Document K6vDXOOx7G6mDywDrRYm4xZz0

FILE NAME Brakes BRK DATE 1985 June 3 DOC BRK091 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Published Letter in Journal - Asbestos in Brake Linings Colleges and universities are not to be blamed completely Considering that their raw material students come from a milieu which confuses teacher training and driver edu- cation and is populated by incompetent products of alleged colleges of education one has to have sympathy for college and university instructors who frequently also have the requirement to help keep the body count up Certain elements of academe are out of kilter with reality and dialogue with the outside world as well as corrective actions is needed PAHs can actually be used to assist in catalytic dechlorination of PCB Chemosphere 13 415 1984 Although it would be difficult to prove I close with the question Are the anaerobic bacteria deeply imbedded in the Hudson River sediment in reality using PAHs as electron mediators in anaerobic catalytic dechlorination reactions of PCBs in the dark Thomas F. Connors University of Connecticut Storrs Third World over the last two decades has persuaded me that the development of a sci- entific infrastructure is a necessary but a suffi- cient condition for making the kind of pro- grams that we have come to take for granted in our affluent nation The role of founded professional societies well as individual scientists and engineers a crucial element in helping to develop this infrastructure and I hope that your readers will take to heart the important message of Dr. Rossiter One hundred years from now the root Baby chem is best forgotten Do it right or forget it . John R. Wasson President SYNTHECO Inc. Gastonia N.C. ACS is a good buy SIR The information Bryant Rossiter provided on the amount of revenue ACS obtains from other countries EN April 15 page 27 is both surprising and satisfying The strong dollar has forced many countries to nurse carefully their U.S. dollars and it is clear they believe ACS is a good buy The society has been a leader in the international chemical community and a responsible force for sharing scientific information free of political bias We are all indebted to the effective leadership provided in the society and the Committee on International Activities in particular to improve life on this planet H. Fred Wilson Spring House Pa PCBs in Hudson River sediment SIR The findings by General Electric researchers that PCBs are being decomposed by anaerobic bacteria EN May 6 page 10 in contaminated Hudson River sediment are very interesting The finding that unexpectedly much more massive transformation was found for PCBs contained in deeper sediment layers is not unusual for the following rea- sons Transformation that takes place under oxygen conditions in organic solvent by the process of reductive dechlorination involves initial transfer followed by stepwise replacement of chloride by hydrogen J. Electrochem Soc 130 1120 1983 Therefore the net effect would most likely causes of international unrest will likely be women scientists SIR As a graduate student I was interested in your article EN April 19 page 48 about action taken to encourage women to seek graduate degrees in chemistry I have many minor contentions with the information pre- oriented on a North axis rather than on an West axis Steps taken now will elim- inate the kind of difficulties that will possibly arise during the next century Thomas F. Malone International Committee Sigma Xi New Haven Conn sented but I cannot ignore the use of the phrase a scientist instead of a woman In this case young women are being reassured that they will not feel out of place in graduate laboratories A woman soon finds herself thought of as a scientist instead of a woman have heard similar statements elsewhere A fellow graduate student complimented a faculty member by saying she was a chemist before she was a woman I was told of a rec- ommendation that began by claiming that the recommended put her chemistry be- person fore her womanhood I have thought about this notion for a long time and still am dis- turbed by it Are men complimented by being told they are chemists before they are men Do male chemists strive to be accepted as scientists instead of as men I think not Yet these young women can hope at best to reach a state of androgeny where they are scientists instead of women a worry their male counterparts apparently need not face To me this is sexism of the worst kind This phraseology suggests incorrectly that there is something inherently contradictory in being a woman anda scientist I exist as a woman this fact does not come before after or instead of the fact that I have chosen to be chemist am a scientiest and a woman I wish to be accepted thought of and acknowledged as both in one Mary E. Roth Cambridge Mass Asbestos in brake linings SIR In a recent letter EN April 15 page 4 B. N. Lord and H. A. Jongedyk of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation criticize an article EN March 4 page 28 identifying brake linings as a significant source of airborne asbestos They cite a 1973 study inferring that brake usage physically alters asbestos fibers However in subsequent studies A. Rohl et al Environ Res 12 110 1976 J. Alste et al Atmos Environ 10 583 1976 and in our laboratory K. Seshan and G. R. Smith 35th Ann Proc Electron Microscopy Soc Amer 1977 found significant quantities of chrysotile as- bestos in brake drum dust In fact W. V. Lorimer et al Mt. Sinai J. of Med 43 207 1976 advocated urgent control measures to protect vehicle maintenance workers Evidently during braking not all of the brake material that is removed from the sur- face reaches the approximately 800 C required to convert chrysotile asbestos to forsterite or even the approximately 500 C necessary to dehydroxylate the chrysotile This is not surprising from a commonsense consid- eration of braking action Moreover the modifiers added to brake lining material are designed among other things to act as heat sinks To assume that all of the asbestos is con- verted to innocuous material during braking is to engage in wishful thinking contrary to documented evidence be a more biodegradable PCB under such conditions Furthermore there may be a twist to the role of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs in the environment Although PAHs are reported to be phototoxic to some organisms in the light the organisms are not affected by them in the dark The twist is that International activities SIR I would like to applaud the sentiments expressed by Bryant W. Rossiter EN April 15 page 27 Participation in many workshops on human and economic development in the called Walter John Glenn Smith Steve Hayward Air and Industrial Hygiene Laboratory California Department of Health Services Berkeley June 3 1985 EN 5