Document DbEMQKMagwLEmQr3mK8wjrpQ

AIA-52 Asbestos Information Association North America JCZMydSXMawXSSKXX 1660 L Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. 20036 October 2, 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR MEMBERS SUBJECT: Items of Interest The attached are forwarded for your information: a.) Nader-Harris article in Environmental Action, Septembe 15, 1973, "Asbestos in Lake Superior" . " . b.) Article from American.Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, May 1973, "Asbestos, Talc and Nitrites in Relation to Gastric Cancer". R. H. Mereness Executive Director Attachments C2053&& AIA-52 6 tO'-'irvnnu'iiLiI Action Septcinlwr IS, 197J t [- i n ^ /" nX o The I-il;e Superior experience should serve as an omi nous warning of the public health disasters we can expect if we continue to spew asbestos recklessly into the environ ment. Unforrunately, asbestos is one of the most ubiquitous substances found :n out industrialized society. It his over JOOO industrial uses and is found in well over 300 consumer products. Since 1900, world production of asbestos has in creased 1000 times as more uses have been found for it. Although there is no absolute proof as to whether as bestos levels in urban air or in the liquids we consume rep resent a hazard to the public, it is known thar those who work with asbestos face severe occupational health hazards. Asbestos has presented a known workplace health hazard since the turn of the century. Workers in asbestos textile and insulation plants often died of asbestosis before reach ing middle age because so much asbestos had accumulated in their lungs that they could no longer breathe. Since 1918, six years before the first report of asbestosis appeared in medical literature, American and Canadian life insurance companies routinely declined to insure asbestos factory workers. After the advent of the first crude in-plant dust control systems worker exposure to asbestos dust was reduced and, although many employees still died of asbestosis, they lived longer on the average. As the spectre of asbestosis began to recede, cancer soon became the major cause of death among asbestos workers. In fact, today cancers of the lung and stomach arc the cause of death for 45 percent of all asbestos workers. An extreme account of asbestos exposure, reported by G.W.H. Schcpcrs in 1949, describes what can happen when no controls arc placed on worker exposure to asbestos dusL The workers described are young Bantu children who work ed in British-owned asbestos mines in South Africa: "... I found young children completely enclosed within luge shipping bags, trampling down fluffy amositc asbestos, which all day long came cascading down over their heads. They were kept stepping lively by a burly supervisor with a hefty whip. I believe dies*.' children to have had the ultimate of asbestos dusr exposure. X-rays revealed several to have radiologic asbestosis with corpulmonaic (right heart failure) before the age of 12." Dr. Schcpcrs went on to speculate that the reason a 1959 survey contained no mention of these children was that they had all died by then. . The ease just described is a severe one, but thesame dan gers. albeit on a smaller scale, await asbestos workers and consumers of asbestos-containing products. The Department of Labor has established a protective standard for workers, although, as is the ease for most workplace standards, it is not well enforced. There is still no regulation demanding hazard labeling on friable asbestos products sold in hardware stores. (Friable means that the asbestos easily flakes off.) Thus, workers and homeowners alike can be exposed to as bestos. The citizen activity surrounding the Lake Superior-Re serve Mining situation is not isolated. Several public interest groups and labor unions have begun to mount a campaign ^ rrn n r ^r> r~x xJ Li aimed at forcing federal regulatory agencies to enforce laws which will curb asbestos exposure. Some of these actions include; The AFI.-CIO's Industrial Union Department and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDFi arc now suing the De partment of Labor to demand tiiat it strengthen its demon strably inadequate occupational standards. A number of public interest groups, includim; CDF and the Center for Seie-nec in the Public Interest (CSPI) arc suing the Environmental Protection Agency for major dele tions and loopholes in its newly-issued asbestos standard. CSPI recently petitioned the Federal Trade Commis sion to undertake a survey to ferret out all asbcsros-contaming consumer products and to rcquiic disclosure of asbestos as an ingredient. CSPI and EDF have petitioned the Food and Drug Ad ministration to ban the use of asbestos as a filtering material. Asbestos filters are used by some beer, wine and distilled spirit manufacturers, soft drink manufacturers and some pro ducers of edible oils. CSPI is coordinating electron microscopic analyses to determine the degree of contamination asbestos-cement pipes cause in drinking water. This effort has led to the de velopment of improved methods for determining the pre sence of asijestos in water. Because of the dust hazard to utility maintenance workers and rhe longer life and greater strength of cast iron end prestresred concrete pipe, CSPI ad vises towns to discontinue using asbcstos-ccmcnt piping. Although you may not live near Lake Superior, or even work in an asbestos factory, you may stilt be exposed to as bestos. It is important that citizens begin to become aware of potential asbestos exposure. For instance, be on the look out for consumer products containing friable asbestos. If you suspect that a hardware store product contains asbestos, read the label. If there is no label, ask the salesman, or, if necessary, write to the manufacturer. Ask local hardware stores to remove asbestos powder, asbestos impregnated wailboards and other friable products from their shelves. Cheek home pipe and boiler insulation and sec that the surface is not broken. You can buy resin-impregnated cloth to rewrap the pipe insulation. Find out whether the building you work in has uncovered asbestos fireproofing in the recirculation air duets or on the ceiling. If so, have a scaling applied. Ask local brewers, dis tillers and processors of beverages and edible oils if they use asbestos-containing filters. If there is an asbestos mine, mill or manufacturing plant near you, find out what it discharges into the air and water. (There arc recorded eases of ashcstos-plant neighbors who have died from rare "asbestos cancer.'') Are there open as bestos dumps nearby? Are ore-carrying trucks covered with tarpaulins? Although we know little about the dangers of many of the applications of asbestos, we stilt should err on the side of prudence rather than public health. The public has the right to expect die burden of proof to come from those who manufacture products containing potentially toxic sub stances like asbestos. Barry Castlcnun and Albert Fritsch. L__i Reserve's waste asbestos :s going into the arr as well as the water, as shown tn this 1969 photo of the company's smoke plumes. Only two measurements of Airborne asbestos pollution have been nude m Stiver [ijy - and both were higher than that recorded anywhere else in the U,S, (photo courtesy tiPA) Selikoff who by then had been retained by EPA to corrobo rate their work and to study the asbestos content of tissues taken during autopsy of Dululii residents. Hut rumors began to spread, and under pressure from environmentalists and the press, EPA decided to alert the public to the presence of as bestos but to recommend only that pre-school children switch to bottled water, a decision founded on the fear that a more inclusive recommendation would "panic'' the resi dents of Duluth. Dr. Selikoff, the nation's leading expert on asbestos hazards, had recommended that persons who were previously "unexposed'' should also be warned nor to drink Lake Superior water. His personal convictions were strikingly evident at a press conference held on June 19. When asked if he would be drinking the vvater while in Duluth, Selikoff answered. "Not knowingly -- however, I must admit that my memory slipped this morning and 1 did have coffee." In that same press conference. Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond of the Na tional Cancer Society, a leading authority on cancer epidemi ology, responded similarly to the same question: "\yell, I cleaned my teeth and I drank some water afterwards, having completely forgotten about it this morning." That these can cer experts, along with other scientists, will not drink Duluth water is an omen chat apparently has gone unheeded by EPA and county and state Department of Health officials. Largely because of the overly cautious attitude adopted by EPA and the state and county Departments of Health, most of Duluth's residents remain unperturbed today that the Lake Superior water they have held so sacred all these years may be detrimental to their health. Statements such as, "I've been drinking this water for 35 years and I'm as fit as a fiddle," are common. Although bottled water sales increased rapidly subsequent to the EPA announcement, the current level of sales indicates only a small fraction of Duluth's resi- AIA-52 Environmental .Action September ! S. 7 dents have swtrehed despite wai rtinns. The situation is far ther compounded by the fact that much of the bottler! w cc: comes from nearin' Superior. Wisconsin, whose underground wells arc replenished by Lake Superior. This water has also been shown to be contaminated with asbestos. Thus c,cn parents who follow the official advice and provide botiled water to their pre-school eniidren may not be able to avoid the hazard. Refusal by mosr food and beverage manufacturers and restaurants to switch to an alternate source of water ado helps assure that area residents will continue consuming as bestos. A notable exception is leno's, Inc. (of Jeno's Piz.'a) which immediately switched to well water upon learning of the asbestos contamination. However, most of the area's food and beverage manufacturers, including American bakeries (Tastee Bread), Zinsmastcr Bakeries (Master Bread). Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and Elliot Meatpacking Company, also ship in interstate commerce, thereby exposing residents outside of Minnesota to the asbestos. The U.S. Rood and Drug Admin istration (FDA) has direct responsibility for protecting the health and safer.' of consumers in such matters meludim: the prohibition of carcinogens from food. FDA officials Washington decided to take no action in this ease, however because in the words of one official, the problems with food are "not as serious as with drinking water." Neither FDA of ficials nor St, Louis County (Minn.) Department of Health officials were even aware at that time that beverages, such as the Coca Cola product line, were bottled in Duluth. One can only speculate as to how much asbestos is consumed by the "soft drink generation" children of Duluth or nearby Wisconsin. . I he fate of residents along the shores of Lake Superior who have been breathing and drinking the as bestos for the past 17 years remains to be seen. Although Dr. Selikoff and other scientists are attempting to predict their fate by analyzing asbestos levels in human tissues, it may be months before me results of their studies arc released and even then their findings may be inconclusive. In the meantime, whether Reserve Mining Company will be allowed to con tinue its environmental abuses will apparently be decided by one man. Judge Miles Lord, who is hearing the United States suit in federal court in Minneapolis. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), represented by attorney Scott Lang, has intervened on the side of the United States against Re serve, although EDF has alleged violation of state and federal asbestos air pollution laws and has asked for a preliminary injunction against Reserve's discharge of asbestos to the air and to Lake Superior, a request which EPA refuses to sup port. In a separate suit, EDF has cited EPA and the MPCA for failure to utilize their emergency powers to protect the public health until results from scientific testing arc more conclusive. Largely as a result of EDF's intervention, the MPCA has recently amended it. complaint to allege violation of State air pollution laws and to join EDF in seeking a pre liminary injunction. However, at this writing, testimony is still being beard by Judge Lord; Reserve continues to release significant amounts of asbestos to the air in Silver Bay and 67,000 tons per day of asbestos-containing tailings to Lake Superior; and more than 150.000 residents bordering the lake continue to ingest and breathe high levels ot asbestos drat may eventually cause their death. a Copyright (T) K.tljih Mit/cr, tv7.1 ___Tm * *TRfoL ' Industrial Hygiene Summary Reports This Journal Hdcomrs brief comments derived from daily jclivities which may be useful to oilier members of (tie profession. Address jour communications to: Richard F. Schcrberuer, Health and Safety Laboratory. Building 320, Kodak Park Works, Eastman Kodak Company, KucUcster, New York 14630. Asbestos, Talc and Nitrites in Relation to Gastric Cancer Recently, Merliss* suggested that the high incidence of gastric cancer in Japan may be associated with treatment of rice with talc in Japan. He noted that some commercial "talcs" contain asbestos, which he proposed as an ctiologic agent in gastric cancer. Morliss cited a report of a small excess of gastric cancer in a group of insulation work ers exposed to dusts containing asbestos and a larger excess of pulmonary carcinomas and pleural mesotheliomas in miners who appear to have had mixed exposures to as bestos and talc. He noted that some geo logic deposits of talc arc associated with tremolite, anthophyllite and chrysotilc varieties of asbestos, accounting for the presence of fibrous particles of asbestos to gether with piaty particles of talc in some commercial preparations of "talc." Our group has carried out tests for car cinogenicity of various preparations of as bestos through experiments with animals. The present paper summarizes some results and reports a new experiment with a prep aration of talc containing asbestos. A pos sible alternative mechanism involving ni trites in gastric carcinogenesis is discussed. In 45 hamsters maintained throughout their lives on diets containing \% of the chrysotile or amositc varieties of asbestos, we found no gastric carcinomas and no tu- TKi* wwk n viproftetf by USPHS Rtttarch Grant EC OO from National Inuuuic of Occupational Safety and Health, and by a arant from Fannie E. Rippel mors in the gastrointestinal tract except for a neoplasm in the mesentery of the colon.; We are unable to relate that lesion to the treatment, since ashing has revealed no as bestos fibers in it. After intrapleural injection of 25 mg chrysotile or amositc into hamsters, wc re ported tumors diagnosed as pleural mesothe* libmas.: Eight to 10 such tumors were found in each of 3 groups of SO hamsters treated at this dose level.3 Wc have now completed an experiment in which the hamster-intrapleural method was used to test for carcinogenicity of a sample of talc containing asbestos. For this work, wc obtained samples of commercial talcs from Whittaker, Clark & Daniels, Inc., New York City. A sample of cosmetic talcum powder grade was seen by microscopic ex amination to be composed of piaty particles typical of the mineral, talc (hydrous mag nesium silicate). Another sample of a grade used for some industrial purposes ("=13 Talc") was found to be a mixture of piaty and fibrous particles. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the presence of major amounts of tremolite asbestos and talc and a minor amount of a serpentine mineral (antigoritc). Each of 50 hamsters were given right intrapleural injection of 25 mg of this sam ple suspended in 0.5 ml saline. The animals were followed for their life spans. No tu mors attributable to the treatment were found. Granulomatous lesions were com- 227 i _Mi.y M-73. AIA-52 228 mon on picqral surfaces, but these lesions tended to be small and focal in contrast to larger and more fibrottc lesions induced in hamsters by chrysotile or umositc. The negative results of this test for car cinogenicity of a talc containing asbestos, and our earlier test on feeding asbestos to hamsters, do not offer support to the view that asbestos-containing talc contributes to the incidence of gastric cancer in Japan. Although dcatn rates reported for gastric cancer arc notably high in Japan in com parison to other countries, the highest re ported rate comes from Chile,1 Studies of gastric cancer in Chile have been reported from our laboratory with an hypothesis that high rates for esophageal and gastric cancer may be due to conversion of nitrates to nitrites by soil bacteria with subsequent synthesis of nitrosaminc carcinogens in plants used as food or through interaction in the stomach with secondary amines in food.1 Chile has the world's largest known ge ologic deposits of nitrates, which arc used as fertilizers. Nitrosaminc has been reported in wheat plants and wheat grains.*' Nitrosamines can form through interaction of nitrites with secondary or tertiary amines in the stomach, and have been shown to induce esophageal and gastric cancers in rats.7-* High concentrations of secondary amines have been reported from Japan in dried fish* The situation invites attention to a po tential rote of the nitrogen cycle in environ mental carcinogenesis. A source for direct ingestion of nitrites by human populations May, 1973 arises from use of nitrites as food additives. Other potential factors in gastric carcino genesis have been recently reviewed by Haenszei et a!."' who found no support for the talc-asbestos hypothesis on epidemiologic grounds. 1. Mcriiss. R. R.i Tulc-Trcated Rice end Japanese Stomach Cancer. Science /7J.I14I (Sept. IT. 1971). 2. Smith, W. E.. L. Miller. R. Elsasser and D. Hubert: Tests fur Carcinogenicity of Asbestos. Him. St'v York wi nd, Si truce /J',-456 l Dee. 31. 1965K 3. Smith. W. E.. D. Hubert, and M. Badollet: Biologic Differences in Response to Long and Short Asbestos Fibers. Amer. /nil. Hvg. Assoc. J. 3J: Abstract -162 (f-'eb. 1972). 4. Macdonald. E- and P. Wolf: in Epidrmiotogi' I ill. E.tpcrmientnl ttml Clinical Studies on Gastric Cancer. Japanese Cancer Assn. GANN Monograph 3 (1968). 5. Zaldivar. R.: Geographic Pathology of Oral, Esophageal, Gastric and Intestinal Cancer in Chile, Ztsch. Krehsforsch. 75:1 (1970). 6. Hedler. L.. and P. Marquardt: Uoher das Vorkommen von Nitrosaminen in Nahrungsund Fu t term i I tel n . Sounyn*Schmiedchcrgs Arch. Pharm. csp. Path. 259:176 (1968), 7. Sander. J.. F. Schweinsberg, and H. Menz: Untcrsuchunccn uchcr die KnWchtmg cancerogener Nitrosaminc. im Mourn. Hoppe-Seyler's Ztsch. physiol. Client. J4V. lf.91 (1968). 8. Dnickrcy. H.. S. Ivankovic. and D. Sehmaehi: Orgitnoirope carcinogens Wirkungen bei 63 verschiedcnen N-nitroso-Verbindungen an BDRatien. Ztsch. Krehijorsch. 6V.I03 (1967). 9. Kawamura, T.. K. Sakai, and F. Miyuzawa: Studies on ntirosarmnes in foods (IV). Dis tribution of secondary amines in foods. J. Food Hyg. Soc. IJapan) 12:192 (1971). 10. Haenszei, W,, M. Kurihara. M. Segi, and K. Lee: Stomach Cancer among Japanese in Hawaii. J. Sat'l Cancer Inst. 49.969 (1972). William E. Smith. M.D. Health Research Institute Fairicigli Dickinson University Madison, A'J. 07940