Document bBpj3br1Ogk6dxjabn7aKmLDo

FILE NAME: Avondale (AVD) DATE: 1978 June 23 DOC#: AVD116 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Memo to Ad Hoc Asbestos Committee PLAINTIFF'S s < EXHIBIT SBCA 5080 I ..................... 1 x SHIPBUILDERS COUNCIL OF A M ER IC A 6 0 0 N E W H A M P S H I R E AVE., 1M.W. I W A S H I N G T O N , . C. 2 0 0 3 7 June 23, 1978 To : AD HOC COMMITTEE ON ASBESTOS Mr. David Lavalette Mr. Robert Barnhart Mr. Dan Whichard Mr. Frank Darlin-g Mr. George Bowen Mr. Tom Savas Dr. Joseph Bogni General Dynamics Corp. Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock C o . Ingalls Shipbuilding National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. Bethlehem Steel Corp. Newport News Shipbuilding General Dynamics Corp., Quincy Shipbuilding Div. Subject: Initial Meeting on August 8, 1978 The Board of Directors of the Shipbuilders Council of America has authorized the formation of a special Ad Hoc Committee on Asbestos. Such a committee is consid ered necessary to bring this problem into focus and to exchange information on possible methods of dealing with present and past employees, Government agencies and the media. Recent events suggest a heightening of potential problems and liabilities for shipyards: (1) The Asbestosis Questionnaire being circulated to present and former shipyard employees by the National Cancer Institute (2) The rapid increase in workers compensation claims and negligence law suits in Naval shipyards and to a lesser extent in private shipyards (3) The National Cancer Institute has hired Porter Novelli Marketing of Washington, DC to put together a public service campaign. Porter Novelli has in turn hired Bean/Kahn Films International, Inc. to produce tele vision public service spot announcments . This firm has already filmed an asbestos ripout at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard with the approval of the Chief of _____ Naval Information 2 Mr. Dave Lavalette of the General Dynamics Corporate Office has agreed to serve as Chairman of the Ad Hoc C o m mittee. He has asked that there be representatives from the Industrial Health and Safety Committee, Workers Compen sation Committee and Industrial Relations Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee will hold its first meeting at the office of the SCA in Washington, DC at 10 AM on August 8, 1973. Frank R. Kesterman Vice President and Secretary 102 OCCUPATIOWAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER agreed with the House and provided $167.5 million for Lae Occupational Safety and-Health Administration and nearly $52 million for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Current Report, June 15, p. 64). ' The Senate subcommittee disagreed with the House and did not add an amendment to the measure to prohibit OSHA from issuing any regulations which would restrict recreational hunting, fishing, or sports shooting. But the subcommittee agreed with the House and voted to continue the restrictions on OSHA which were first included in the FY 77 budget. Those amendments to OSHA's budget exempt farms employing 10 or fewer persons from the provisions of the Occupational Safety and. Health Act and prohibit civil penalties for first-instance nonserious violations of the Act, unless 10 or more violations are cited during an inspection. When the House voted to continue those restrictions on OSHA, it decided to exclude farms which have a temporary labor camp from the exemption for farms employing 10 or fewer persons. These differences between the House and Senate versions will have to be resolved in a conference between the two houses, unless the full committee or the Senate votes to disagree with the subcommittee recommen dations and to 2gree with the House. Additional Inspectors Senator Warren Magnuson (D-Wash), chairman of the Ap propriations Committee and of the Labor-KEW Subcom mittee, will propose before the full committee an amend ment to add 312.5 million to the OSHA budget to hire as many as 500 more inspectors. His amendment was not offered before the subcommittee. In a June 9 letter to Magnuson, Assistant Labor Secretary Eula Bingham wrote that OSHA " can effectively utilize the additional compliance officers." She suggested that the agency could hire 325 industrial hygienists, 125 safety specialists, and 50 persons to conduct discrimination in vestigations. Bingham estimated that the 500 new inspectors would per mit OSHA to conduct 8,500 additional health inspections, 10,000 additional safety inspections, and 2,500 more dis crimination investigations. She explained that health inspec tions usually take three to four times longer than safety in spections, which would account for the expected greater in crease in the number of safety inspections even though more new health specialists would be hired. Bingham wrote Magnuson that OSHA expects the annual number of its inspections to decrease because of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the B arloiv's Inc. case, but she could not give " a precise estimate of the decrease as (OSHA does) not yet have sufficient data on denial of entry cases to indicate a trend" (Current Report, May 25, p. 1923). But Bingham commented that an increase in the number of inspectors would allow OSHA to maintain its present in spection ra te and to expand its coverage in such "high-hazard industries" as construction and grain elevators. ~ Mine Safety The Senate subcommittee did not approve an amendment offered by Senator Robert Byrd (D-VVVa) to increase the NIOSK budget to fund certain activities mandated by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. HEW previously had refused NIOSH requests for funding for certain activities required under the new mine safety law (Current Report, June 15, p. 64). The House also did net in crease MOSH's funding for these activities. Black Lung Supplamental The Senate passed on June 23 an increase of $131.6 million for the Labor Department's Employment Standards Ad ministration during the current "fiscal year, which ends September 30.. The increased funds, which were approved by the House on June 9, will be used to implement the black lung benefits legislation enacted by Congress earlier this year. The Senate agreed with the amount included in the House version (HJRes 845), but the joint resolution will have to be considered by a conference committee between the two Houses because of differences in aspects of it which have nothing to do with the black lung compensation benefits program (Current Report, June 15, p. 64). Asbestos SHORT-EXPOSURE RISK INDICATED IN STUDY OF NEW JERSEY WORKERS, RESEARCHER SAYS NEW YORK CITY -- (By an OSHR staff correspondent) -- Workers employed for only a month or two at a Patterson, N.J., asbestos plant during the period 1941-1954 showed "a clear mortality excess" from lung cancer and all forms of asbestos disease, Herbert Seidman, American Cancer Socie ty, reported June 24. Seidman appeared at the June 21 through June 30 Inter national Conference on Health Hazards of Asbestos Ex posure, sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences. In a survey of some 621 workers, Seidman reported, six deaths from lung cancer were found among those who had worked at the plant for only one month, as compared with 2.47 deaths expected based on mortality patterns for the Patterson area. There also were.eight deaths from all forms of asbestos disease, including mesothelioma, as contrasted with the 4.84 deaths expected. Seidman termed the excess "important," and added that the risk of lung cancer and asbestos disease became even greater for workers exposed to asbestos for longer periods. For example, among workers who worked at the plant two or more years, there were 33 deaths from lung cancer rather than the 5,97 deaths expected, Seidman noted. There were 76 deaths from all asbestos diseases, as compared with the 12.41 deaths expected. Among the workers who were exposed to asbestos for one month, adverse health effects from the exposure first were seen after 20 years. The effects were observed sooner among those with longer exposure, Seidman added. The plant involved in the study was owned by toe Nicholson File Company, and it provided asbestos for U.S. Navy ships during and after World War II. Ventilation at the plant was "poor," and " even short periods of exposure left a large numoer of asbestos fibers in the workers' lungs," ac cording to the American Cancer Society researcher. Workers at the facility were exposed only to one variety of asbestos, amosite, according to Irvmg Selikoff, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, who collaborated on the study with Seid man and another American Cancer Society researcher, E. Cuyler Hammond. This determination was based on Navy specifications and on records of the products sold by the company, Selikoff explained. . ` In a study of 17,890 American and Canadian insulation workers whose histories were followed from 1943 to-1977. 2,270 deaths were observed compared with the 1.&S0 deaths expected, Selikoff also reported. Cancer was the "most im portant" cause of death, with 954 cases observed rather than the 320 expected. I k ' Q c c u p a v o n a l S a f e t y t* H e a l t h R e p o r t e r 0 0 5 5 - 3 2 3 7 / 7 3 / SCO 0 i wu._-_i_r_c_i_V_i__r_i_c__'U_H__T The cancer mortalities included 175 deaths from pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, two forms uf cancer that are extremely rare in the general population, according to the ML Sinai researcher. _ Chamical Maintonanca VVadf3 A study of 144 chemical plant maintenance workers in dicated abnormal chest X-ray findings among 48.4 percent of these with direct asbestos exposure, according to Ruth Lillis, ML Sinai School of Medicine. Pleural changes, in cluding thickening and calcification of the membrane, were found in 23 percent of the total group. Some 45.4 percent of the maintenance workers who had some asbestos exposure produced abnormal chest X-rays, while readings were abnormal for 24.2 percent of those workers who were not exposed to asbestos, Lillis added. Chronic bronchitis rates were similar for both smokers and nonsmokers, with 23 percent of those who smoked ex hibiting bronchitis, compared with 19 percent of the non smokers, Lillis told conference attendees. Asbestos exposure involving maintenance workers presents a "very serious problem for the future," Selikoff commented. In many cases, employers do not realise that products in their facilities contain asbestos. The problem in volves " a vast number of workers," because in many chemical plants Lcere are as many maintenance employees as chemical workers, Selikoff commented. Shipyard Hazards _ High rates of lung cancer and cancer of the pharynx have been found in three-fourths of the U.S. southern coastal coun ties where shipyards operated during World War II, accor ding to William J. Blot of the National Cancer Institute. A study of these counties was initiated after MCI demographic research showed an "unexpected-pattern" of high"cancer mortality clustered along the Gulf Coast and on the U.S. southeast Atlantic coast, Blot stated. In addition to an excess of lung and -pharynx cancer, high rates of bronchial, esophagus, ar.d stomach cancer have been noted. Lack of information cn the smoking histories of cancer vic tims in these counties has hampered the NCI study, but "it is unlikely that smoking would account totally for the pattern," Blot commented. Currently NCI is conducting a field study on the Georgia coast, where preliminary figures show an excess lung cancer risk among persons who worked in shipyards in Savannah and Brunswick during the Second World War, the NCI scien tist announced. Some 20 percent of the 500 lung cancer vic tims interviewed by NCI so far reported that they had work ed in shipyards cunng Lhe war. NCI is halfway through another case-control interview- study in the Tidewater area of Virginia, the location of the Newport News, Va., Naval Shipyard. Results of this project "should clarify the shipyard problem," Blot commented. He added that information on exposures at the shipyard should be less difficult to gather than similar data in the Georgia study, because Lhe Newport News facility is still in opera tion. _ Other studies are planned'in Maine, where lung cancer in cidence is rising, and in Louisiana, where shipbuilding was a major industry during Lhe war, Blot noted. - All persons who have worked in shipyards in the past, whatever their craft, face the risk of developing asbestos-related disease, according to Phillip L. Polakoif, Western Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health, Berkeley, Calif. In a study involving 359 workers from shipyards at Hunter's Point and Mare Island, Calif., 59 percent of the employees were found to have pleural and parenchymal abnormalities. 103 The abnormalities "were distributed evenly among ail oc cupations," including painters, sailrnokers, laborers, mechanics, and carpenters, Polakoif seated. There was a significant increase in pleural changes with advancing age, the researcher continued. A high incidence of parenchymal changes was discovered, but these changes oc curred " independent cf age " This ducrepency may "be ex plained, Polakoif theorized, by the possibility that the study inadvertently used a select group of workers with abnor malities in ail age groups. The changes also might have been due to factors other than asbestos, such as cigarette smoking or exposure to other toxic agents. Groton Study An increase ir. pleural and peritoneal changes correspon ding to longer periods of time from first exposure to asbestos was found in a study of 1,090 workers from the Electric 3oat Company shipyard at Groton, Conn., Irving Selikoff reported. Abnormalities were found in 43 percent cf Lhe workers whose first exposure to asbestos occurred less than 20 years ago, the ML Sinai researcher stated. The rate increased to 50 percent among workers first exposed more than 20 years ago. Abnormalities were found in ail trades, but there were not enough workers from any one group to compare Lhe in cidence rates and thus identify ar.v workers who might be particularly at risk, Selikoff noted. Comparing lung cancer rates among shipyard workers with those for insulation workers not employed in shipyards, Selikoff said he found the rates "very much the sam e." Some 153 out of 500 production workers at the U.S. Navy shipyard at Long Beach, Calif., have been found to have asbestosis, according to a report by Jean S- Felton, Naval Regional Medical Center. The Navy began a study of workers at the shipyard in June 1977. X-rays have been taken for 63 percent cf all the workers at the shipyard, and indicate abnormal findings for 15 percent of the workers thus far examined. The abnormalities show a linear increase by age. occurring in 34 percent of those workers employed* at the facility for at .east 17 years, Felton reported. The Navy hopes to take X-rays of the remaining workers during the next month, conference attendees were told. Carcinogens HlCH-LEYiL O rrlC lA lo CONCSnNSD OVcR REGULATION COSTS, INDUSTRY SAYS Recent controversy over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's cotton dust standard demonstrates the concern "at the highest levels of Government'' for the economic effects of regulating, OSKA's hearing on a car cinogens policy was told June 25. Richard Zeckhauser, a witness for the American Petroleum Institute, predicted "years of delay in litigation" for the proposed policy unless OSHA attempts to analyze the costs and benefits of Lhe proposal and tries to estimate risks to workers. - Individual firms and the American Industrial Health Coun cil, an umbrella-group cf companies and trade associations, earlier had presented the first testimony from the business sector as Lhe hearings continued into the second month (Current Report, June 22, p. 86). Zeckhauser, a political economist from Harvard Universi ty, referred during his testimony to Presiden: Carter's in volvement in Lhe OSKA cotton dust standard and the review C opyrigh: 1973 by Tne B jreau o f N ational A ffa irs. In i. 0035-31:37/73,'S00 50