Document 8O46oveooBZba1BN2Jza0nxzK

PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT J55M-6Q - m '/ . =.*% 2 \ ,i . . * ,.; v.'i. v : m AID MOLECULES Transcript #424 THE CASE AGAINST THE MAGIC MINERAL, PAST X NARRATOR: a"' a&f American Chemical Society Neva Service 1155 Sixteenth Street. N.lf. Washington, D.C. S003D HE. 7- 3337 The American Chemical Society presents...?,..AND...MOLECULES .the story of chemical research. This ia Stuart Finley. This week, the first of two reports on THE CASE AGAINST THE MAGIC MINERAL. NARRATOR: Every occupation has its obvious drawbacks with which we can usually cope. But for many of the men who mine and work with asbestos--a mineral famous for its ability to stand up to fire--the hacard has not only teen invisible, it has also been deadly. In the past two decades the evidence has mounted that asbestos is a potent cause of cancer, and that it is the major cause of /hat was at one time a rare form of cancer. Since the Greeks--who noticed that slaves working with asbestos had lung troubles--people have accepted the idea that years of exposure of asbestos can scar the lungs. The definite link with cancer was not made until this century, and it has only become clear since the 1950's of Just how powerful that link is. Part of the evidence was supplied in 1954 when I>r. Irving J. Selikoff, now professor of envircnem&nal medicine at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, decided to keep track of what happened to eighteen asbestos workers who had been forced to leave the 'industry because of a factory closing. SELIKOFF: Of the eighteen men, twelve are now dead. I -y died primarily of two things; first scarred lungs, in other words- what we call aabestosis, a dust disease of the lung due to asbestos; or of several forms of cancer. Vhy people who breathe in asbestos have a much greater risk of dying of cancer, we do not know. The first ca e of a man dying of cancer of the lungs, who also had aabestosis, was only reported in 1935* Numerous reports since then have conxiraed this original report. Other cancers, including a very peculiar one called mesothelioma, are now also reported in very much greater Incidence among people who regularly work with asbestos. Why these tumors appear, we do not know. NARRATOR: Mesothelioma is a cancer of the tissue, or membrane, that lines the lungs and abdomen. It is a cancer so rare--perhaps one case in ten thousand--that few physician* ever see a case. But the incidence of it aa well as more better known cancers, such as lung cancer, ars apparently being raised by asbestos. SELIKOFF: incidentally, one thing!* very interest They dc not appear th* Moment an iadli asbestos. TJjejp. <iMit **3i!Mmr*1 r About in* to mm PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT MV'00/71?, 101 043 14131 .< Transcript #424 f;V ..v;,'-: ,- - agTiIKOFF: (Coat'd) 4a* - tbs eaterisl. How ws understand the problem, however, and now, therefore, e come to a tine when we should do something about It. KARRATOB: Doing something about asbestos should be in many ways a simpHer job than dealing with some of the other hazards to health.. .cigarette smoking, air pollution, to name two. The sources of asbestos are limited--Canada and the Soviet Union supply <iost of it. The asbestos industry is relatveley small, so modifying it won't shake the economy. But one of the difficulties in dealing with asbestos is that although we're surrounded by the stuff, it's rarely seen. It lines the brakes of our cars; most of the materials used to constuuct our homes and offices contain asbestos. It's in textiles, plastics, and cables. There are an estimated three thousand different industrial uses for asbestos in the United States alone. It is light weight but strong, and it won't decay. It resists most chemicals. It's such an ideal material, that it's been called the magic mineral, which incidentally, *:: the title of a recent report on asbestos in The Hew Yorker Magazine. wiille asbestos may be magical, it is not a mineral, but rather a C*-c:.o rf minerals with unusual properties in common. SELXZOi&T: If ve o.in imsglr.e e fiber, like cotton or silk or wool made of mineral, we can understand those properties, end how valuable they would be in modern industry. Cn. other yores, they would be fire pro-1; they would r.e largely chemical proof; tli?y would bo proof; rock proof; and co forth. Therefore,, they arc very useful tor roinfere reinforcement--bMlrjr very strong. It's very useful for Insulation, very useful r.s a filler--an Ir-ri'ir filler--ir. meny materials ?rd indeed it is a wonderful materiel. It is wonderful in Industry; it is not so wonderful in the human lung. NARRATOR: The studies of Dr. Selikoff and others in many countries made it appear that people directly exposed to asbestos for a long period of time were likely to develop scarred lungs, and, if they lived long enough, various forms of cancer. But still the evidence was on shaky ground, based on a farily small srmple of people,and limited to those who had direct and long-term exposure to asbestos. That picture changed in 1964 when Dr. Selikoff and his Kt. Sinai colleagues, along with Dr. Cuyler Ham ond of the American Cancer Society, sported on the fate of six hundred end thirty-two men who were members of the Insulators Workers Union in Hew York City. These were men who Installed asbestos containing insulation: they didn't make it. They had been meebers of the union since 1942. Dr. Selikoff and his colleagues knew their agea, they knew the years of exposure to asbestos insulation, and they knew how aany should die of any < particuaar disease. :.v JK.. .... .... 4Mk 4 01 043 1414 -2 V J* :%?*_ ,35s!-&i Transcript #424 -^gFSL^r*" ~ V?V.v .3 8KUXQFF: We calculate that the six hundred and thirty -two &en, given their ages and given the years In which they were living, there should have been two hundred and three deaths among then. There were too hundred and fifty-five. In other words, approximately fifty more sen died than would have been expected In a group of six hundred and thirtytwo men of the same age over the same period of time. When we looked at the causes of death, we found the reasons for this excess nortality. There should have been six or seven deaths due to cancer of the lung; there were forty-five. There should have been nine or ten deaths due to cancer of the stomach,or cancer of the colon; and there were twenty-nine. There should, by the way, have been no deaths due to mesothelicms. ; and there were four. NARRATOR: That study of the Insulation workers, which made the lethal risks of their occupations so obvious, covered a twenty year period from 1942 to 19o2. SELIKOFF: Since then the results have been equally bad. For example, in the last one hundred and twenty ieaths, there should have been no deaths due to mesotheliomas,which is very rare; and there were fourteen. There should have been two or three deaths due to cancer of the lung among the surviving men; 2nd there were twenty-seven. So that the results indicate that working with asbestos, as a member of the Insulation Workers onion in the New fork area during these last twenty-six years, has signfficantly increased the risk of dying of very serious diseases. NARRATOR: This study by Dr. Selikoff and his colleagurss--now a classic in environmental medicine--removed any doubt about the terrible penalties that could be paid for a lifetime of exposure of asbestos. But even more disturbing evidence began to accumulate--evidence that suggested that even indirect exposure to asbestos might lead ot mesothelioma, the cancer now condidered a marker disease of asbestos. And other clues came suggesting that even a brief exposure, a matter of weeks instead of the decades associated with lung scarring and cancer, could result in mesothelioma twenty or thirty years later. The evidence of the hazards of indirect exposure to asbestos came in part from Dr. Kureil Newhouse, an epidemiologist working In London. SELIKOFF* She has found, for example, in studying seventy-six mesothllloass at one hospital--the London Hospital--that, as expected, thirty-one occurred In asbestos workers--people who had in one trade or another worked with asbeetos. Of the forty-five who had no history 0f*farklA* with asbestos, nine occurred in peopla who sinply lived In* ^ household of an asbestos worker, and who w#** aresuwabl 01 043 1415 W :'~r- -h/' Transcript #424 ' '*'#*... .... , " '" - *'&><& " .`&S' ,V-' **-."*.**> ' SZ'SHfiSSt *': /- *? *4 SELZXQPFs (Cont'd) \ the fibers brought home on the work clothes. And of the thirty-six who neither worked with asbestos, nor lived in a household of an asbestos worker, eleven simply lived within a half mile of an asbestos plant. This raises the very aerious question: whether a neighborhood exposure, or exposure within households, or indirect occupational exposure carries a risk similar to that of the individual working regularly with asbestos, although, perhaps to s lesser degree. The exact degree to which that risk occurs is what we oust find out. If it's very small, there's no qreat problem; if it's very large, then the proglem is multiplied a great deal. NARRATOR: The evidence that even fairly brief exposure of high levels of asbestos can bring on mesothelioma, cancer of the membranes that'line the lungs and abdomen, has been gathered in bits and snatches, really more anecdotal than scientific. Nevertheless, Or. Sellkoff and his colleagues are seriously worried about the stories they hear. For A.-.J.ance, there was the case of a patriotic young woman. '.ovcu* woman--at the time a student at Wellesley--who, in retif-onau to patriotic appeals, worked during her summer vacation in 194j }:\ c-r.e - f u 'hlpyards in Boston for six weeks doing insulation worn a^oui. y#,~ "hw brrnthcd in slgnjf Jcir.-, ?c*',:nt i of as bee bn:: o.j:*!iioss vef-'-'s The fact the*' -iurins -:r.f i.t.ci twenty-fiv* y?.i.-s riicu1-' 'live acditional ?> pccurc- njtcsvoe does not mes/: thu . the Jib#*/* that ;hr? i.J.aiwt on ring it::?c *l.< v:fo>:s were not ivne [5 if. the :? es'vtf*--: o`.'. NAnWf0?: The young woman died :>f r.csothel.loae in the sic-sixties, roughly thirty years oft-ar a one-time c/pcture to asbestos. (YT/.v) By now the obvious question loons. What of us, the people vho have never worked with asbestos, have never Incwn an ar-bestoe wo.-!-:t:r, have never lived near a plast using asbestos, out do live in cit:et uluh buildings and cars that contain this magic mineral? Has asbestos found its way to the lungs of the general population? For a long time, many thought not. But they've changed their minds. SELIKOFF: In 1963 a sort of mild bombshell was exploded In our part of the scientific world by Professor John Thompson of espetown. Ha published a paper than in which ha stated that he had examined five hundred consecutive autopsies of adults in Capetown. Using a very simple technique--namely, making a smear of tissua fluid squeezed from the incised lung base and ax--iniwg this fluid microscopically--be was able to demonstrate what are called asbestos bodies in twenty-five v percent of all the peopla who came to aatopsy at the Jfoepitel st espetown atj Ifti ft/J Q i 4 1 ci .. - ';& transcript #424 . -~55 SABRATQR: In other words, one quarter of random selection of bodies had asbestos bodies in their lungs. Asbestos bodies are asbestos fibers coated with an iron-rich material, giving them a yellowish-brown appearance. Since the Capetown studies, the picture has become even more gloomy. SELXKOPP: from twenty-five to fifty percent of all people who are examined in post-mortems in such cities as Montreal, London, Milan, Belfast, Miami, Pittsburgh, and so forth have these asbestos bodies in their lungs, in New York City, we are examining three thousand consecutive autopsies in three of our hospitals--Elmhurst General Hospital, the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital, and Mt. Sinai Hospital. And we have found that fifty percent of all the people whose lungs we've examined have those asoestos bodies or the structures which appear to be asbestos bodies in their lungs. Nevertheless, the numbers are very smaller than the numbers that we find in the lungs of peoole who regularly work with asbestos. Therefore, we must assume that the e^c-sure of people in the general population is very much less at this tlx? chan the exposure surfered by asbestos workers. We do not know at this elm*, therefore, whether the health effects that might be associsi with these much fewer fibers will be anything like the health affects fluffereed by asbestos workers. KAHrATCH: As 1 said earlier, the asbestos problem Is unusual in that its sources are limited, its uses known, and its effects documented. It is a problem with sollutions. ?, ummu 1 043 14j7 ts / . .' MSB AND MQLECUUB Transcript #425 THE CASE AGAINST THE MAGIC MINERAL, PART II Ste-a Aaerican Chemical Society leva service 1155 Sixteenth street. B.V. Washington, D.C. 20G3o 737-3337 BARRATOR: The Aaerican Cheaical Society presents...MEN...AND...MOLECULES...the story of cheaical research. This is Stuart Finley. This week, the second of two reports concerning THE CASE AGAINST THE MAGIC MINERAL* Dr. Irving J. Selikoff radiates the confidence of a natural optimist. A wearer of bow ties, with a liking for people and conversation, who approaches a task with gusto and zeal, it's obvious that Dr. Selikoff prefers to look at the brignt side of things. In a way, that's fortunate considering the problems associated with asbestos--the magic mineral. Dr. Selikoff is professor of Environmental Medicine at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New fork City. As you heard last week, he and other researchers in the united States, England, and South Africa have proven that those who had mined and worked with asbestos in the past are dying, at significantly high rates, of various cancers, including lung cancer, and a rare form of cancer called mesothelioma. Mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissue or membrane that lines the lungs and the abdomen, usually occurs in only one in ten thousand Deople, but has become all too common among people who've been exposed to high levels of asbestos. But what really worries Dr. selikoff, and others, is that not only asbestos workers get mesothelioma, now considered a marker disease for asbestos, but their families may also get it. people who lived near an asbestos plant or mine have also gotten it. Even people regularly exposed at work for a few weeks to asbestos fibers may develop mesothelioma twenty-five or thirty years later--the time it seems to take between expsoure and diagnosis, in addition, autopsies done at random on the lungs of people in many of the world's major cities have turned up asbestos bodies...iron coated asbestos fibers in twnety-five to fifty percent of the cases. But there were cwo questions we left unanswered last week: what is the danger of asbestos to the general population, the people who don't work with asbestos at all; and how long has this population been exposed to asbestos. SELIKOFF: We don't know. I suspect that It's relatively recent. The reason for this suspicion is as follows: there wasn't very much asbestos in use until relatively recently. For example, only fifty thousand tons per year were produced in the world around 1900. in 1930 the annuel world production was five hundred thousand tons per year. We are producing much aore asbestos now with the growth of our industry, the growth of our population, and the recognition of the excellent and industrial qualities of this mineral fiber. Therefore, we can almost assume that inhalation, or the potential for inhalation, is a relatively recent event. Since the diseases associated with Inhalation of asbestos don't appear for twenty to thirty or more years, any hsalth effect associated with asbestos, wtuch is now being inhaled, will not be' '' observed until eraand 1990 or the jear2QQO. I don't wentto. ~ SUS [oi 043 14IS * . - *3grep v-v .--. *"'" "'' ^dhSjjppj '*; `S^sS'T-.;1 ' >';?;* '' ' :*.- ''V^i-gSSww Transcript #425 SELIKOFF: (cant'd) 1 * /- * -- * >-**<*- '% -:r5`; ?KX these effects then, which is the'reason for my concern that prswnt inhalation at this tine. \t NARRATOR: Furtunately, asbestos, as we emphasised last yeek, is a problem with practical solutions. Its sources, uses, and effects are all known. Some of those solutions are already in effect, others being planned. We'll get to those in a moment, but first a word about the asbestos workers. What's being done to protect them against the magic nineral that is killing them? Unfortunately, for many of these workers-- such a3 many of the members of the Insulation workers Union with which Dr. Selikoff worked--little can be done. They've already had decades of exposure to asbestos, making it statistically certain that some of them, with time, will die of lung cancer and mesothelioma. A gloomy thought... SELIKOFF: Yes, this is a gloomy thought. But these are very unusual men--the insulation workers in New York and New Jersey. They are the old kind of self-reliant sturdy craftsmen. They are an intelligent--highly intelligent--group. These are independent individuals, aa are many craftsmen in the construction trades. And, when faced with this problem, they have not sat wringing their hands, but have determined to do sometiing about it. And much of the vigor and energy with which this problem is now being attacked has been due to the good activity of this group of workmen; that is, the union to which this group of workmen belong--the Insulation workers Union. NARRATOR: Already a simple way has been found to cut down the rate of lung cancer among asbestos workers. That was to tell them to stop smoking. The Justification for that was a study Dr. Selikoff did with Dr. Cuyler Hacnond of the American emcer Society, who, more than any other man, gathered the statistical evidence that cigarette smoking was a cause of lung cancer in the general population. Drs. Selikoff and Hammond studied the histories of eighty-seven asbestos workers who never smoked, and two hundred and eighty-three who did. SELIKOFF: Of the eighty-seven men who didn't smoke cigarettes, we didn't expect any to die of lung cancer, because people who don't smoke cigarettes by and large don't die of lung cancer, although a few do. That has been our experience among the asbestos workers as well. We have yet to see in New York City a death due to lung cancer in an asbestos worker who didn't smoke cigarettes. Oh the other hand, of the two hundred and eighty-three men who had a history of cigarette sacking, we should have expected, as cigarette aaokera, two or three deaths due to lung eencerA''vVfiere have been twenty- caven. This that thare le effect betMe^MbeetotjnO^ ............................. ................ fefc Id:-:)". " 01 043 1419 .: ;;T' Transcript #425 SSLXKQFF: (Cant'd) ' rs -y- .v/i - -3 cancer. Dr. Haamend has calculated that an asbestos worker who smokes cigarettes has ninety-two tl_&es the risk of dying of lung cancer as compared with a person who neither works with asbestos* nor smokes cigarettes. Therefore* it asbestos workers will stop smoking cigarettes* and many have* we can probably eliminate a large part of the risk of lung cancer among them. BARRATOR: Unfortunately* at this point* there is no simple way to reduce the other possible result of working with asbestos--the appearance* twenty-five to thirty years after the fact, of mesothelioma, the cancer of lung and abdominal tissue,that is now a fatal and virtually incurable disease. We have observed mesothelioma among asbestos workers who do not smoke cigarettes. Therefore, a second approach is necessary: the approach of sharply decreasing the exposure to asbestos. Mow, most of these men began work, and were exposed to asbestos* at a time when the risk was not known. Therefore, precautions were either minimal or non existent. We now know these risks, and, therefore, it is important for us to design measures, knowing these risks, to eliminate them. BARRATOR: There are many ways to start, as Dr. Selikoff pointed out to us. Government has to set some sort of standards. Scientists have to come up with the proper information needed to set those standards. And the men working with abbestos, through their unions, have to help themselves. And the unions, as you've already heard, have made a start toward solving the asbestos problem. SELIKOFF: Labor unions. Indeed, in the last several years, have almost led the way in demonstration of social responsibility. For example, at the present time, the only large-scale industrial hygiene program in the asbestos industry and the construction trades has been designed and had been worked out by the labor unions involved. This is a remarkable thing. It is remarkable that one of the building and construction trade unions have actually gotten together all their people and each member of this union is contributing ten dollars per year out of his own pocket to work out an industrial hygiene program to solve the problems within this industry. This effort on the part of labor has attracted the additional, /support of some segments of this industry. For example, the Johns Mknvllle, Corporation is cooperating fully In this support of the development of this program in this one asbestos industry. Of course, there are other asbestos Industries in which such programs have not come about. 'j. mi St wsssm m< W T.'fe': 1-: loi 043 1420 ^ - ~ * *.' 1* V-* ^ ^''r*fticrlpt f*25 \i4ri jwr-V>*vV- *f*<#j I-' -:*rj r. . . -_j' 1SARRAT0R: JiBM major approach In the construction trades, which use asbeatoa in treaendous quantities, has been to try to contain the stuff so that asbestos fibers don't get into the lungs of asbestos workers, their families, or the general population. But that approach, simple as it sounds, has its complexities. 8BUXQFF: Recognition of such complexity is essential to aivy efforts to manage the problem. Only simplistic approaches are invalid. There are really many aspects in the uaa of asbestos in the construction trades. For example, asbestos cement ia still used. It is mixed with water to make the final finished product by simply dumping a fifty pound bsg on this feathery, powdery cement into a large tub and adding the water. When this is done, a cloud os as best os-contaming dust is produced. We've simply worked out methods of mixing the material within a container so that no dust is created. Secondly, asbestos containing materials are cut and divided by power swws. It la simple and logical to enclose these operations and to put appropriate exhaust systems on these power saws so thj,t the dust created doesn't enter the general airstream. Anti-dust materials, or dust suppressors, can be added to the materials used during the manufacturing process. This is now beirg done. Appropriate attentiacn can be paid to solid-waste disposal. This was not even looked at until now simply because, b and large, it was not realized that this was a significant risk. Yet, it is perhaps one of the most important sources for this dust, lieu./ different measure will be needed; no one single measure will beadequate. But all of these measures are certainly within the capabilities of our technology at this time. What Is needed ia the nerve to do it, the will to do it, the desire to do it. Unfortunately, such nerve, and such will, and such desire cannot come about automatically, and requires the interest and the consideration of many diverse groups in the community, including industry, labor,government, and other social groups such as scientists, academic grouos, and so forth. NARRATOR: This has been the last of two reports on THE CASE AGAINST THE MAGIC MINERAL, featuring Dr. Irving J. Sellkoff, Professor of Environmental Medicine and Chief of the Division of Environmental Medicine at the Kt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. mmm m m WWwWW *T?'i ... ... jSgaSr'* - vuV. i.ar.trajiUKiOtiTT" O 01 043 1421