Document MJD6a7VmYz63awMzVRVezjB4V

U CONFERENCE REPORT At: RECEIVED MAY.li 4 IS?? On*: 4/19/77 ft*By: WBH/bC SYSTEM CONFIDENTIAL City Personnel Tiff* Grace - Construction Products Division Harry Dixon. Market Development Manager E. S. (Chip) Wood, Executive V.P. William Hanlon, General Manager 0. M. Scott & Sons Company Or. John Kilsheimer, V.P. Research Sarge Chamberlain, Director of Purchasing a Jack Pozenel, Purchasing William Hil.legass, Research B ' ' i n 1S'li T >6 ii n .. .* , 1.- Discussion of vermiculite expansion at various facilities at Grace. Their attempt to improve their processing facilities to meet existing and proposed regulations. Grace's target for one year from now is 1.0 particle/cc. . Proposed NIOSH regulation is .1 fibre/cc average weight for eight hours -- .5 fibre/cc for 15 minutes- Grace feels the regulation ' within 3 years will be .5 - 1.0. This is based on studies of capa- bilities, economic impact on industry, and health research that will . develop. ' 1 ` i. 1 2. Three things Grace is doing to help fibre reduction are: a. Change stoner deck (unit that separates vermiculite expander from sand) to a deck that will float the light fibres above the ex panded vermiculite thus pick up this impurity in dust collection system. (Chaff from wheat principle through air separation). b. Floatation - wash system improvement at mine to reduce the amount of fibre contamination in the ore. Presently the fibre contaminate is 15% in the natural ore. Cleaning process at mine is now removing 903! of this fibre. During the expansion phase 90S of the remaining 10S fibre is removed. '* Presently at the mine the fines are incorporated with the product shipped. By end of this year (December, 1977) the fines will be removed and scrapped at the mine. This will be the initial step in product contaminent reduction. Grace stated that in three years they will be removing 99% of the fibre at the mine. c. Binding of particles. Definition of binding is an ingredient added to the vermiculite which effectively reduced airborn or free fibre. Test is to pour free expanded vermiculite down chute on to floor and air sample dust cloud - analyze for fibre. Repeat for vermicu lite with agent added - if air sample indicates reduced fibre con tent - particle by definition is bound. ' [plaintiff exhibit j EXHIBIT 3 SCO 5208 DOJWRG 00534 Orgcnlmhion Street City CONFERENCE REPORT At: Date: By: Personnel Title 2- - ;' We trill research OSHA regulations to determine if resin coating qualifies our product as bound particle. This would remove pro duct from OSHA asbestos regulation per Grace.- i 3. Grace markets Terralite - potting mixture which contains vermiculite. Statement was made that they found nothing in fibre'concentration . that would exceed levels of proposed standard. If there was a labeling concern they feel the binding process would exclude any caution statement requirement on the product. ` 4. Ore size (grade - particle size) vs. contaminate ` Size Remarks 4 Scott raw material 3 Contaminate slightly less than 4 .2 More than 3 and 4 l . 1 More than 2 Availability of three is low and cost therefore is higher. 5. Contaminate levels vs. ore deposit l Asbestos is in two forms - fibre and rock. Contamination according to `Grace exists in any ore deposit. Nature, they feel, sgught fit to have ashestns amLvermlculite exist together. The percentage of the contaminate that is fibre vs. rock varies between deposits so some ores could be considered easier to handle or cleaner th^n others - if rock portion is high and fibre Tow. Grace doesn't feel present state of analytical procedure cannot dis tinguish between the two asbestos structures. 1 Grace feels their analytical talent and procedure is the most advanced and sophisticated and they can distinguish and evaluate the ore better then regulatory agencies. They have offered cooperation in analytical know-how and data. - & p' An invitation was extended to visit the mine operation and all related >S process for mining, cleaning, and sizing ore to Scotts people. , I DOJWRG 00535 I