Document YjEVaqzVyVym2yRJ4Rjwb25mE

BETWEEN: SUBJECT: MEtiORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION March 9, 1976 Dr. Arthur Langer Mt. Siani School of Medicine New York, NY and Heinz J. Eiermann, Director Division of Cosmetics Technology' Food and Drug Administration Asbestos in Talc I called Dr. larger early this rooming in regard to a statement made by John D. Klein, reporter, Channel 7 News, at yesterday's television interview, that the investigation of asbestos in talc at Mr. Siani School of Medicine was an ongoing study and that samples of commercial talc products selected after 1973 were equally contaminated with Treirolite. Mr. Klein insisted that this information was correct according to his earlier conversation with Dr. Larger. Dr. Larger confirmed the information that the samples mentioned in the Washington Post article of March 8 by Marion Burros involved samples collected in 1973. However, when asked specifically whether the sp;ne results were obtained with samples collected thereafter, he hedged by implying that "some additional samples were collected in 1974 and 1975" and that these samples "when tested by optical microsco shewed the same characteristics as the samples collected earlier." Of primary concern to Dr. Larger was Colgate's Cashmere Bouquet. He cou not understand why Colgate could not see the Treirolite fibers in that talc because "it was loaded with fibers." He informed me that the Colgate people would be meeting with him today to resolve this issue. Their point was that their talc did not contain asbestos fibers. Dr. Langer expressed his willingness to cooperate closely with Dr. Wil of our division, to resolve controver sy concerning the determination o asbestos in talc. Dr. Wilson has already been in contact with him on that issue. Dr. Langer will provide Dr. Wilson with subsamples of the cammercial talc samples implicated in the Washington Post article as well as with the method of determination by x-ray diffraction which differs somewhat from the conventional procedure. I suggested that we provide for his evaluation, samples of the same products which we collected in 1975. He thought this would be an excellent idea and indicated that he was looking forward to receiving these samples. Jr. ,(Dr. Wilson will remain in contact with m f. Langer in this regard) . Heinz J. Eiermann