Document JJxB4R9Kbb4n6B22k8XwKJ5yB

The Controversy Continues 120 THE CONSTRUCT.^ SPEanOt/APRU. 37 |A/ith thousands of lawsuits filed VV against iu minersandmanu facturers, the multi-billion-doHar Man vale Corporation filing for bankruptcy because of those lawsuits, and a pro posed federal ban on its use, asbestos is considered a dead issue by many in the U.5. construction industry. But has the Environmental Protec tion Agency (EPA) used incomplete and misleading evidence to ask for the death sentence against the mineral? Several scientific authorities, as well as asbestos mining and manufacturing interests, are now making that daim. b the presence ,of asbestos at any level an unacceptable cancer threat, as the EPA contends? Or, as asbestos' supporters daim^canthe miners! con tinue to be used with adequate pre cautions? Let's look at the facts about | asbestos--its uses, its health impact, to I economic impact, and die effects of to 1 proposed substitutes. The word "asbestos" represents several types of fibrous mineral Seaies which belong to two groups of rack-forming minerals. Chrysolite, or "white" asbestos, comes from die ser pentine group; both amosite ("brown" asbestos) and erocidolite ("blue" asbestos) are representatives of die amphibole group.1 While man has known of asbestos' ability to resist heat for thousands of years, most of the 3,000-pim applica tions for the mineral have been dis covered within the last century. The most common application of asbestos is in automobiles and trucks. Brake linings, automatic transmission friction compommbL.and manual transmission dutch facings containing asbestos help maintain maximum effi- HWBUI0006265 J. dency under adverse driving eondtiora. According to the EPA* many health Another frequent application is the studies have linked asbestos exposure use of asbestos is a fire retardant in to an increased incidence of Sung can ceilings end walls, and on pipes. The cer among persons involved tn the material is mixed into either the mining and milling of asbestos, and in original ceiiing tiles, wall boards, and the manufacture, use. and maintenance pipe insulation, or into a liquid coating of products containing akbestos. which is then sprayed onto existing Lung cancer, along with mesothelio ceilings, walls, and pipes. mas of the pleura (the lining surround Asbestos can also be mixed with ing the lungs) and the peritoneum (the cement, creating an inexpensive and lining surrounding the abdomen), durable material which can be used in "... account for about 90 percent of any application suitable for cement the excess cancers seen among This includes many building applica workers exposed to asbestos," the tions, as well as piping for water EPA filing continues. malm. Irrigation projects, drains, and The Chronk Hazard Advisory Fane! KW01 ' (CHAP) on Asbestos, in Its report to Health Risks the"U5. Consumer Product Safety Commission fCPSQ, ah associated Both fte proponents and opponents of asbestos exposure to increased Inci the EPAi proposed ban agree that dences of several other cancers, breathing asbest| fibers can cause mostly of the gastrointestinal tract . cancer. The disagreement centers on Asbestosis, an often fatal form of their differing opinions of the potential chrome lung fibrosis, has been asso health risks. ciated with high concentrations of air Asbestos fibers are "friable"--easily borne asbestos fibers in the workplace released to the air by any cutting, by a study conducted by Dr. frying J. drilling, forming, or friction actio. Sefikoff, a noted epidemoiogist n the Because the fibers are colorless, odor Environmental Science laboratory at less, and usually microscopic In size, Mount Sinai Medkal Center in New they can be inhaled without detection York City. "Howm" said the EPA. and lodge in sensitive lung tissue for H k still considered uncertain decades--with the potential to came whether asbestosis occurs as a result cancer at any time. of non-occupationai exposures." Substantial numbers of asbestos Estimates of the number of persons fibers can easily make their way into adversely affected by asbestos vary drinking water supplies as well. This greatly. Setikoffs own estimates have cm occur both in arm where asbestos ranged from 40,000 annua! deaths--at occurs naturally (such as northern a 1978 Occupational Health and Safety California and Quebec, Canada), and Administration (OSHA) hearing--to in situations where older asbestos/ 8,000 deaths per year--in a 1983 cement pipe is decaying and releasing Boston Globe interview.4 fibers into the water supply. However, In early 1986, the EPA sought to no study has linked the drinking of minimize the cancer risk caused by asbestos-laden water to an increase at asbestos by proposing 1 ksgiemmt cancer rates. the Mowing restrictions during the If Us Mm Sam project the mrtet potential fer asbestos removal at tmmi I i j THC COvrrti (TTV-a &c I RITA TATUMisefru-kma writer m Mishawaka, Indiana. Specialising m matrm^m-mhUd kpm. Ms. Tatum is a frequent contributor to the Specifier. MMAtf of IN?: * An tarotdtott btn on th menu- pathotogist Dr. John E. Oalghtad laid hi UN that no definite relation" teeturo, Importation, and processing of ship between thramount of asbestos ifi cement pipe and fltttagt, roofing exposure and the development of and flooring felti, felt-backed sheet mesothelioma has been discovered. flooring, floor die and etothtog, whkh Abdominal mesotheliomas, h# contain asbestos. added, were observed only in person* * the requirement of an annual exposed to amosite (brown) and erod- permit (issued by the EPA) for the dUite (blue) asbestos--not the white mining and importation of bulk ashes- (chryvotSe) type which represents the toe. and for the importation of most vast majority of the asbestos currently other products containing asbestos. produced and in use. Dr. Craighead's Consumption would be severely limited, findings dispute an assertion in the based on each Arm's average annua! EPA filing that no one type of asbestos usage during the 1981-83 period. Is more or less carcinogenic than Restrictions would start at 30 percent another. of the 1981-83 average in the first Two Selikof! studies, one published year, decreasing by three percent in 1969 by the Journal of the Ameri each year until a total ban is achieved can Medical Association and the sec at the end of the tenth year. ond published by Annals of the New Why has the EPA proposed a total Hbrk Academy ofSciences to 1979, ban? Because, In die ageneyk opinion, todkale that smoking Is much larger any level of asbestos exposure carries risk feetor Bun c&estos exposure. some risk of cancer. The mode! used The death rate for smokers, whether .. . ; by the agency ",. .assumes that any exposed to ashestjp or-not, was about * ' exposure Increases risk,** according to 12 fines greate*3thad'that for non- [ S;' die proposed rulemaking. smoker&VAnd asbestos workers nrho'i "The choke of the linear model is smoked <Sed at a rate of 53 tiroes . '1 ' reasonable because Qiere is no evi greater than nonsmokers not exposed dence for a threshold level of asbestos to file mineral. ' `'' ( t ; exposure Wow which there is no A lung specialist at Massachusetts increased risk," the agency continued. General Hospital and Harvard Medical Tt is further supported by evidence of School, Dr. Barry Levine, claims that a V , cancers among populations whose large number of people diagnosed as asbestos exposure is believed to have stdfertog'from asbestos!* may be. been lower than levels reported in the Instead, suffering from m locaroset epfeSemotogy studies of asbestos (died by the agency)." "A pmon with obstructive lung dis But is the evidence presented by ease (such as emphysema) can be EPA conclusive? Not according Vo read as having an X-ray compatible agency officials testifying during with asbestosis," Dr. Levine told the recent hearings on She proposed ban. Detroit News* X-rays of the white They said EPA estimates of die health marks on the outside of the lungs, pre risk created by asbestos, which were sumed to be caused by asbestosis, are prepared by non-sdentific personnel, similar to appearance to lesions caused ran much higher (sometimes 20 to 90 by smoking-related Illnesses. totes higher) than amikr QSHA data.5 T have not seen a new case of Statistically, this means as lew as 21 asbestosis to two or three years," Dr. cues of cancer could actually be Edward A. Gaensler, who is involved avoided by the proposed tot, com in a National Institutes of Health- ____ - pared to the PAk estimate of 1,930. financed research project, told the Writing in the New England Journal Boston Globe four years ago. "Ninety ofScience, University of Vermont percent of the cases referred to this imwraoH!KQm/mit HWBU10006267 laboratory do not have Mtmfto*. concrete blocks, P Mug. stucco, Asbesteeis la a ^appearing-****! wood Mng. m& vinyf Mng as "When asbestos mortality la imi> lured against cigarette smoking, rtpiaeemtnts for asbertosctMtl shingles. alcohol consumption, and other pre Gting National Research Council ventable factors In the environment, data, the EPA concludes in Ms filing one Is forced to conclude that control that while some substitutes present priorities do not appear to be coat- tome risks, none of those risks would may be able to delay its Implementa competitive," said Arthur M. Linger, be greater than that presented by tion pari the planned summer 1981 associate director of Mount Sinai's asbestos. date. Environmental Science Laboratory Opponents of the ban, however, say Meanwhile, the asbestos removal (the same facility which employs Dr. that many of the proposed replace industry will continue to grow. Some Seilkofft ment fibers may end up causing health projections have placed the market "This does not mean we should be problems similar to asbestos. 'Present potential at $200 billion.18 But the opposed to the control of this prevent knowledge suggests that any fibrous argument will continue over whether able disease," he continued. "But we product that has fibers of the same removing asbestos creates a greater should put this problem into perfective." dimensions as asbestos and the same health hazard than leaving it in place Langer referred to an EPA estimate fiber durability in lung tissue will be and encapsulating it, and over who that the proposed ban. if it becomes equally hazardous," said Dr. J. M. G. will foot the bOl to remove asbestos law, would cost over 82 billion to Davis, head of the Pathology Depart from thousands of America's schools. implement while avoiding 1,930 mea ment at the Institute of Occupational The many debates and lawsuits will surable cases of cancer between the Meddne in Edinburgh, Scotland. continue to be argued in the tegsia- years 1985 and 2000, based m typical H asbestos is responsible for as tive chambers and courts. But without data. This would represent a cost of over II mflfiott for each case avoided. And much'as I or 2 percent of human can cers, then the fricrease in fife expec tancy foDowfag its elimination Wild conclusive evidence to support either viewpoint, most of them jnay drag on I through appeals fortever&l decades, o if the testimony by-EPA officials regarding the inflation erf cancer risk be six to ten days," said IX. Robert Murray, Chairman of the international Mas . '< <> ( j.:: estimates is eoryeCt, the cost per can Association oi Occupational Medicine cer avoided could total as much as and employed by the London School ' 195 motion. of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, "ft However, the agency adds in its pro would be much more appropriate to posal that . .many other cancer efiminate cigarettes or automobiles, cases that cannot be quantified would which have a considerably greater also be prevented.'" Substitute* Impact on the quality and length of me In its fifing, the EPA identified a num The Future for Asbetto ber of materials which it said could Asbestos, a mineral now in limbo, replace asbestos in most applications. may remain there for many years. They included the following types of Opponents of the EPAi total ban, fibers: Aramid, carbon, cellulose, headed by the Asbestos Institute (an cerunk, quarts, and fibers made from organization funded by government other textiles. and business in Canada, one erf the Abo included are pre-stxessed con world's leading producers of asbestos) crete, reinforced concrete, ductile are asking for the continued use of iron, and polyvinyl chloride (PVQ pip white (chrysolite) asbestos in certain ing as replacements for asbestoc- products, so long as precautionary cement pipe; asphalt-fiberglass compo measures to minimize exposure are sition shingles, wood shingles, and used and a ban on cigarette Knotting other natural and synthetic tiles as around asberiw fe enfoiwA replacements for asbestoscement While they have not yet succeeded l. Teal of tbe Convention Concerning Safety lathe Us a A&wrgos.' Drafting Committee. General Cen- terrawt si tbe biterrationoi tefeor Organteation (3LOr Geneva. IMS. t- "Ashesto*. Proposed Mining end Import Restrictions end Proposed Manufacturing Importation and free- easing froRMkm.' EawomrwntaJ Protssscn Agmef. Fedml Jfeg*?*r, Washington, D.C, Jmmsy 2$. MS. S. EsjarasBc f SSmtlMtai Workers in tfei US *d Cvuda.* &. Irving J. SeBhe. Cayte Hamraend sd Herbert Seidman. Amofe etHts Nmn Ibrt Aass&smy si'James. Hew York Ctiy, Daossmteer m. wn. 4. "EPA Rak fYoam Oiticaed." Michd J. Senoett. fiWrod Hna. Bams. Marc* 5. 1985. I. "Wafthmgtea Observe. Faulty Risk Assoamm May Delay Aebosm Ben.' Peter Hoffmann. Cngnmrr- ang Hew York Oty. October 13. 1986. t. UPA Sste frocro Crttitiied.* Setmett. l. txpo&wt. Cigarette Smoking and Death Rat." by Dt Irving j. Selikoff. E. Csiyfer Hammond and Herbert Seidman Annah ot the Mrsp >brt Academy t/Somce. New York Oty, December 14. ira. 8. *FA Rule Proem OHieaed." Bennett. 9. "AAeaes. Proposed Mining and import Itetrirtiorss.' m. 10. "M* WB Shack There's Cnswtt to MAuim Qmtm * ftatow Hew Ybrk CRy. Sapii* ana*. 1 . shingles; and aluminum siding, bricks. in rescinding the proposal, opponents HWBUI0006268