Document Z5VmKRDr20opwqyxKEq0xpJ

SlpytS +arr cor Occupational Health & Safety Letter, May 22, 1974 areas throughout the U.S. to handle problems and grievances relating to safety and health on the job," he said. "This enables us to deal speedily with cases, keeping them where they belong within the province of management and union representatives. The result is that our problems have been minimal, and OSHA has accepted the decisions reached in virtually all instances." i 11NO CANCER EVIDENCE FOUND THUS FAR IN DULUTH DRINKING WATER: PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT USX-1109 A team of investigators from the National Cancer Institute has reported no increase in cancer death rates in Dulutfi; Minn., and other Lake Superior communities in the first 14 years that asbestos and asbestos-like fibers were dumped into the lake from Reserve Mining Co. in Silver Bay, Minn. Disclosure of the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 20) came as an appeals court took under consideration Reserve's appeal from a lower court decision dosing down the Reserve plant on the basis of what the judge termed a health hazard. The Duluth water system has since been decertified for use on interstate carriers by the Environmental Protection Agency. The Federal researchers said it was still too early to say positively that there is no health hazard from dumpings of taconite wastes into the lake, as asbestos fibers may be in the system for 20 years or more before clinical evidence of cancer appears. The researchers studied death certificates for all persons who died of cancer in the United States from 1950 to 1969 to determine if the fibers present in the drinking water of Duluth were related to cancer deaths. The mine tailings have been discharged into the lake since 1955. They established risk ratios for 21 different cancers, and then determined that the incidence in Duluth was not significantly greater than the average. Cancer of the colon was somewhat higher, but the researchers concluded that this was due to chance rather than asbestos. Cancer rates in young people also were examined, and found to be no greater in Duluth. "The delayed effects of asbestos in drinking water are unknown, and the extent to which asbestos has accumulated in the water with the passage of time has not yet been reported," they wrote. "A longer period of follow-up will be necessary before one can conclude that there is no cancer hazard related to the drinking c water supplies of Duluth and neighboring communities." The investigators are Thomas J. Mason, Ph-D., Frank W. McKay and Robert W. Miller, M.D., of the National Cancer Institute. EPA TO ISSUE STANDARDS FOR NUCLEAR POWER RADIATION RELEASE: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to issue standards soon to protect the public from health effects of radiation exposures that result from planned releases of radioactive material from nuclear power production. The standards will encompass power plants using uranium fuel and all the other associated operations and facilities in the uranium fuel cycle, except mines. " - EPA intends to set standards limiting radiation exposure from planned releases outside the boundaries of electric power light water reactors and of all facilities, including transportation, that are involved in the processing, fissioning and reprocessing of uranium for these reactors. The standards will cover the process from the time uranium ore leaves the mines through the reprocessing of uranium after burn-up in reactors and its eventual recycling back into the fuel supply. Nuclear power generation based on plutonium fuel or thorium fuel are excluded from the standard set ting, but future standards for these activities are contemplated when appropriate. The Atomic Energy Commission will implement the EPA standards by issuing detailed guidance for radioactive effluents for specific kinds of facilities, such as mills, reactors and fuel reprocessing plants. The AEC has issued a simultaneous notice ofintent to develop such guidance for these operations. Technical specifications for individual facilities based on this guidance will be the mechanism for implementing and enforcing the EPA. standards. EPA is particularly concerned with the release into the environment of long-lived radioactive materials with a consequent build-up in air, water and food that can persist for tens, hundreds and thousands of years, and thus ccnrri:.'-..-e to an increased incidence of cancers and birth abnormalities in the population, the agency said. Examples c-:' these materials arj^^tpn-S.5, iouine-129, um =-239 t1: :r et Snccifk emirs for these tvoes of materials will be considered in the stan- (