Document JwJxyRG41qr7d7J3rV09Vjqr

"Asbestos is an air pollutant which carries with it the potential for national or worldwide epidemic of lung cancer or mesothelioma of the pleura or peri toneum. Asbestos bodies have been observed in random autopsies of one-fourth to one-half of the population of Pittsburgh, Miami and San Francisco and will probably be found in the people of every large city. ...the effects of the asbestos being inhaled today may not be reflected in the general health of the population until the 1990's or the next century." The objective of the regulations must be two-fold, first, to protect those who by occupational activity or physical contiguity, either to the asbestos use or the asbestos user become the potential victims of this pollutant, in other words, to protect those with both, occupational and environmental orientation; and secondly, to provide measures that will protect the ambient air against an asbestos build-up that will have adverse effect upon the general public beyond those occupationally or environmentally orientated at the source As stated by Thompson; (Ex. 5) , "Because asbestos is virtually indestructible and so many of the asbestos containing products are used in towns, the average urban dweller is theoretically exposed to the inhalation of asbestos fibers on a residential basis." After reviewing the incidence of death among asbestos workers, ex posed to asbestos dust, over a 20-year period, Selikoff, Ex. 4, states: "These experiences highlight one portion of the current spectrum of asbestos disease-.. It is now recognized that direct occupational exposure to asbestos results in a hazard much more significant than formerly appreciated. In the last several years, however, additional problems have been recognized which add another dimension: the possibility that the utilization of asbestos is associated with a much wider risk, perhaps one of the coiranunity at large. This is less well defined, much less well documented, but because of its potential importance, of considerable concern. - It is in this context that our regulations must be structured. The onset of morbidity and lethal diseases have been attri buted to asbestos inhalation and ingestion. Asbestosis, pleural calcification, lung cancer, and mesotheliomas are known to result from exposure to asbestos. Surveys of people living or working near asbestos mines and factories have revealed that many nonoccupational cases of asbestosis and mesothelioma have occurred either, from asbestos in the polluted air or from asbestos carried home on the clothing of workers. 2 - 441