Document RaX6daaVnbZXD5OK9B6NRvjKz

PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT NORTH AMERICA ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION 174S Jefferson Davis Highway, Crystal Square 4, Suite 509 Arlington, Virginia 22202 (703) 979-1150 Board of Directors Meeting Stouffer's National Center Hotel March 8, 1983 Arlington, VA Pursuant to notice, a meeting of the Board of Directors was held March 8, 1983 at Stouffer's National Center Hotel, Arlington, VA. The meeting was called to order-at 2:11 PM. The following directors were present: Solange Casiez (for Prank Betts, Atlas Building Materials; Dimitry Poutiatine, Asbestos Corporation Ltd.; and W. Aldridge, Turners Building, Products, Ltd.) Societe nationale de l'amiante Curtis E. Dungey (for Jean Dupere, Lake Asbestos (LAQ)and W. H. Beasley, CAPCO Pipe Company) Rita Grisham Clarence A. Herbst, Sr. Steve Kuhn (for John Lonnguist, Jr., John H. Marsh Joseph T. Mooney, Jr. John L. Myers Adam Novak Peter Reiser John Rio)?elle Kurt Schwarz Martin Sendecki (for John A. Bielaus) James S..Van Pelt, Jr. Paul Walker Frank Wardley R. C. Wareham (for Gordon Coafw) Esg.) ASARCO, Inc. Nuturn Corporation Resinoid Engineering Corporation Johns-Manville Corporation Raymark Corporation Monsey Products Company Union Carbide Corp./AIA/NA Pres. Huxley Development Corporation Carey Canada, Inc. The Bendix Corporation Supradur Manufacturing Corporation Congoleum Corporation Grundy Industries, Inc. Hollingsworth & Vose Company Quin-T Corporation Calaveras Asbestos, Ltd. - Also present: Joseph A. Artabane, Esg., Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; David Cortright, Societe nationale de l'amiante; Nicholas J. Hluchyj, Esg., and B. J. Pigg, AIA/NA Staff; Edward W. Warren, Esg., Kirkland & Ellis. i CAPCO JEN 0004798 Page 2 Minutes On motion, the minutes of the previous meeting, December 15, 1982, were approved on motion. Financial Report The financial statement for the period ending February 28, 1983 was reviewed by the Executive Director and approved on motion. Staff Congressional Activity -- The recently convened 98th Congress has a full agenda of environmental matters to consider with many of the basic laws up for reauthorization. The 97th Congress was not very successful in resolving issues in this area with the result that its workload carries over into the present session. Other activities of note this session should include review of a government-wide cancer policy, such as the proposal recently developed by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy; action on-some form of toxic victim compensation legislation; and a federal revision of product liability law, a continuation of Senator Hasten's efforts to imple ment such legislation in the last session of Congress. On February 10, Representative George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of Subcommittee on Labor Standards of House Committee, on Education and Labor, held a hearing on the subject of "Effect of the Bankruptcy Cases of Several Asbestos Companies on the Compensation of the Asbes tos Victim." Testifying at the hearing were a panel of asbestos disease victims, among them James Vermeulen and William Wenner of the Asbestos Victims of America; Lawrence P. King, professor at New York University School of Law and bankruptcy expert; James E. Sullivan, chairman of PACOR Corp,, a small distributor at one time of asbestos insulation; John Baldwin, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-Corning, speaking on behalf of the Committee for Equitable Compensation, a group of 12 companies involved in asbestos litigation who have not filed for bankruptcy; and George Kilbourne, a member of a group of plaintiff's attorneys who have organized opposition to Manville's bankruptcy filing. Representative Miller was a leading sponsor in the last session of Congress of legislation for the compensation of asbestos disease victims. He is expected to introduce similar legis lation in-fbe present 98th Congress. Much congressional attention continues to be focused on the Environ mental Protection Agency, with six subcommittees of the House and a Senate Committee pursuing a variety of allegations. With an mcr'easmg number of members of Congress calling upon her to resign, the future of EPA Administrator Anne M. Burford at the agency is uncertain. Senator Robert W. Hasten, Jr. (R-Wis.) has reintroduced his legislative proposal for the reform and standardization of the law which governs product liability tort litigation. The measure, approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last year, has been designated S.44. i CAPCO JEN 0004799 Page 3 CPSC - Membership of the CPSC's Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) on Asbestos was approved in January. Chosen to serve on the panel were: Janet M. Hughes, Ph.D. Nancy Kim,- Ph.D. Norton Nelson, Ph.D. William J. Nicholson, Ph.D. Julian Peto, M.S. M. A. Schneiderman, Ph.D. Carl Shy, M.D. Tulane University NY State Dept, of Health New York University Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Oxford University Clement Associates University of North Carolina Amendments to the Consumer Product Safety Act- in 1981 require that the CPSC establish a CHAP to review and report on any substance associated with chronic hazards of cancer, birth defects, or gene mutations before beginning rulemaking on consumer products incor porating the substance. A meeting between industry representatives and congressional staffers involved or interested in the upcoming reauthorization of the Con sumer Product Safety Commission took place on February 2 at the National Association of Manufacturers. The main topic of discussion was the Commission's proposal to implement section 6(b) of the Con sumer Product Safety Act. This section requires the Commission to investigate the veracity of information concerning a product hazard before making that information publip, if an individual company can be identified on the basis of the public disclosure. EPA - Numerous Congressional investigations and intense scrutiny from the media have been occupying the attention of the Environmental Pro tection Agency, with the result that no new initiatives are being undertaken. Agency work in progress also appears to have been slowed down. Congressional attention has been focused on the Environmental Protection Agency since the end of the 97th Congress, particularly in the House, which has cited EPA Administrator Burford for contempt. The contempt citation stems from the Agency's refusal, by order of the President, to turn over to House Committees documents considered to be sensitive in enforcement proceedings. The U.S. Attorney in Washington has so far not prosecuted the case, and the Justice De partment filed a civil suit in the U.S. District Court, challenging the contempt citation on the basis of executive privilege. Judge John Lewis Smith, dismissed the suit, recommending that the legislative and executive branches of government work out a compromise to settle .the issue. In a related development. Rite Lavelle, the /agency's hazardous wastes program director, was dismissed from her position. Staff work continues on a proposed revision to the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (Asbestos). Major milestones project that a proposal will be published in October 1984 with a final rule scheduled for August 1985. It is understood that the most significant changes under consideration pertain to reaulations af fecting asbestos waste. i CAPCO JEN 0004800 Page 4 OSHA - A draft preliminary quantitative risk assessment dated July and August 1981 and prepared by Occupational Safety and Health Administra^ tion Staff has been made public. Closely guarded by OSHA since it was authored, the study was finally released when it was filed as a part of the record., in' the ethylene oxide proceeding in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. On March 4, the document was also""made a part of the OSHA asbestos docket #H-J333C, which was established pur suant to the October 1975 proposed asbestos rulemaking. The risk assessment attempts to predict the health effects which may be asso ciated with present-day low level workplace exposures on the basis of five epidemiologic studies of workers exposed to the higher levels of the past. The range of lifetime risk of excess lung cancer per 1,000 workers is very wide, with a high of 467 at 2 f/cc and a low of -0.2 at 0.1 f/cc, depending on what study is used in the calculations. The introduction of the study explains that extrapolations are necessary because "relatively little is known about the magnitude of the risk of asbestos - induced cancer at low exposure levels." It continues, "this is primarily because no adequate epidemiologic data is available on the mortality pattern of workers exposed at or below the current permissible exposure limit (2 f/cc) and followed for a sufficient period to identify the long latent effects." In the Federal Register of February 15, the Department of Labor set forth a list of existing rules scheduled for review during the suc ceeding twelve months as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Among the rules scheduled for review is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's asbestos standard. NRC/NAS - On March 1, the National Research Council {NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a report entitled, Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process. Autho rized by law in the 96th Congress and funded by a Food and Drug Ad ministration contract, the report examines the issues of the relia bility and objectivity of scientific assessment that forms the basis for federal regulatory policies applicable to carcinogens and other . public health hazards. The product of a 14-member panel assembled by the NAS, the Committee on the Institutional Means for Assessment of Risks to Public Health, the report concludes that the basic pro blem in risk assessment is the incompleteness of data, rather than the organisational arrangements for performance of the assessments. Among the proposals recommended by the report is the establishment of a Board on Risk Assessment Methods under NAS auspices to review and update guidelines for the conduct of risk assessments. State Activity - New York State has adopted section 22.8 to the State Sanitary Code. It requires employers of 100 or more employees to re port annually to t&p. state a list of those employees exposed, for at least 25 days out of the year, to any one of a number of substances, among them asbestos. The purpose of the rule is to facilitate epi demiological studies. Regulations under California's Hazardous Substances Identification and Training Act became effective on February 21. They would apply to any substance included in a list compiled by the state's Director of Industrial Relations. Asbestos isj.one of the substances listed. CAPCO JEN 0004801 Page 5 Sellers of listed substances are required to provide purchasers with a material safety data sheet (MSDS). In addition, employers of em ployees working with a listed substance must provide those employees with training in proper work practices. Canada - Responding to a request for public comments by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, AIA/NA submitted comments in February on the * Ministry's revised proposal._for an asbestos standard applicable to the construction industry. The revised proposal was issued at a public meeting on January 17. It represents the Ministry's reworking of its original August 1982 proposal in response to comments filed on that proposal. AIA/NA's comments on the revised proposal basically made two recommendations, first, that the notification and equivalency provisions of the proposal be combined with an election provision to enable the contractor to use additional control practices to those specified in the regulation, and secondj that manufacturers be per mitted to certify products and work .practices that would minimize as bestos exposures at the work site. Resolutions Adopted Applications for regular membership in the Association from Grundy Industries, Inc., Joliet, Illinois, and Henry Company, Huntington Park, California, were unanimously approved on motion. | Miscellaneous Other reports and discussions in accordance with agenda. Other Business The next meeting of the Board of Directors will be held on June 7, 1983 at Stouffer's National Center Hotel in Arlington, VA. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:10 PM. Executive Director BJP/ds March 24, 1983 1 CAPCO JEN 0004-802