Document B5kLQy8xj4D8XE6gn4VmR4b3j

FILE NAME Talc TALC DATE 1975 Apr 1 DOC TALC016 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NIOSH Memo RE Analysis of Talcs for Asbestos Fiber Content MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM MEMORANDUM . / 4 5 ve lath HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH EDUCATION AND WELFARWELFAREE PUBLIC SERVICE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH -- Howard J. Schulte Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor U.S. Department of Labor DATE April 1 1975 Occupational Safety and Health Administration FROM SUBJECT Deputy Associate Director for Cincinnati Operations National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Analysis of Talcs for Asbestos Fiber Content Your request dated March 5 1975 to Mr. Edward J. Baier Acting Director NIOSH for analysis of 19 talc products from the R.T. Vanderbilt Company is being handled by the Division of Field Studies and Clinical Investigations NIOSH Cincinnati Ohio In your memorandum you requested that these products be analyzed for asbestos by the method proposed by the Food and Drug Administration in the Federal At the time Register of September 28 this method was proposed 1973 21 CFR Parts 121 and 133 NIOSH expressed its concern about the adequacy of this method to the FDA see attached memorandum dated January 21 1974 As you probably are aware the promulgation of this method has been delayed by the FDA as stated in the Federal Register of March 14 1975 Pages 11865 - 11869 Therefore the analysis of the subject talc products for asbestos fibers will be completed utilizing the techniques we are presently using which includes identification by electron microscopy with selected area diffraction and ray microprobe analysis In addition optical properties such as refractive index and angles of extinction will be determined We do anticipate difficulty in obtaining the subject talc products especially considering the fact that we want to obtain representative unbiased samples Also the analysis of these samples by the techniques mentioned above takes a good deal of time to assure accurate and reproducible results It is estimated that this project will take the Division of Field Studies and Clinical Investigations from three to five months to complete For your information we are attaching a NIOSH internal report from the Division of Field Studies and Clinical Investigations which was prepared at the request of the OSHA Toledo Ohio Area Office for their enforcement action against the Warner Corporation The talc sample 4711 which Page 2 - Deputy Asst Sec of Labor was identified as containing asbestos fibers by NIOSH is R.T. Vanderbilt's NYTAL 200. It should be noted that R.T. Vanderbilt had specified to the Warner Corporation that this talc was free of asbestos fibers Since we have already performed the necessary analysis on NYTAL 200 this will not be repeated in the future work We hope the information gathered during this project will be useful to both NIOSH and OSHA in our research efforts to evaluate the health effects associated with occupational exposures to talc Any further communication you have on this matter should be directed to Mr. Ronald D. Dobbin Chief Environmental Investigations Branch Division of Field Studies and Clinical Investigations NIOSH Post Office Building 5th & Walnut Streets Cincinnati Ohio 45202 684-3258 F. Attachments 2 Bobby F. Craft Ph.D