Document baY6awwpe9oQjNNwoYdNQ9g1O

FILE NAME: Union Carbide (UC) DATE: 1975 Sept 29 DOC#: UC233 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Memo RE Visit to the 18th International Congress on Occupational Health - Brighton, England, Sept 14-19, 1975 memorandum Union Carbide Corporation Metals Division Niagara F alls, New York September 29, 1975 To: From: Copies: R. E. Byrne, J r . B. 1. Ingalls 0. L. Myers M. C. Thurber K. B. / Rhodes File Subject: t !e- l 8t!! I!lternatiQnf 1 Congress on Occupational Health - Brighton. England, September 14-19. 1975 e--------- " ----------- The writer attended the above noted eonfrnr. Tl i In gsncralfl the conference produced only one ^n are., a paper by Or. M. Wasseraan of Israel. I t was in T d f S L n r ';??* de,*hs have2be*e1nHrMeclotrhd`edHientMIskra4eld. etTaihleerde wloeorke Iset vSerailt ajnonnSsomthalel - t i a l ^ M ^ l n n 'T S *b0U< e? ^ 11y distributed between men and women, a substanPfoportion had no significant traceable occupational exposure, and the ` h l S S * 1 ? ? T S ? * ^ re3' ons of ^ . e l re the p & S ich occvpatfona!i toexsp*os*ureloctoateadsb-esHtosd. rew the ^conc^lusion that the cause was non- Muriel rep0Cted **"* proi0 1 * 5 ^ /.Both the AIC and Dr. iBaobb12MlerenSesi*0ttwS?ialliroretepo1rtetdteert*aiolsf vreiabuAttWalMwA.hich we assume/will ` */ be published. puunsneu. to loot 5 the josotheliwa situation for occupational exposure continues Th* D onalds opened the asbestos session With a 'survey I f t l r J i * b1^ 1flf?nHti0n on the Incidence of this disease iS v.Mous parti the world. They found the Incidence extremely high In three situations: P 1. Among insulators. | 2. Among those who work or live in c itie s with ship yards. 3. Among those who work or live in certain cities with large asbestos plants, j Q !18< w .F u .aj- Kffi&Y A. -,v -n i COUrtTErVT: PX*kL ef6.&fhr3J. ---- ------- I 9 *' , r Y , KittiBC' WiM*T j-5 - 2* , * The evidence for 4 gradation of effec t for the various types of asbestos continues to be conflicting, except for the mimng and B illing operations. Here a clear pattern from crocidollte, a ro site , chrysotile to anthophyllte is found. They conclude that th is pattern is generally true with some possible exceptions. The data used 1n th is study went up to 1972. Hr. John Harsh, (Raybestos-Hanhattan) mentioned to me that there are a substantial number of new cases reported th at could a lte r the rate of incidence considerably. . The TBA paper updating th e ir m ortality studies th a t followed was almost unbelievable. I t was read by Dr. R. Doll who rafcled so fa s t that nobody understood a word he said. I t was backed up by slid es con taining large tables of unreadably sra ll figures. Sob Mereness is to get 1 copy of the paper as a r t a number of others who couldn't understand 1t. 1 had the opportunity to discuss the Rochedale researches with Dr- Lewinsohn. The key controversy with Dr. Selikoff revolves around the reading of the x-rays. A panel of four, Including Lewinsohn is now reading them and the re su lts are being correlated. A meeting to discuss the re su lts 1s scheduled for January. I t looks like th is will not be ready in tine to help in the U.S. OSHA revision. The discussions with Lewinsohn and his TBA associates brought * out clearly another key-point that I do not believe ever re a lly spelled out in the OSHA hearings. This factory that forms the basis for the 2 fiber H o lt is ju s t now getting th e ir fiber levels down to 2 fib e rs. All of the m ortality data th at 1s being argued over is for exposures well above th is . . This point was also emphasized by Dr. Steve Holmes.(Or. Holmes te s tifie d a t the OSHA hearings.) The lim it is not re ally 2 fibers but 100 fib e r - years based on an assumed 50 year exposure. This is tie d to a very c r itic a l second condition that concentrations do not exceed 10 ftb er/cc amasured over a 10-15 minute period. These c r ite ria do not consider mesothelioma. * The TBA paper was followed by Dr. Murisi Kewhouse with her la s te s t thinking on her cohort of 3600 asbestos te x tile workers. She had fitte d a distribution function th a t had worked for other cancers and was predicting a 10-151 death rate from mesothelioma. This was in addition to 20S.from lung cancer. This is a very substantial number and the r e s t of the B ritish experts that I talked to questioned, the v alid ity of the txtropolatlon. Interestingly enough. Dr. Selikoff arose and commented that he f e l t she was high by a factor of about 2. I t was Interesting to note in . a ll o f these discussions th a t the workers had heavy exposure fo r a le a s t sot* period but no real attempt was made to co rrelata variatio n s In ex- -posure. Or. Kewhouse, however, continues to talk about a dosa-response effect in aesotheliom . . Several other papers of particular in te re st in th is seminar related to a cooperative k ffo rt to compare asbestos fiber counts by the techniques used ip various countries. The general feeling was th at the methods l e f t considerable to be desired but in the light of our experiences the comparisons looked pretty good. A key difference found was with the ! 01189i i I - 3 U.S. PAT samples that everybody but the U.S. laboratory counted very low, We can understand the problem from our own experience and have a real question in our own minds as to whether the PAT samples are really much more than a numbers gene. The Sellkoff e t. e l, paper on TJC was well presented but looked like the same data as was given in Miami. Or. Fishbein expanded on the short fib e r question to the extent that Or. George Wright got red and climbed a ll over him a fte r the paper. George Insists th at there is no evidence th at the short fibers are toxic and a great deal of evidence that they are not. Or. Sellkoff himself finally had to come over and smooth things out. As a consequence, I was only able to learn that they do have additional data but could get no details. The brake lining paper from Mt. Sinai followed the same pattern as TJC with lim ited data and lo ts of concern. Or. Lewlnsohn consented privately th at the 0/1, 1/0 and 1/1 x-ray changes th at the Ht. Sinai group feature so prominently in th eir s ta tis tic s are often more in the eye of the reader than in the film, " You have to get into the *2" level before there is no question th at a change has occurred. The U.K. public response was th a t dust was controlled In this application in the U.K. ` The crocidolite vs other asbestos question was addressed by ^ one paper from South Africa that argued that amoslte plus chrysotile caused as much asbestosls as cro cid o lite. The s ta tis tic s were based on the number of miners who came back out of the-bush to make compensation claims a fte r working for several years 1n the asbestos mines. There was considerable question regarding the validity of the cohort but I t did bring out some background on the crocidolite situation. When the question of regulations came up 1n England i t looked like the blue asbestos from South Africa would be replaced by b etter amoslte and chrysotile from Rhodesia. I t was sacrifices much lik e the spraying of insulation in the U.S.A. and then the Rhodesian sanctions upset the whole picture. In summary, 1 get the overall Impression th at there*is a great deal of concern th at the mesothelioma and even the asbestosls picture will get worse before i t gets b etter. There is a growing feeling that short, intense exposures which overwhelm the lung clearing mechanisms ay be enough to cause serious harm. The question of how short is vague and depends to a considerable extent on the individual su sce p tib ility . The only one 1 found who would take a firm stand on the 2 fib er lim it was Alex Cross of Cape Asbestos and AIC who f e lt 1t was safe fo r mesothelioma as well. i ** I f anyone would like to look a t the abstracts, please l e t me knew. * t K3?.:pl K. B: Ris------ ` 0119' l { \