Document 6bR5D7KX8zEjXL09a188brjb1

A sb e sto s A n d B e a n , i: A5 mime long-term on of present day ATASx .xisting decades ago, at foment, nor the medical ealth effects of asbestos r their control. t h e a s b e s t o s INFORMATION ASSOCIA Asbestos and Human Health Asbestos, used since antiquity, has widespread and important applications in our modern technological society. Approximately 3,000 different products containing asbestos are in daily use throughout the world. Its increased use in the 20th A century has lent urgency to the need to cope with occupational :| health problems related to the excessive inhalation of asbestos :;f dust. A Such problems are not unique to the asbestos industry, ; Many substances and materials in common use- today can be ': detrimental to the health and safety of industrial workers under ' uncontrolled conditions. A vital and widely used raw material, ; asbestos is but one of a number of potentially harmful substances used by industry. Basically, the known facts about asbestos-related disease can be summed upas follows; t First, asbestos-related health risks today are almost } exclusively confined to the occupational setting. ||iv':- Second, the effects of excessive inhalation of asbestos are both time and dose related. This means that asbestos-related diseases may develop, generally, only after the inhalation of substantial amounts of asbestos dust over a substantial period of time. Thus, there are levels of exposure that will not result in V any increased risk of disease. If Third, there is presently no evidence of risk to the general public from exposure to the minute amount of asbestos that have been found in community air. Fourth, because of the long latent period of asbestos-related disease, the disease being found today among some long-term industry employees is not an indication of present day conditions, but is a result of conditions existing decades ago. at a time when neither the industry, government, nor the medical profession knew very much about the health effects of asbestos and even less about the proper means for their control. today's standards. In any case, as technology was developed for ;air. "Neighborhood" and "household" cases of mesothelioma the control of asbestos dust levels, both in plant and out, these are cited extensively in this regard, as are the frequent reports potentially hazardous conditions were eliminated. hf the findings of free asbestos fibers and so-called ferruginous A relatively small number of cases have also been reported bodies (which sometimes contain asbestos) in the lungs of city among employees in shipyards and on construction projects dwellers at autopsy. who, while not working directly with asbestos, were exposed to The truth is, however, that there is no evidence -- either heavy concentrations of airborne fiber by working in close from experience or from scientific research --that anyone in proximity to those who did. Exposures of this type have been The general public has ever contracted any asbestos-related reduced bv strictly enforced industrial safety devices and [disease from exposure to these minute amounts of airborne j V.v procedures. asbestos, which are many times lower than levels which have The search for answers to the mesothelioma problem is {been demonstrated to result in no excess of disease in complicated by a number of factors. In the first place, the 1occupationally exposed populations. number of cases being found, even today, is still relatively | This conclusion is supported by both the Asbestos Panel of small. In all of Canada, for example, only 165 cases were the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Biologic reported in the ten year period ending in 1968. Secondly, it r:Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants, and the 33 member Advisory appears highly likely that certain varieties of asbestos [Committee on Asbestos Cancers of the International Agency for (crocidolite and amosite) are more likely, to cause mesothe iResearch on Cancer, a division of the World Health lioma than others. Thirdly, its diagnosis and recognition are ^Organization. still considered problems among medical experts. It is also I In its 1971 booklet, entitled, "Asbestos: The Need For And certain that there are other causes of mesothelioma besides [Feasibility of Air Pollution Controls," the NAS Asbestos Panel, asbestos. Unfortunately, what those other causes might be is j.which consisted of seven of the nation's top experts on asbestos unknown. Until these and other equally important factors are {and health, stated that "there is no evidence that persons in the thoroughly investigated, the mesothelioma question will {general population -- without occupational, household or remain unresolved. {neighborhood exposures -- have any increased risk of fneoplasm, even though there may be ferruginous bodies or Other Tumors '{fibers in their lungs." Some researchers have reported higher-than-normal rates [ Warning against conclusions of the type frequently reached of gastrointestinal cancer among some heavily exposed {by the uninformed with regard to asbestos, the report further industry groups. Other researchers have reported no increase of [stated: "One cannot extrapolate from the mortality exped this type of cancer. The concensus of medical opinion is that the ience of, on the one hand, those who are directly and indirectly evidence is too scanty for a definitive conclusion. {exposed to asbestos in their employment to, on the other hand, s Asbestos and the Genera! Public {the general public, who have had moderate or slight exposures bum ambient air." Medical reports of excess asbestos-related disease among | The report concluded with the statement that "there is no occupationally exposed populations have been frequently cited evidence that the small numbers of fibers found in most by some writers, environmentalists, politicians and others as [members of the general population affect health or longevity." `"proof" that the health of the general public is endangered by I The report of the IAHC Advisory Committee represents the the minute amounts of asbestos dust being found in community {concensus of present world medical opinion on all aspects of the 4 \l 5 l asbestos-health problem. Meeting immediately after lionsored or cooperated in by the world asbestos industry. In October 1972 Lyon Conference on the Biological Effects jet, two of the largest non-governmental sources of funds for Asbestos, the Committee, with representation from bbestos-health research are the Institute of Occupational and different countries, drafted the following opinions on asbestopvironmental Health (IOEH) in Montreal, which is sponsored related disease and the general public. f the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, and the Asbestosis asd,msab.mael,,aslAt,gf*oecsso.bmm,eb. -sypUt_toah,arsesei.sb.d.l:,eu.tsno,t,g(orTtsmshhooe,tisroreemotechi.msceu,bpa1getaertsni^poeronrerfaaslltlehlAnJyept.eubgxbneprloinoces.erevad,,I,li.,,.hd,,,peeun,bca.le.micooi.ufsfnv,Ht,eriti[ttileleadLssneheepeuaebfrt.anwcicod,ho.tleuiongan,c.,Cignycegoan,hul,i.acneniv.cfde,feisuel,csc,at,torsnnsydopc.t,,rfoiIaabnhl,.sussebooteerrdse.bet,dyossusig.i.lntbnsdyi,.fiovicfri.tdah.runeeat,sl,l,eyaBcrt,oorcmih,toipussahrpnok,.inenassosowbraeel,cedst,.dti.,nog,bge'sy Long Cancer: "The evidence . . . suggests that an exce In addition, industry environmental control experts are lung carcinoma risk is not detectable when the occupationpnstantly working to develop new or improved methods of exposure has been low. These low occupational exposures handling asbestos and asbestos-containing products safely, almost certainly been much greater than that to the public frw Much has been learned about asbestos and health in a very general air pollution." Short time --especially when you consider that the greater part Mesothelioma: "There is no evidence of a risk to t|f all medical information about asbestos-related disease is less general public at present " fran a decade old. According to Dr. Premysl Pelnar of the ... nstitute of Occupational and Environmental Health, #ecause of some lecent controversy in the United ^ atippr0xjmate]y 90 per cent of all information and data now and Canada on this subject, the question was also ex^-aaitiVailab!e js the result of medical studies undertaken during the whether there is any "evidence of an increased risk of canc|ast ten years resuming from asbestos fibres present in water, beveiages, fo. ^ {]Ch m0re is still needed: In late 1972 The International 01 in the fluids u^ed for the administration of drugs. Agency for Research on Cancer made recommendations for answer of the Committee was. Such evidence as there is d ^ p je r research and indicated priorities for work of immediate not indicate any risk. ^ .... .ind long-term value. Emphasis was placed on epidemilogical While the conclusions of these two eminent scientific bodi^n(j pathological studies, and high priorities were urged for should be reassuring to those concerned with the presence ter^a^ri projects minute amounts of asbestos in the ambient air, the ashesit. manufacturing industry in the United States will continue in i These Eluded: efforts to reduce asbestos emissions so that potential! 1. Usefulness of early detection in the prevention of hazardous levels will never be permitted fo develop in Progressive fibrosis and asbestos cancers and in the future. identification of hazardous conditions; I 2. Assessment of excess cancer risks following exposure to Asbestos and Health Research inly one variety of asbestos; Extensive medical and technical research into the heal: 3. Amount and type of asbestos in the lungs of effects of asbestos and the proper means for their control nesothelioma cases; being conducted in laboratories throughout the world, i 4. Secular changes in incidences of pleural and peritoneal significant percentage of this research is being sponsored, cpesotheliomas nationally and internationally; 07 DATE DUE 5. Poand cancC 6. He)an3Q T Q t The n support x~. ; i f Asbestos--- sponsorii At P chest asc a ?' =/... in the additions.-?** . ^ ,jA H , ffi will tak i t i t 4 As i"7fi errvironn fabricate------------- -^Ui=UL a _ j o ib "i=-t.;;i 4 M m'uWT i $?m '----'yr-- ...) asbestf eum; "binoffla i bntinue f -ature. Tlr _ present: Health i 'ion devil Ais need' teindusti j workit -ators an... SAVtOftO  tfsssciaifgg icftfc kmmm, 1666 L Straet I,. f , 20036 For Additional Copies or For Farther irsformation Contact THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION / NORTH AMERf| New vV"i'S'N r.|T^446Hi 10 0 S