Document 6E878MBM0vMkX9Xe3kqx2aY1

Monsanto (NAME * LOCATION) T. M. Harris - Chocolate Bayou Plant OATE SUBJECT TO June 26, 1972 Use of Asbestos at Chocolate Bayou Clint Britt CC: A. W. Adams R. E- Belden H. C. Clark F. H. Dupre C. H. McComb R. L. Miller O.M.C. Please find attached a copy of the article highlighting the hazards of exposure to asbestos. I would like to request an Engineering study to determine the feasibility of eliminating the use of asbestos at Chocolate Bayou. The most frequent use of this material in our plant is: 1. Ethylene Furnaces - Weber #48 - contains asbestos used between brick and roof of Ethylene furnaces. Mixed up like mortar and sets up hard. Installed by J. W. Leavesley. 2. Insulation used in the plant 1. Thermo-Bestos 'I'M . Contains asbestos ^ P.'.M2. Kaylo . ..................Contains asbestos ~<t 3. Mono-block ................ Does not contain asbestos 4. Carey-temp .................. Does not contain asbestos The Thermo and Kaylo are used -for hot service (high temperatures) and all fittings no matter if temperature is hot or ambient, due to the crumbling characteristics of the Mono and Carey. It is also used on straight runs sometimes due to the same problem. If there is any assistance our group can furnish, please let me know. JMH:lm attachment J. M. Harris IN to A E V lias c 000094 v LAM022004 THE WALL STRF.ET JOURNAL, Thurvdftf, June 6, 1972 VOL LI I NO. 168_____________________ Harry Bailey u ana ttJin find much solace In the nevr standards. Mr. Bailey Isn't an asbestos worker. He's a brick Perilous Particles layer in a Mobil Oil Corp. refinery alongside the Delaware River in Paulsboro. N.J. He has been working at the plant for 33 years, and Tiny Asbestos Fibers every year he has gone to the company medi cal department for a chcBt X ray. "They never said there was anything wrong Pose a Health Threat with me." says st ycar-old Mr. Bailey, and In deed he has thus far developed no outward symptoms. But a few months ago he and 18 To Workers and Public other workers from the refinery went to Mount Sinai for an examination, and every one of them proved to have scarred lungs--a sign of asbestoals. a nonmalignant lung disease. Long Exposure Can Result iMcbil has refused to release his medical rec ords to the New York doctors. Mr. Bailey says. In Lung Disease, Cancer; The company declines to comment on the mat ter.) Industry Seeks Solutions First Scarring, Then Complications Asbestcoi3 begins with X-ray evidence of scarring like that found In Mr. Bailey's lungs. As the disease progresses, the lungs stiffen and The Bodies Are in the Street' breathing becomes difficult. The heart has to work harder and can become enlarged. Ulti mately. death may be caused by heart attack By Barry Nf.wman 81c// Reporter of The WallStaset Journal. NEW YORK-At Joseph Marino's gas sta tion on the fringe on Manhattan's Spanish Har lem. the proven method of cleaning an old brake assembly goes like this: Pull off the wheel, aim an air hose at the exposed parts and blow the dust out. A cloud of brown dust invariably files right Into' the mechanics' faces, says Mr. Marino. But It doesn't bother them. "We got masks and or suffocation. The mineral can also cause lung cancer--In fact asbestos can cause cancer just about any place in the body if particles are somehow in gested. The ability of the sharp, tiny particles to penetrate the lung once breathed in has pro duced a high incidence of cancer in the mem brane surrounding the lung, a disease called mesothelioma. In the general populace, it causes one in 10.000 deaths. Qf 632 asbestos, workers being studied bv Dr. everything." Mr. Marino shrugs. "The guys .urn.: Refinery, where Mr. Bailey don't use them. What the hell." works, like all high heat factories in the oii and What the mechanics don't seem to know-- chemical industries, uses asbestos for insula like thousands of other mechanics--is that the tion. Mr. Bailey works with Insulation workers brown dust is dangerous. Brake linings are inside the furnaces, ripping out soft brick. made of asbestos. And if a mechanic breathes "There's asbestos and trick dust and a lot of In enough dust from the worn-out linings It sulphur, too," he says. "We complained about could eventually kill him. the dust and dirt. Nothing Is done to keep It The lethal quality of tiny. Indestructible as down. The fans make it worse, and you can't bestos fibers that lodge In the lung Is well wet it because of the heat in the bricks. The known. Widely publicized studies by Dr. Irving company bought new respirators, but under the Selikoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine conditions they clog In 15 minutes." lead him to predict that of the roughly 230,000; the? -------- asbestos industry workers today, about 95,000! ~ will die unnecessarily of occupational cancer. "In the next 10 to 15 years we will enter the as bestos cancer era." says Dr. Selikoff. "This iscne of the great disasters of our time." Hazards for Others. Too The asbestos industry is well aware of the problem and is taking action to combat it, though critics say the steps aren't as drastic as the situation demands. But asbestos Industry Lia wren Lie insuiauon workers sad' sheets outside the room, or mix cement in a wheelbarrow, "anybody can get the dust." Company Disagrees Mobil disagrees with the description of working conditions. In response to a query, the company issued this statement: "We have no problems at the Paulsboro refinery concerning the use of materials containing asbestos. We workers aren't the only ones who might fall use very little of such material, and what we prey to the lung cancers and other diseases do use is used under strictly controlled condi caused by the mineral's irritating fibers. It's tions. Recently the Occupational Safety and likely that millions of workers in other indus Health Administration carried out an extensive tries using asbestos fibers could be affected, as and thorough inspection of the entire Paulsboro well as ordinary people who have come into refinery.. No violations were found In the contact with asbestos in the atmosphere. plant's handling of asbestos materials." Perhaps the most tragic fact is that for . Mr. Bailey's union, the Oil. Chemical ar.d those who have already been sufficiently ex Atomic Workers, is protesting that Inspection. posed. changes in procedures arid standards of Steven Wodka, a union health and aafciy rpe- asbestos use--including a new set announced ciiiliat, says little attention was paid to health eaterday by the Department of Labor--arc violations. And he complains that after a week deaningless. It lukr* -i, ma--- as *' of accompanying the Inspectors, the company 7after the firs* " -- 1 '................... . ,... J inexplicably "had me kicked out of the plant." - "iTiioj' v1. '.'"`in iTT-grii Mobil declines comment on Mr. Wodka's Cifect. but not for decadca. charge. c 000095 L/*M 022005 Perilous Particles: Tiny Fibeirs Of Asbestos Pose a Health Threat OH refineries are by no means the only, Afraid of a Checkup places where asbestos turns up. The versatile! Among construction workers outside the as- eubsthnee is a fireproof binder and Insulator in| bestos trades--virtually all of whom are ex- thousands of products. Including such things asl posed to asbestos whether they work with It dl- ptastics. shingles, paper end pipes. In moat of] rectiy or not--concern remains relatively low. these, the asbestos Is harmless to users. But, Jacob Novak, business manager of the Axbes- depending on how it's added to the products, tos Workers Union local in New York, says he asbestos can pose a threat to workers In the has tried without success, for Instance, to In factories where the products are made. duce a group of plasterers to have checkups. Until six months ago, for Instance, asbestos, "Some of these people don't want to face a free was being used as an antileak Ingredient ir. X ray because they're afraid of what they Prestone antifreeze. made by Union Carbide might heer," says Mr. Novak, a 43-year vet Corp. At a Carteret. N.J.. plant, run for Union eran ofthe asbestos trades, who had a nonmtCarbide by General American Transportation, llgnant tumor removed from a lung last winter. the asbestos would arrive In paper sacks. Anxiety In the demolition Industry also Workers would cut the bags open with knives seems minimal. "We don't have a dust prob and feed the powdery white asbestos into tanks lem In demolition," says Leonard Kapy. vice of antifreeze, says James Irving, a fire and president of Wrecking Corp. of America, one of safety engineer who lias worked In the plant the largest demolition companies in the coun- ferr 22 years. 'ry. "Some people think you can take down a "They'd wear face masks, but no protective building without dust," he says with a laugh. clothing," Mr. Irving says, "and the blowers In As for asbestos. Mr. Kapy isn't worried: "I the room where they worked would send the know fellas who have laid asbestos pipe for dust out to where others were working. Then they'd pile up the bags outside the building and years, and there's nothing wrong with them." a crew would pick them up and throw them Whan working In closed quarters, he says, his onto the truck, raising a big cloud of dust." men use drop cloths and fans, but they don't Asbestos was removed from the Prestone wear respirators because "they're too hot and formula late last year. Mr. Irving says the they don't work." change took piace alter the OH. Chemical and Nevertheless, the federal Environmental Atomic workers made an issue of It. Union Protection Agency is preparing regulations ex- Carbide denies that. The decision, says Herbert petfted to be announced this summer that J. Hannigan, the company's technical manager would attempt to Impose controls on air pollu of auto products, was based on marketing con tion from demolition operations. These could siderations and "had nothing to do with Include requirements for wetting down the health." work areas or the removal of all asbestos be Asbestos also can pose hazards to the ulti fore a building is toppled. The technical prob mate consumers of certain products. Bits of as lem of measuring dust levels, however, "could bestos used in filters for beverage making have toss out the demolition regulation entirely," been found In wine and beer, for instance, and says James Krowder, an engineer with the could be dangerous if swallowed. The use of EPA's hazardous pollutants branch. such filters In beverage making seems to have Setting a standard for asbestos concentra been curtailed, but knowledge of the hazard ap- tions at work sites has been similarly difficult pears to have had little effect elsewhere, even jfor the fledgling Occupation Safety and Health In medical circles. Asbestos, says a soon-to-be-j Administration, a year-old Department of published study. Is being used In some has pi- 'Labor unit. The reason: nobody knows how tals ex a filter for intravenoualy-fed liquids, much asbestos is dangerous. The asbestos tn- givtng the particles an entry Into the blood dustry, led by Johns-Manville Corp.. the iarg- iream. - est In the field, has fought for a standard allow- The'use of asbestos In fireproof textiles Is [ng five asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of common. Once in a while, asbestos fiber even ^ the factorlej. Bul the doctorl at Moum finds its way into ordinary fabric^ Dr. William 31nai and elaewhcre that the only Nicholson, an associate of Dr. Selikoff at Mount ,,fe ,eve, 0( Mbestos pollutton wouId JMr0. Sinai, has a girl s charcoal-colored winter coat , pour.Delay with red trim hanging in one of his labora to- , ., ri.es. .I.t.s one of more than ,,2_00,,.0,,00 , Import.ed. .___T_h_e_ g_ov,,ernment s decision yesterday' w, ax to coats made with 8% asbestos fiber sold two `>"Poe a five-fiber average, with a maximum years ago. Some of them art presumably stlHIC0TMentr*t`0n work area of 10 fibers per being worn. "Give that coat a shake." says Dr. cublc ""timenter at any time. In 19T*. the new Nicholson, "and you get dust levels as high ,,.gu!*ons call for a more stringent two-fiber In an asbestos factory." wlth 1,16 tour-year delay Intended to give Asbestos workers in the construction Indus- the Industry a chance to control the problem, try are perhaps the most sensitive of all work- ^he Industry says even a two-fiber limit era to the asbestos hazard. It was the construe- cou*d hurt It economically. J. B. Jobe. Johns- Uon Industry, which uses two-thirds of ail as- Manville'a executive vice president, said at beatoa products, that was the target of the first hearings in March that it would fee "socially Ir- wav* of anilaabeato* publicity more than four, reaponjlble** to adopt auch atrlngent regula- year* ago. J.^n. r- * 'n;| ^ g * * - - m--..-ygr> -,,. tfons. ton. Chic/1. ' . .' * The company operates the largest, asbestos i. sir-ii- ii ummi factory In the country-at Manvllle, N.J%"where, r.ialcritt.s ire ovwig ue according to a recent Mount Sinai study. 40% veioped. t.-sough there's some question being of the workers die of asbestos-related cancer, raised about their safety, too. Corrective steps being taken already. Johns- C 000096 Manvllle maintains, are adequate to deal with the probtem without causing a cutback In the plant's production, the lifeblood of the New Jersey town of 15,000. At least one asbestos fac tory. run by a PPG Industries and Coming Glass Works joint venture in Tyler. Texas, closed last February because of "profitability and concern over Eafety," a spokesman says. .ver plant or emelter might run into the hundreds of millions, the cost of cleaning up an asbestos operation would be closer to a lOlh of that magnitude, accord ing to doctors, engineers and union officials. Some of the staples of such an operation, al ready in use In many plants, are compara tively Inexpensive closed plastic bags for mix ing cement, vacuum attachments on power saws, drop cloths, dust-auppressant chemicals and battery-powered respirators that blow fil tered air Into the user's face to ease discom fort. The new Labor Department standards do. Indeed, call for many of these work-practice rules. But while they are unquestionably a needed step toward strict controls. Dr. Sellkoff, says, he also says he remains pessimistic. "The potential for surveillance Is remote," he [ ays, because of the small, underfinanced staffs of federal and state Inspectors. A survey ; recently completed at Mount Sinai of 9,t00 as- > bestos workers around the country, for In-: stance, showed that In 1970 and 1971 there was only one dust count taken in asbestos plants for : every 20,000 man-days worked. ! And while he says he appreciates the asbes tos industry's expressed Interest in solving the problem. Dr. Sellkoff Is hard-pressed to ex plain the continuing apathy among many work- { era and managers. "This Isn't just another { scare," he says. "Some people want to see the | bodies In the street before they become con- j cerned. Unfortunately, in this case, the bodies ! ore In the street." C 000097 * LAM022007