Document bBqDo2Q57dZmjJkBq67Eze2dO

FILE NAME: Shipbuilders Council of America (SHIP) DATE: 1978 June 29 DOC#: SHIP031 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Press Release - Health Hazards of Asbestos Industry & to the General Public PLAINTIFFS t EXHIBIT - ' J|& jj SBCA5081 | " "I, ........ I-- FROM SHIPBUILDERS COUNCIL' OF AMERICA 600 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVt.. N. VV. WASHING TON, D. C. 2003/ June 29. 1978 THE H E A LTH HAZARDS OF ASBESTOS IN INDUSTRY AN D TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC W ILL BE E X A M IN E D IN " ABC NEWS CLOSFUP - ASBESTOS: THE WAY TO DUSTY DEATH" ON JULY 14 Asbestos, as the biggest industrial killer in history which w ill claim hundreds of thousands of lives before the turn of the century, w ill be examined in the investigative, hour-long documentary special, " ABC News Closutip -- Asbestos. The Way to Dusty D eath/' airing FR ID AY, JULY 14 (10.00 11:00 p.m., EH i ), on the ABC Television Network "A B C News Closeup - Asbestos- The Way to Dusty Death'' reveals original investigative material showing that the U.S. Navy and other federal agencies knew long ago about the hazards of asbestos but failed to act. The correspondent is ABC News Science Editor Jules Bergman. In Peterson, N J. -- former home of the Union Asbestos ancf Rubber C o. which made asbestos pro Juris fm Arne) turn ships during World War II, and where asbestos workers have been studied more thoroughly than anywhere else in the nation -- about 22 percent of those workers have already died of carver or other asbestos-related diseases, and 35 percent of their family members have lung abnormalities Barbara Gurrie, a 35-year-old mother, recently had a lung removed because of mesothelioma, the n.uv chadiy of asbestos cancers. Barbara's contact w ith asbestos was indirect. Her father, an insuiatoi at a LV .-i ic!Hismts shipyard, biought home asbestos dust on his workclothos Her father died of lung canceq im o -1>, iioma killed her mother Asbestos disease, when originally detected, is irreversible, leaving its v.t ti _us w ith j ; i average of two years to live. fra n k lin Brooks a former fo o tb JI player w ith Geonjm Tech's Yellow ^Jackets -- commoted inrxH huhoin i two years ago As a teenager, he was an asbestos worker to help pay his way through collage. Nov he suffers front severe pain in his iungs and shortness of breath, and soon w ill requiie oxygon; he has only a short time to live. For Franklin, 20 years passed before he saw the grim consequences of the "deadly dust " More than 30 years ago, Frank Cullen worked w ith asbestos as a boilermaker in the navy during W orld War 1L He left the navy after the war and never again worked w ith asbestos, but in 1977 developed an uncontrollable cough - mesothelioma. He is rendered so weak that he "can't even take the top o ff a catsup bottle " Mr. Cullen undergoes chemotherapy treatments for one week every month at Mount Sinai Hf >'; mu! in New York, the nation's leading center for asbestos related diseases. Dr. Selikoff, Director of t h f m'rron'nnnto! Sciences la boratory at Mount Sinai, says of mesothelioma- "So far, the only causa v - r iiv.w foi it is ashmto; " Mesothelioma, now relatively common, ontv was rare. Selikoff explains, "E 'ron ter r, tu 1PmO, wi: saw th itv t a .m, one every ten ytMis " ru io n ri ABC NEWS CLOSEUP - 2 "Frank Cullen," Correspondent Bergman states, ''is deeply in d e b t. . .the Veterans Administration has denied his claim for compensation, saying lie can't prove that his illiriess cornc from his service during World War I f . He is the victim of an indifferent navy , . A t the Morn Island Navy Y a id north o f San Francisco, the unions not the navy am an-t! for a study h\ Dr. Phillip Pohkoff, an occupational health sptssiclist from Berkeley, California. Ui. Puhkoft m.amincv! 359 shipyard workers and found that 59 ptat.eut had lung ahnorm ulitiu. Asbestos may also be a problem to the general population. "ABC, New;. Close,up A:Emins. The Way to Dusty Death" examines the effects of asbestos in building constiuction, and goes to Yale University which has spent $250,000 to remove the cancer-causing mineral from its modern, recently constructed Arts and Architecture Building The program also explores the hazards of asbestos in automobile brake linings, which leave tons of the deadly powder on the nation's roadways. Dr. Pch)I Kotin, Medical Director and Senior Vice: President of Johns Manville Company, whose products contain asbestos, responds to the federal government's attempts to tighten industrial standards fo r asbestos particles in the air: "Government experts have been wrong before, and they're wrong now ." Correspondent Bergman asks Kotin, ''D id n 't you once say there was no such thing a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen?" Dr Kotin: "I sure did, and I said it as part of the Surgeon General's com mittee in 1970 . . . I guess I'll tell you I'm smarter n o w " Dr Kotin is former head of mu National In-,lime- of Environmental Health Services (N lf HS), toe govei rimunt's top environmental fealth body. The documentary also examines what the na\ / ts doing to control asbestos use. Among trie f l u . a navy survey of l i d ships in the Atlantic fleet reveals that 85 percent cannot corrp'y with the navy's own ashes to i standards. Prill l ecus j;, the producer of "ARC News C lo /w p - - Ashmen., The Way to Dusty Death " Pamela H ill is Fxe. u riv ri Produeei of ABC N'-v., TeDviUun Documentaries. Richard Richter is S' ' O n P i od' u n; * ******