Document LgG2GKooRVQ2O1Jp5aqODYq4g

FILE NAME: Avondale (AVD) DATE: 1978 June 28 DOC#: AVD115 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Press Release c PLAINTIFF'S 6 EXHIBIT SBCA 5081 FROM SHIPBUILDERS COUNCIL OF AMERICA 6oo up.v Hampshire a v d , m vv WASHINGTON, D. C. 2003/ ' June 29, 1978 THE H EALTH HA7ARDS OF ASBESTOS IN INDUSTRY AND TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC W ILL BE EXAM IN ED IN "ABC NEWS CLOSFUP - ASBESTOS' THE WAY TO DUSTY D E A TH " ON JULY 14 Asbestos, as the biggest industiial killer in history which w ill claim hundreds of thousands of lives before the? turn of the century, w ill be examined in the investigative, hour-long documentary special, "ABC News Closeup -- Asbestos. The Way to Dusty Death," airing FR ID A Y , JULY 14 (10.00 11:00 p.m., f D I ), on the ABC Television Network "ABC News Closoup - Asbestos- The Way to Dusty Death" reveals original investigative rnateridl showing that the U.S. Navy and other federal agencies knew long ago about the hazards of asbestos but falb u to act. The correspondent is ABC News Science Editor Jules Bergman. In Paterson, N J. -- former home of the Union Asbestos and Rubber C o , which made asbestos pro Lifts for American ships during World War li, and where asbestos workers have been studied mom thoroughly than anywhere else in the nation -- about 22 percent of those workers have already died of cciiv cr or other asbestos-related diseases, and 35 percent of their family members have lung abnormalities Barbara Currie, a 35-year-old mother, recently had a lung removed because of mesothelioma, the n. uu cK.diy of asbestos cancers. Barbara's contact w ith asbestos was indirect. Her father, an insulator at a f.L. n icbusetts shipyard, biought home asbestos dust on his workclothos Her father died of lung cancer, iiv >')>',. iioma killed hut mother Asbestos disease, when originally detected, is irreversible, leaving its v,i n ms w ith <m avoiagn of two years to live. f lankhn Bionks a former football p'ayer w ith Georyo Tech's Yellow ^Jackets - connected m m uilieliom i two years ago As a teenager, he was an asbestos worker to help pay his way through college. Now he suffers fiom scveio pain in his lungs and shortness of hieath, and soon w ill requiie oxygen; he has o. o,V a short time to live. For Franklin, 20 years passed before he saw the grim consequences of the "deadly dust " Morn than 30 years ago, Frank Cullen worked with asbestos as a boilermaker in the navy during World War IS Ho left the navy after the war and nevoi again worked w ith asbestos, but in 1977 developed an L.ncontio'lable cough - mesothelioma. Fie is rendered so weak that he "can't even take the top off a cats.!;; bottle " Mr Cullen undergoes chemotherapy treatments for one week every month at Mount Sinai Ho-pruil in New Y o ik, the nation's leading cente; for asbestos related diseases. Dr. Selikoff, Director of to-- r nvironmoiital Sciences la boratory at Mount Sinai, says of mesothelioma- "So far, the only cause v r n, ,'v fo; it F astirs u n " Mesothelioma, now relatively common, once was rare. Selikoff explain-,, "From ] p.'-.'i t,>1pr,i p w r saw th n v i a ,es, one even/ ten yean, " ABC NEWS CLOSE UP - 2 "Frank Cullen," Correspondent Bergman states, "is deeply in debt . . . the; Veterans Administration has denied his claim for compensation, saying lie can't prove that Ins llliriess cornc from tiis service during World Weii II. He is the victim of an indiffeient navy , , A t the Mar'1 Island Navy Yaid north o i San Frannsco, the unions not ihr. navy amum; -d for a study b\ Dr Phillip Pohkoff, an om ipa tiorial health sgennlist from Berkeley, California. Dr. P ulboir cwimined 359 shipyard workers and found that S)9 proc.i:i11had lung abnormal) iiu>. Asbestos inay also be a problem to the general population. "ABC, News Clot,cup A'.bmios The Way to Dusty Death" examines the effects of asbestos in building constiuction, and goes to Y< A Uni/ersity which has spent $250,000 to remove the cancer-causing mineral from its modern, recently constructed Arts and Architecture Building. The program also explores the hazards of asbestos in automobile brake linings, which leave tons of the deadly powder on the nation's roadways Dr. Pouf Kotin, Medical Director and Senior Vice. President of Johns Manville Company, whose products contain asbestos, responds to the federal government's attempts to tighten industrial standards for asbestos particles in the air: "Government experts have been wrong before, and they're wrong now ." Correspondent Bergman asks Kotin, "D id n 't yon orico say there was no such thing as a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen7'' Dr Kotin "I sure- did, one! I said it as part of the Suigvm Genera1';, commuter-* in 1970 . . I guess I'll tell you I'm smortm n o w " Dr Kotin is former head of me National IrwiUutu of f nvironmental Health Services (N lfH S ), tne government's top environmental I -alth body. The documentary also examines what the nary is doing to control asbestos use. Among trie I in. i i ; a navy survey of 11-1 ships in the Atlantic ilc -l reveals that Bb percent cannot corrp'y with the nwy's own asb-mUn standards Phil l ecus is the producer of "ABC News C lo / up - A Jrotn., The Way to D ujty Death." Pamela Hill is f-\e -u iw Producvi of ABC N<-v, To!'visual Duoumoiituncs. Rich,/.; Richter is