Document NE8axmxVRZV7kXO59aQkJLe5E

FILE NAME: Eternit (ETER) DATE: 1968 Jan DOC#: ETER071 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Report of Trip to Denmark Mr. 0. Homann Pedersen Dr. A. Ecerweia Dr. A. Grub Mr. Mo Pars - Dansk Eternit-Pabrik A/S. - Elsinore Shipyard. - World Health Organisation. - Government Department of Occupational Health. - Persolit A/S. The arrangements for the visit were made by Mr. Ai&reen Pc .iien Hinar Juel & Co. A/S, who accompanied me throughout. I am most ateful to him for his co-operation. Mr. Johnsen lVo Tohnsen, a director of Dansk Eternit, described a meeting 0 had t^lcen place in December, 19o/, between officials of his company and Mr. Homann Pedersen of Elsinore Shipyard. I believe the meeting was partly concerned with commercial matters, but tfr. Homann Pedersen had also raised the question of asbestos and health, using the information given to him by Dr. Karvonen of the World Health Organisation. Dansk Eternit had attempted to counter some of the Karvonen statements by pointing out that in many years of Handling asbestos, no health problems had arisen in and around their factory. This statment they had confirmed in writing. 1 left with Mr. Johnson oopies of the A.R.C. Codes of Practice. Mr. Homann Pedersen Mr. Homann Pedersen is a Senior Engineer at Elsinore Shipyard and is the Danish representative on I.M.C.O. He was fully aware of the purpose of my visit, i.e. to discuss the statements made in his recent report (?th November, 1967)# which I told him I had seen. He said that the report was a confidential dooumeirt and he had been upset to find that it had H p said that of his insulation force of twenty men. six were already affeoted in health to some degree. Although attention to Dr Rarvonen's statements regarding the s gnifioanof of pleural plaques in persons working in or living near the Finish anthophyXJi.te mines, pointing cut that the published papers cf Raunis and Neurman did. not oontain ary evidence * ' such plaq* leading tc malignancy* These papers were published in 1966 and Mr homann Pedersen said that Dr Karvoneu's information was more recent Nevertheless, he admitted that he now had doubts on the subject arid had an idea that Dr K&rvonen had uot given him the true facts* Mr Homann Pedersen kept referring tc a "700 page report" which was about to be published in U.S.A. on the subject of asbestos arm health. He first said that he had lost the reference to it, then pressure later in the meeting found it. - it turned out to be the Proceedings of the 1964 New York Conferenoe published two years I wes abl9 tc present him with oopies of three of the papers - ' t Dr. Knox, Mr. Hills and myself. He had heard of the report Prof. Thomson etc. on the finding of "asbestos" bodies in the lur f the general public. I told him about the work cn "ferrugirr:di*a" and 'aid that a lot of statements made in Now York in 1 ould be modified at the Dresden Conferenoe in April. I also dispelled the idea that amounts of asbestos large enough to >ritii disease were present in the general atao3phere. I tried to put into the right context the comments in his rep concerning the Draft New Regulations. I referred to the suggest! which had been put forward by the A.R.C. and other interested bodies, designed to get away from the unrealistic "no dust" concept. I said that there might well be a Maximum Allowable Concentration for asbestos dust incorporated somewhere in the legislation and spoke of the forthcoming B.O.H.S. report. Mr. Homann Pedersen referred to his work with I.M.C.O., who insist on non-combustible materials for passenger a oommoiatlon. This, he say, is due to U.S. domination, which he bitterly re ants. He claims that Danish ships are completely safe by virtue of their sprinkler systems. While he admits that this is foroing him bee to asbestos panels, he is trying his best to fine substitutes. He is in touch with the Danish mineral wool insulation industry, who say they can give him what he needs. He seems to have o fears regarding the deterioration of such materials in serv.On the same subject of substitutes he revealed that B.B.A. Croup says that the liner "Franoe" has been panelled i re is actually nothing novel about the method uetrated in both the T.A.C. and Marinite catalog present engaged in making a demonstration rig to He seems to be very much against personal protection when handling asbestos, maintaining that na material that needs such protection is dangerous" He says that men cannot he compelled to wear respirators, which he maintains are not proof against fine asbestos dust airway. I explained the funotion of a respirator in reducing a hazardous concsentration to a safe level, but he was difficult to oonvince. Nevertheless, he was interested in the A.R.Co Codes of Practioe and asked for twelve further copies of each. He also knows of the work of the A.I.C. through Central Asbestos and would like twelve copies of the general publication on Asbestos and Health when it is publisher Dr. A Efcerwein Dr. Eberwein is Head of the Health Promotion Croup at the European Headquarters of W.H.O. He explained that Dr. Karvonen had left W,,H.0o at the end of December to take up a post as Professor cf Physiology in the Veterinary School in Helsinki, under Professor Leo Noro. He had not yet been replaced and as an interim measure Professor Sven Forsman of Stockholm was act! as part-time adviser on occupational health. D r 0 Eberwein was unable to comment in detail on what Dr. Karvonen had said about asbestos health hazards, but confirmed that he must be assumed to have been speaking as a private individual, and the views expressed were not those of W.H.O. He explained tnat official statements t r om W.H.O could only be given at the request of the governments of Member Nations. He said that the Head of tne Social and Occupational Health Section in W.h.Oo at Geneva is a Dr. Bell (Australian) and he would be the man to contact, This was a very worthwhile interviewc Dr. Grut's position is similar to that of our Senior Medical Inspector. He was well aware of the present situation in the U.K. regarding the Draft New Asbestos Regulations and was familiar with the standards for ohrysotile. (He is a member of B.O.H.S.) To