Document ba7ORvwoLJ5XKpvz0GLewmwk

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1971 June 29 DOC NMA054 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Cities Are Acting to Regulate Spraying of Asbestos Cities Are Acting to Regulate Spraying of Asbestos By MICHAEL KNIGHT New York Times Current file Jun 29 1971 ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times 1851 - 2002 Pg 61 Cities Are Acting to Regulate Spraying of Asbestos BY MICHAEL KNIGHT Several tons of it are sprayed American sprayed into the air in year Those every its microscopic who breathe microscopic particles throughout carry it with them throughout life And sometimes 20 30 years later the deadly effects -Inabilittyo breathe or ram- pfaenltt lung cancer : to be ' The substance is asbestos a mineral whose fireproof fibers have long been matted into like . It is now in- creasingly sprayed creasingly being sprayed on the beams buildings . the Cities around the country often with the help of the as- workers unions are be- ginning to regulate or ban the spraying of asbestos as the deadly and delayed effects of contact withit are becoming known Most endangered are the workers who asbestos sheets around boilers and steam pipes or who spray it on auto- brakes mobile or onto steel beams in construction But . increasingly there is worry among health experts that the large amounts that - airair during the affect escape into the the spraying may thousands of spraying may When the new Missouri State office building in Kansas was recently the stuff blew all over the devil said Richard Maupin business manager of Asbestos Workers Some of it went all the way downtownidsowntowndangerous People dangerous People but can see it they don't know it's " Industry publications esti per cent of asbestos that used the asbestos asbestos used lost into the in spraying is : air Inhalation of the asbestos dust forms deposits on the lungs that absorbed never down or down scarring tissues and blocking their abil ity to absorb oxygen The resulting difficulty in breathing is a result of a condition asbestosis which is incurable and can be fatal.` Mo According to Dr. Irving J. Selikoff director of the Environmental Sciences Labora- tory at Mount Sinai Medical Center here people exposed to asbestos have much higher rate of lung and intestinal can- cer than those never exposed to it Smoking Dr. Selikoff says drastically increases the risk people who smoke ciga- rettes and are exposed to the dust have a lung cancer rate 92 times higher than the sta- tistical Even the wives of men who work with asbestos are endan bands by bands the dust their hus- bring home on their clothes according to Milton Goldberg an - environmental field engineer in the Allegheny Department County of Health wn l can walk + a where asbestos has been sprayed he said and it may affect not yearsyears you for 20 or 25 probably Dr. Selikoff foremost national health the au- thority on asbestos said that as long ago as 1924 it was discovered that people who worked with asbestos devel- oped scarred lungs It took al- most 30 more years of study he said to link it with cancer Chicago Boston and became the first last May cities in the country to ban the spraying of New York banned it from city projects a month later and has severely restricted its use as have Los Angeles De- troit and Philadelphia Other aarreeascotnshirdoeurgihnogutbabnasns country or regu- lations on spraying The regulations of the cities enforced by fines and punish- ment are similar basically call for enclosing the They work area in a tarpaulin and Installation of adequate venti- lation systems or the use of effective respirator face masks The entire area including walls and ceilings must be vacuum- cleaned afterward to remove any dust that is left over ^ nLos Angeles John N. Jep- son state senior safety engi- neer said that on occasion it has been necessary to shut down a construction job for a few days when the regulations were not followed A few shutdowns on a big job the picture generaly clearbrfioncguss and pitchetyure generaly refrain from any vio further lations he said - The Chicago ordinance the most stringent totally bans as bestos spraying and calls for penalties including month jail terms causing practie Also worry is the practice of lining the inside of conditioning ducts with as- bestos to prevent the spread of fire Dust picked up by the moving air borne through- out the building While there are as yet no regulationisn this field contractors are be- ginning to put the asbestos on of the outside the ducts or to use specially coated asbestos |that locks the dust in Substitutes for asbestos are being found in cement and fi- berglass products Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission