Document ELKmva9G7aMMZe6kYJKkLpXV

FILE NAME: Drywall Spackling Compounds (DWSC) DATE: 1977 Aug 17 DOC#: DWSC071 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Letter to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission from Norton & Son Inc. NORTON & SON (jC /^-77-/? INCORPORATED P. O . BOX 455 148 EAST FIFTH STREET BA Y O N N E, N. J. 07002 August 17, 1977 !Z ]'- n re^raj 1 M r. S. John Byington U .S . CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION W ashington, D .C . 20207 f.'S - T TO jj" i m D ear M r. Byington: Y our le tte r of August 12th stating that the C onsum er Product Safety Com m ission voted to propose a ban on the m anufacture and sale of consum er patching compounds, I assum e m eant patching com pounds containing a sb e sto s, and on th at b a s is I am happy to com m ent on the pro p o sal. I also assum e that by this tim e the Consum er Product Safety Com m ission knows that Spackling Compounds and patching m a te ria ls in general have never contained asbestos, and that asbestos was generally contained only in the generic group known as Joint Compounds and Joint Cem ents. It is m ost unfortunate that this industry was not consulted before erroneous re p o rts w ere given wide publicity which caused entirely unnecessary effort and expense to counter the m is inform ation. See our attached ads. We, as the ow ners of the reg iste red trad e m ark Spackle - a product that has never contained asbestos - w ere p articu larly burdened by this quixotic ignorance of even the term inology. Many of us in th is industry have devoted our working days to the pursuit of b e tte r consum er products and b e tte r consum er se rv ic e . We a re not consum er adversaries; we are consum er servants, and are the ex p erts, not the instant se e rs like D r. Selikoff. -Page 1 of 2- M r. S. John Byington TJ.S. C .P .S .C . August 17, 1977 -continu ed- Having spoken m y piece, let m e sum up the comment you requested: I know of no spackling compound o r patcher that e v e r contained a sb esto s. Banning asb esto s would be a little lik e banning asb esto s in b utter; banning a sb esto s in joint cem ents and joint compounds is not n ecessary today since I'm su re all p ro d u cers have rem oved it, but it would be a w orth w hile safeguard against its rintroduction in the future. Very truly yours, NORTON & SON, I NC. r A r)(- /rm Edward F . Norton, J r . Vice P resident -Page 2 of 2- 2 9 -