If M * I H S T R E E T The B. F. Goodri ch Company * A K R O N . . ( 1 H 0 -4 1 8 A00IHS5 REPLY TO: DEPT. 2 0 5 0 Jan u ary 16,\ 1974 10C.28-F Mr. W.H. Cooper Director, Environmental Johris-Manvi H e .Greenwood Plaza Denver,, Colorado- 80217 Affairs Dear Mr. Cooper;' I attended the meeting in Cleveland on January 15, 1974 concerning asbestos and the related health hazards. The first topic ("The Medical Facts.on Asbestos") included several slides which were intended to show that airborne asbestos fibers in amounts of less than 5 fibers/cc did not increase the risk, of .disease,,' -Since there was only a few minutes to look at any one of the slides, it w a s ,impossible to really be convinced of the conclusions which the speaker was drawing. This difficulty was increased by one slide in particular which showed more deaths than participants in a study of insulation workers by Dr, Selikoff. The speakers answer to a question about the apparent contradiction was not at all definitive..' Also, Mr. Solon in the question and answer period- referred to Selikoff. in an Uncomplimentary way as being more interested in headlines than medical, facts.. The suspicion that Selikoff s data was misrepresented does hot seem unreasonable. Would you send either copies o f the papers from which the slides were,taken or a bibliography to me? ; There is another question which I would like to ask concerning the presence of asbestos fibers in talc. T h e director of environmental affairs at Goodrich sent a reference to a proposed regulation concerning talcs "contaminated" with asbestos fibers to me with the question, "Can we do this?" I sent for a copy of the Federal R e g i s t e r , Vol. 38, No. 188 - Friday, Sept. 28, 1973, pp. 27076-27081 which contained the proposal. Paragraph 121.2006, section C is the specific section in question. ' This paragraph describes a rather unbelievable (at least- to me) procedure where one milligram samplesof talc are mixed with oils of appropriate refractive indices. These preparations are examined with a polarizing microscope and all particles with aspect ratios of three or more,-:being .at Least five microns in Length and ; having the appropriate refractive index are counted as asbestos. "A count of not mor than 1000 amphibole types of asbestos fibers and not more than 100 chrysotile asbestos fibers per milligram slide constitutes the maximum." Would you. comment on this proposal. Sincerely, The B.F. Goodrich Company R, Lindesmith Microscopy Laboratory . . . f / i f a s t e r / y fttv & fte v