Document XR4L19okpgOQyeOzxL8RM5mNy

i , Water, townN.Y. Corrective Action ~fiFindings On Tale Wednesday ONO , June 15 1977 gone * From A follow study a _ Last Page - e A - six. years - Evaluating mine venti- later made additional lation with consideration comparisons and most for greater air volume and but not all categories - of " . distribution and installation chest problems those ex- of water sprays at ore On Talc Needed pockets - More emphasiosn min- taining equipment in proper working order since U.S. AgencySays numerous leaks were ob- served at material transfer points within the mill _ Ventilation improve- Alan Emory govern- showing By - | bel product to D. Zumwalde the ments at packing stations Times Washington Correspondent _. contain asbestos ment says numerous oper- since local exhaust hoods _ A WASHINGTON - gov- The was made ations in both the No. 1 are located too far from the report available ernment report has con- TheBureau Times . mine and have exces- filling spout to be effective Washington firmed the need for im- Bureau under . sive exposures to airborne. and bursting bags signi- mediate corrective action the Freedom of Informa- ~ fibers ficant source of exposure bulk at the GouverneurTalc Co. tion Act Analyses of both should be replaced with bursting operations near Gouv^r- The R Vanderbilt Co. tale samples and airborne bags with greater j neur N.Y. to safeguard . which owns Gouverneur . dust samples shown strength. | mine and mill workers Talc has maintained that ' that a majority of these fi- Provision of respira- tory from asbestos .. +. its No. 1 mine and mill talc bers are asbestiform tre- protection for em- The National for does not containasbestos molite and anthophyl- i ployes as specified in the ' Institute OSHA Occupational Safety and although it labels compara- liteImmediate corrective asbestos standard - Health NIOSH report said ble products products from No. 3 actions to reduce exposures - until ventilation and work the content the products mine and mill must be taken as recom- || practice improvements are - is analyzed make it impera- Inreport the final : mended in the report 7 made and asbestos fibers 1976 reduced 25 acceptable tive that these talcs be la- version of one made publicpubli-c. sued May repot mir qj to . lev- prepared Specific recomels beled with the OSHA Oc- a year ago by 25actions NIOSH include Provisions for medical cupational Safety and industrial hygiene mended mended by _ were posed to fibrous tale worse off - The NIOSH report said that while the medical stu- _ dies cited showed presence of lung disease among tre- molite talc minerisn New York they did not take into account the risk of cancer - Two other studies the report went on demonstrated an increased risk of cancer of the lung and pleura among these work- ers It said the study by Dr. Morris Kleinfeld of Mt. Sinai in New York City found 11 per cent of the deaths in the study resulting from malignancies of the lung or pleura com- " pared with the 3.2 per cent expected A later study said respiratory cancer caused death in 12 per cent of the cases but only 3.7 per cent had been ex- FINDINGS Health la- See Administration JohnM. hygieneRalph Pg the T examinationsasbetosspecified in 20yfthe OSHA stan- . Finnish studies have de- asbestos : 7 monstrated an excess can- dard ' cer among workers backgroundIn laying out medical background for thereport NIQSH cited many studies including a comparative study of workers exposed to exposed to anthophyllite as- bestos NIOSH said - The report repeated the finding a year ago that ex- - tales in St. Lawrence and Lewis CountiesN.Y. The St. Lawrence talc contained fibers the Lewis County did not taleIn St. Lawrence a 1959 posures to fibers in excess of ceilings allowed by OSHA and the Mine En- forcement Safety Adminis- _ tration MESA were found in nine work categories Mine crushers operator study showed millers had nearly times the fi- brosis that those in Lewis _ trammer mine cageman mill foreman mill laborer crushers operator hard- did inge operator wheeler op- erator and packer The NIOSH report said f that Gouverneur Talc's No. 3 mill put out products with an OSHA asbestos warning label though milling operations were basically the same as those previously described for the No. 1 mill with minor variations Dust control measures are not however as effective as those observed in the No. 1 _ being - mine are improved further The NIOSH study con- ducted in November 1975 . was designed to clear up . the conflict between reports the talc contained asbestos and Vanderbilt's certifica- tion they did not ' NIOSH analyses showed significant contaimination levels of both fibrous tre- moliteand fibrous antho- | phyllite but there were arguments the studies were not appropriate since the mineral makeup of tale deposits in the area dif- fered substantially from one to another ._ That led to the NIOSH study on disease death and industrial hygiene at Gouverneur Talc which prod- uces Nytal and other tales Vanderbilt argues do not - contain asbestos : R ! 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