Document K6q0dXREVB7nYQnyo4VpgBLqN

ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION 1745 Jelferscr Davis Highway Crystal Square 4. Suite 509 Arlington Virginia 22202 (703) 979-1150 November 3, 1983 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: B. J. Pigg, Executive Director (The following statement was issued today by the Asbestos Information Association/North America (AIA/NA). AIA/NA is an incorporated, non-profit organization representing firms in the United States and Canada involved in the mining and milling of asbestos ore, the sale of asbestos fiber, and the manufacture or processing of asbestos-containing products.) The Asbestos Information Association/North America (AIA/NA) announced today that it has brought a legal challenge to the Emergency Temporary Standard for asbestos filed yesterday by OSHA. AIA/NA Executive Director B. J. Pigg indicated that while AIA/NA has for several years urged OSHA to adopt a more protective occupational asbestos standard, the Associa tion could not accept precipitous regulatory action -- taken without notice and without full public hearings -- based on the unfounded conclusion that a health "emergency" exists under the current 2.0 fiber per cubic centimeter OSHA standard. Asbestos use in the workplace is already tightly regu lated under existing OSHA regulations. Asbestos manufacturers and users have achieved significant reductions in worker exposures over the last decade. Most exposures are already well below the existing standard which became effective July 1, 1976. CAP CO JEN 0010909 2 Mr. Pigg expressed the Association's disappointment that OSHA would issue new regulations through an ETS, thus denying interested parties any opportunity to participate in the rulemaking. Mr. Pigg commented: "AXA/NA has been urging OSHA for more than two years to initiate a rulemaking to develop a more stringent asbestos standard that would better protect worker health. We have urged the Agency to proceed with an expedited time-table to complete such a rulemaking. But, instead of working with all parties to develop the best possible permanent asbestos rule, OSHA has without such participation issued this unwarranted ETS." Mr. Pigg further noted that OSHA's claim of any emer gency is unsupported because of the absence of any new medical evidence in its lengthy ETS document. As Mr. Pigg noted: "They have had the medical evidence on which their ETS rests for many years. OSHA's interpretation of that evidence is based on numerous assumptions, each of which requires review by qualified scientists. Yet, by issuing an ETS, OSHA has completely short-circuited the normal rulemaking process in which such review should and must occur. OSHA's actions contrast starkly with asbestos regulatory activities in other industrialized nations -- none of which have found any emergency necessitating such precipitous action." - 30 - CAP CO JEN 0010910 Ingested Asbestos Study . 'A small group of people in Everett, * .. >- ' all in good health and without his- C^plefeMrV^hingtoff S.tSSTT' mental Health have completed controIgroupofSeattle,Wash.,resi- month^study of the ratio of asbestosr: ;ti;.^ii,.. dnts where levels of chrysotile as- fibers retained or excreted by persons-r^^T^.bestos in the drinking water are 100 consuming drinking water, containing' -kS'--is-'- 1TM" lcss (2 million fibers per liter), high levels of asbestos. ' The- study,' -'-'Urine samples from both groups were funded by' the'.U-SJEivironmental.^r/;.-..-.-:.-^... -taken over a 21 month period and Prot^ri^Agen^^^idesrghed^'-^^gs^wbestos fibers counted by means of a determiner whether;'asbestosj fibers: transmission - electron miscroscope. were present in the urine of residents Limits.'of detection ranged from in and around Everett, Wash. ,_where 70.000 to. 300,000 fibers per liter. * '. ' According to a news rdeas^JErom the AC Pipe Producers Assodatifca, the investigations concluded that al though the concentrations of fibers in the urine samples varied throughout the sampling period, none were con sistently and significantly higher than the concentrations of fibers estimated for the control waters.. There was, however,'' a significant difference (p=0.05) between the counts of fi- j bers in the urine samples of persons who had been residents of Everett for less than three years compared to per sons of more than 24 years residence! The study revealed that the concen tration of fibers in the urine samples ... of Everett donors combined'(0.97 x ,10` fibers' per liter) was . not signifi- ` .'! caiitlyrdifferent thaii the concentra tion ^for'^Seattle/Bellevue^controI . donors,.even, though the;numbers of ] fibers in .the drinking .water, of.the ; - .latter.were.'at least-100 times-lessJ^i.;v ; .The'report says that-althoiigh-.the data isiincondusive,-the-study sug- ' gests there, is no relationship between I high concentrations of asbestos fibers ! V in drinking water and the numbers J ; .estimated for voided urine..-' ! CAP CO JEN 0010911 i i