Document RaajgMKbQRXx1V0d8e37OYkk7

FILE NAME: US Gypsum (USG) DATE: 1972 USG083 DOC#: USG083 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper articles on asbestos rules and health threats tv ' v* r ' V' *11^ # ' o u ki w I ' M V f r> w i " |Job-Safety Unit Sets ] Tough Rules for '76 b On Plants' Asbestos C 2 P * v W * | f , g r a v e r J n ii k u I. t*tm g I Washington - to* occupation** fc*fcty and H ralth Administration announced touch fi new curbs on asbestos In plants, but gave em ployers four years to comply.. The new standard wit! limit concent! stions of asbestos In the work place to two fibers ] per cubic centimeter of air beginning July 1. 197$. the agency administering the new Fed eral Job Safety Law said. > Untft 1976. the asbestos standard will re main five fibers per cubic centimeter. That was the "emergency** standard imposed by the i agency last December under pressure from the 1 A > 'b D O . The inhalation of asbestos has been linked i to a number of human diseases. The standards lor asbestos rept esent a time-weighted average over eight hours. Rut. starting July 1. 1972, asbestos concentration. aren l to exceed 10 fibeis per cubic centimeter of air at any tune during the eight-hour penod. Tne emergency standard currently in effect hasn't any such upper limit--only the* average of five fibers. Government sources maid the four-year delay in effecting the new standard was to per mit employers to design systems to control as bestos. Imposing the new limits more rapidly would hsve encouraged employers to comply by simply rots ting workers dunng an eighthour work turn or providing protective breath ing devices, government experts believed. The Environmental Protection Agency last i December banned open-air spraying of asbesf tns fireproofing and insulation and required tn* * | dustry to use filters to clean any gases pro- I duced In the mining, milling and manufacturI in- of materials containing asbestos. iii * li 11 il .1 It I VI'* 1 Perilous Particles Tiny Asbestos fibers Pose a Health Threat To Workers and Public r I Long Exposure Can Result \l In Lung Disease, Cancer; t Industry Seeks Solutions m o \ i L `Tiie Bodies Are in the Street* By B arry N rw iu v 1 fto/T Rfjwwfrr ofTire W iU Krurrr JocawAt, NEW YORK--At Joseph M snno'i gas ata- tjon on the fringe of Manhattan'a Spanish Har lem. the proven method of cleaning an old brake assembly goes like this: Pull off the wheel, aim am air hose at the exposed parts and blow the dust out. A cloud of brown dust Invariably flies right Into the mechanics* faces, aayt Mr. Marino. But It doesn't bother them. "We got masks and everything,** Mr. Marino shrugs. "The guya . don't use them. What the hell.** What the mechanics don't teem to know-- like thousands of other mechanics--Is that the brown dust is dangerous. Brake linings are made of asbestos. And If a mechanic breathes in enough dust from tha worn-out linings it could eventually kill him. The lethal quality of tiny. Indestructible as bestos fibers that lodge In the lung is well known. Widely publicised studies by Dr. Irvuig Sellkoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine lead him to predict that of the roughly 250.000 asbestos industry workers today, about 95,000 will die unnecessarily of occupational cancer. **ln the next 10 to 13 year we will enter the asbestos cancer era,** says Dr. Sellkoff. "This la one of the great disasters of our time.'* lUxarda for Others, Too The asbestos Industry Is m-ell ar.-are of the problem and Is taking action to combat It. though critics say the steps aren't as drastic as the situation demands. But asbestos industry workers aren't the only ones who might fall prey to the lung cancers and other diseases caured by the mineral's irritating fibers. Jt's likely that millions of workers ui other indus tries using asbestos fibers could be affected, as Ueli as ordinary people who hate come Into contact with asbestos in the atmosphere. Perhaps the most tragic fact that for those who have alretdy been sufficiently ex posed, changes in procedures and standards of A*beU>6 use--Includes; a sew* set announced yesterday by the Department ot Labor--are meanlogleas. It takes as many as so years after u>c first exposure for asbestos-related di seases to surface. Controls instituted now will Ifidcrd have am effect, but not for decades Harry Bailey*U one man who isn't likely to find much solace in the new uodards. Mr. BaUey isn't an asbestos worker. He's a brick- la>er in a Mobil Oil Oorp. refinery alonteide the Delaware itiver In Pauls boro. X.J. He has been working at the plant for 3J years, and every year he has gone to the company medi-j cal department for a chest Jt-ra>. | They never said mere was am thing wrong with me.** says S!-yr*r-otd Mr. Bailey, ana In deed he has thus far developed no outward] symptoms. But a fear months ago he and la i other workers from the refinery went to Mount1 Stmal for an examination, and ever* on of them pruvtd to h*ve scarred iut.g-a sign of asbcxluMxs. a nonmalignant lung disease Mobil has refused to teleaae hi* medical rec ords to the New York doctors. Mr, Bariev as*r The company declines to comment on the mat ter.!