Document ZBqeq6kya3Mm4nqJa7ewnk7v0

FILE NAME: DuPont (DUP) DATE: 0000 DOC#: DUP106 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Book Excerpt - Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects Barry Castleman wwgaipp m&mmmrn ledical and Legal Aspects dated cancer will occur o contract cancer from lling, or manufacturing kers. They were persons s minimal or nil. They ad only as "bystanders." tander population at risk rospective nature of our ecise nature of historic relatively low end of the aast about what the risks rtality estimates is the significant histories of ironmental contact. The ach exposure could occur Don forgotten. In the early ed in the basement of my ie of the pipes was torn in t. I was fascinated by the ien a certain section of with a ball. The fine dust Hy hang suspended in the joining me for numerous a pipe and standing under loud--which was for all avity. There was a pile of >ath this place along the hot >dically swept up. ected figures for a lack or ier the number of U.S. as is 4,000 or 10,000, all the sbestos disease legacy to be iope that U.S. asbestos use lied in order to keep from e disease in future years. The Legacy and the Challenge 657 Unfortunately, this is not the case. Despite commercial avail ability of asbestos-free substitutes in every major application, the use of asbestos continues to be permitted, even for prod ucts no longer made in the U.S. with asbestos but still imported from other countries. Equally worrisome is the lack of control over exposures from the deterioration of asbestos- containing materials already in place. r. Continuing Asbestos Exposure in the United States r U.S. consumption of asbestos fiber has dropped dramatically from the peak level of 1974, most markedly in the 1980s. (See Fig. 1) Little of this has been offset by increased imports of asbestos products. By 1980, asbestos-free brakes, packings, gaskets, fireproof textiles, and plastics were making significant penetration in historic asbestos product markets. ^7Asbestos use in molded insulation and drywall patching compounds had been specifi cally forbidden by government regulation.89Other uses such as in tobacco products, gas mask filters, dish towels, air-dropped forest fire retardants, grinding wheels, and open-heart sur gery have apparently been abandoned as inappropriate. Many others among the still-numerous uses of asbestos have lost markets despite the lack of specific product bans affecting them. Local governments are turning to alternatives for as bestos-cement pipes for drinking water supplies and other uses, and at least six asbestos-cement pipe manufacturing plants in North America have been closed.1"02OSHA and EPA standards, workers' compensation and product liability consid erations, and widespread public concern have all been factors in these market shifts. Where stiff, durable, fibrous materials of respirable dimen sions have been used in place of asbestos, there is concern" about a mesothelioma risk. These apprehensions have been supported by experimental data since 1972.13One alternative, , potassium titanate fiber, developed by DuPont, was aban- l \ aoned after animal testing showed it could cause meso- 1 ' o ioma by in h a la tio n .14 T esting and p ro sp e ctiv e' epidemiological study continue, and asbestos fiber substitutes Bna-nWiin a a w *