Document LNqxpaEadGRgxD6n6OqX2GGw

FILE NAME: Allied Signal Bendix (ASB) DATE: 1979 Aug 18 DOC#: ASB127 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - 1977 Asbestos Study Results at Bendix Plant Challenged HE TIMES RECORD-THE SUNDAY RECORD I SERVING TROY ANO RIVE CAPITAL D IS T R IC T C O U N T IE S P U BLISH ED BY TH E T R O r P U B L IB M IN G C O INC SOI B R O A D W A Y . T R O Y N E W Y O R K 12161 YCLERHONC S I B / i T J 'I O O O August 21 1979 .jDavld 0 J TayI or '"Manager - Corporate News Relations The Bendlx Corporation Executive Offices 4L&endlx Center Southfield Michigan 48076 REiitlVEQ . ' DAVID 0, TAYLOR D e a r Mr. TayI or `---EnG-losed Is the article which resulted from my work wi th the mortality study. .It was carried on page 12 of The Times Record on Saturday August 18. Thank you for your cooperation during the investigation. sincere Iy . Anne M. Hess PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT -m THE RECORD NEWSPAPERS SERVINO NEW YORK'S SECOND FASTEST GROWING METRO MARKET! H W -D UKES 002876 1977 asbestos study results By ANNE HESS Staff Writer A NATIONALLY-KNOWN expert on asbestos exposure and caneer has challenged the results of a 1977 study made at the Green Island Bendix plant which showed no relationship between exposure to asbestos there and deaths from asbestos-associated diseases. In response, the doctor who conducted the study said that the results were "not definitive." n rea^n g toe study, which was commissioned by Bendix, Dr. Irving Selikoff of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York said, "There aren't sufficient overall findings that would merit the conclusions (reached by the r ^ r c h e r s ) or conclusions of any type, one way or the ,. T1]f stody> wMch was carried out by Dr. William Gaffey of the Stanford Research Institute of California, examined the death rates and causes of death of 1,903 present and nast workers at the Green Island plant. In comparing the Bendix workers with the expected statistics for white males, the researchers found no more people dead than would be expected. However, they did find more cancers of all types and more cancers of the central nervous system than they would expect. v . jr In an interview Friday, Gaffey, who is no longer with the Stanford Research Institute, said, "I don't think this is a definitive study. One does not look at this and say `Well w e re safe.' One looks and says, 'Well, we didn't find anything, and that is a fact--we didn't. " ..... ~ The researchers said that the large number of total cancer cases is the result of excess mortality from cancers of s t i f l e sites and in any case was greatest in those with the shortest periods of employment." Cancers developing in men with short periods of employment at Bendix are "not consistent With an occupational association, " the study says The specific cancers which killed more people were brain cancer. Which was the cause of death of five Bendix employees, and malignant melanoma, a skin cancer, which kUled two employees. The development of the cancer in men who had worked the longest at Bendix and the latency period Of the cancer were "consistent with an occupational origin" he study reported. ......... 6f ' The study argues, however, that brain and skin cancers challenged have never been shown to be asbestos-caused. "There is an excess mortality which could be associated with some occupational exposure other than asbestos," the researchers concluded, although the scientific literature suggests no obvious mechanism." 65 Selikoff, who recently completed a federally-funded study which showed lung damage in 86.2 percent of shipyard WOj , ^ wi10 were exPsed to asbestos for at least 20 years said. Eighty-two percent (of Bendix workers studied) have been employed less than 15 years and most of our lung Ctm en0' o5V?r i years ^Hawing onset of exposure (to asbestos). Selikoff continued, "If you were to take people who have begun smoking at age 20 and look at them at age 30, youwouldn't expect tosee anything," Gaffey said, "Enough of these people were short-tenners or Wyears Wa" t0 g0 back and look again " mother five Selikoff added, "There are statistical problems with things of this type since all deaths, even those that occurred a week, a month, a year, or five years following work exposure there are included and the inclusion of such deaths must dilute the findings. It was striking.that even with such dilution potential there was even more cancer than expected, " The Bendix plant was fined $600 by the Department of Labor s Occupational Safety ana Health Aejisinistration for maiequate control of asbestos dust in 1975, according to 0HA records, A spokesman for OSHA said in'July that although his department was concerned with the possible long-term effects of asbestos exposure, OSHA could not to investigate those effects in workers. There are probably a million places like Bendix " thp spokesman said. "All we're trying to do is correct conditions as they exist now." Dou Falco, business agent for Local 1508 of the United Auto Workers, the union at Bendix, said that the conclusions Of Gaffey s study had been printed and distributed to workers at the plant in 1977. be able to see the dust flying in the shafts of sunlight, Falco said. "Now they have a whole new duct system and a new pelletizing machine to take care of the sspestos. Faico added. "Since 1974, everything's been good."