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THE DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY
MIDLAND DIVISION July 30, 1969
PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT
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INTRODUCTORY & SUMMARY REMARKS - M, T. Badley
Introduction:
Many of you gentlemen have waited some time for this get-to-gether. I'm sure the fpllowing presentations by Dr. Ducommun, from our Medical Dept., Roy DeOesero, from
fcffctC. Environmental Research, Roy Anderson, from Organic Chemicals Mtnce. and Larry Warren, now Supt. of Construction in CCP, will be of vital Interest to you.
There are several reasons for this interest on your part mainly however, a request by the coverers on "How Does the Handling of Asbestos Content Insulation Affect Me?" Other interests certainly will be, "What are the Solutions?" and "How Should We Implement the Solutions?" Solutions to a problem sometimes cause other problems -- a couple in which the production people here have a stake, such as technology and costs. This, obviously, is a matter of concern to them.
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These fellows, that I named before, are going to present the problem to ypu -- the solutions, with time for questions.
I'm sure you -- especially the coverers -- will be
listening carefully. I'm hopeful that by the end of these
presentations and Question & Answer Period, all of your
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I would now like to Introduce S3. DUPOWUN from our Modiral
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Mr. Degesero & Dr. Duconunun have presented the technical
aspects to us with several recommendations ' - -you might now
be asking yourselves "NOW WHAT DO WE DO?"
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LARRY WARREN will now discuss PERSONAL PROTECTION with Us.
SUMMARY;
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As you can see., the past'35
presentation,. questions `\
trnrt mnn*6fc, affects ALL of us. Those of us. in'management
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have a moral and legal obligation to see that .you have a
safe environment In which' to work. To continue -our efforts
to give you a safe place to work -- we are obviously going
to eliminate any Insulating material containing asbestos.
ASAP. Starting August 11, In specific areas., until adeq
substitutions are acquired, approved respiratory, equipment
must be worn.
Thank you for your attention.
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1. HE HAVE A KNOWN HEALTH./ PROBLEM.
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2. THE SOLUTIONS' MAY NOT BE
POPULAR.
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3. WE HAVE A CHOKE BETWEEN PROTECTING EMPL0 YEE HEALTH OR - OCCASIONAL DISCOMFORT.
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WE ARE GOING TOr PROTECT YOUR HEALTH
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Good day. Gentlemen. My name la Roy DeGesero. Supervision
requested an
Midland pipe coverers *1.
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These dusts contained asbestos and fiberglas.
I shall present the results of the study, conducted from
January to April, 1969, then turn the meeting over to members,
of Medical and management. ''
Before discussing what the exposures are. I'd like to . define a term you'll hear several times today. That term
at ^foatTyou do, and rfownprc^nfyou do It, and fcflaaocTiJbf a certain dust you fellows are exposed to at these times.
We learned how often and how long pipe coverers perform the several most common Jobs of pipe covering by talking to you men, your supervision, looking at the time study and from personal observations. Ve decided on this basis where to sample the air containing dusts caused by pipe covering. The sampling gave us a concentration number of millions of particles of dust per oublc foot -- an expression of how much'dust Is .in the air you men breathe.
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(SHOW SLIDE I)
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This table la a list of the moat common operations pipe
coverer'a perform: removing old covers, mixing adhealvea
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and ao forth. Next to the operationa are the ft. Day or
estimated average time spent by a pipe coverer performing
these operations. Then next to that are the mean
concentrations in mppcf measured for each operation with '
each material listed, and the range of concentrations. ,
Finally, we see.a column with the fractional products of-
time x concentration, for each material in each operation. '
When this column of fractions la totaled, we have arrived
at a time-weighted exposure, and can then discuss the
significance of this number. For men working Indoors,
the time-weighted average exposure to asbestos containing
dusts was 4.9 mppcf In the 8-hour day. The time-weighted
exposure to fiberglas (dust) was 0.5 mppcf.
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This table represents the time-weighted exposures to asbestos containing dusts for men working outdoors. That number is 4.2 mppcf and' reflects the fact that some air movement outdoors tends to dilute the dust. The time-weighted exposure to fiberglas dust was 0.4 mppcf.
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After obtaining a time-weighted exposure, we then relate this exposure number to the best current information available on the health experience with asbestos and flberglas. A group of advisors called the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists has gathered up as much sound datai as is. available from . laboratory research and field experience on the health problems associated with insulating materials, and the ACGIH expresses this information in numbers called the Threshold Limit Values; asbestos has one TLV, and flberglas has another, different TLV.
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The Threshold Limit Value describes a ^ average concentration of dust to which men can be repeatedly exposed for 8 hours with no adverse effect on health. This average number can be exceeded for brief periods of time, provided such excesses are balanced by equally long periods of time when exposures are below the average Threshold Limit Value. For asbestos, the present TLV is 5 million ppcf, based on knowledge accumulated 30 years ago. Present experience with health problems in
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Insulators and others working with asbestos has suggested
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. that the Threshold Limit Value be lowered by 1971 from
5 mppcf to 2 mppcf, in light pf vary subtle haslth
problems*
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The TLV number represents good practice and Is used by
most governmental agencies in maintaining healthy work
environments. As you can see, the time-weighted'exposures
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we have measured for asbestos containing dusts ape above
this proposed TLV of 2 mppcf. The time-weighted exposures
for flberglas containing dusts are below the TLV for
flberglas dusts. That TLV is 15 mppcf.
The Environmental Research Laboratory has proposed to management, three ways of lowering pipe coverer's ' exposures to asbestos containing dusts to within the 1971 limit. They are a
(l) Use local ventilation (on the job air movers) to pull dusts away from the man's breathing zone, or
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(2) Use approved respiratory protection whenever men remove, cut, or apply. Aircell, Ifeylo, High-Temp or Thermohestay, or when they mix Webers and' Armentite.
(3) Replace present insulating materials containing
asbestos with materials which do not present the health problems of currently used materials containing asbestos.
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Warren Portion of the Insulation Talks
After all of the explanation and facts concerning the hazards of asbestos I can imagine a lot of you are wondering "where do we go from here?"
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For years and years, asbestos and insulation value
have been almost synonymous. The higher the asbestos
content the easier it was to sell. Most of us were
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aware of the health problem, covering asbestos, but
it seemed rather insignificant as it didn't seem to be
affecting us much.
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Then there were a couple articles in our local paper concerning the affects of asbestos on the respiratory system. These were brought to my attention and I. in turn brought it to the attention of the Medical Department ( Invirpmental Research.
We decided that each of the covercrs should have a chest x-ray and at the same time we should have an
* inviroirental research study to find out exactly what our exposure is.
We were very pleased to find that none of our coverers had asbestosis. But when the invironental research findings were told to us we recognized that we do have the potential for
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-2The' Doctor and Roy Degesro have explained the causes of the problem and the affect on the body* I'm here
i*!y to tell you* we expect to .eliminate the problem.. If you will remember Roy gave us$ three (3) things he thought we could do that would lower the parts per million of asbestos dust to a acceptable levQl.
1. Local ventialtion. You and 2 know this is not an acceptable method as it would be adBVfe-
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2. Use Bureau of Mines approved respiratory protection (show example). This is an acceptable method in most cases if we follow the chart I will'now show on the screen. If you will notice the removing of airce11, Kaylo, high temp, and mag oxide have all been checked. All of you men who are in the trade I'm sure have seen the reason for this. Also checked is the applying of Kaylo and aircell. It was found the applying of either of these insulations caused the parts per million of dust in. the.breating area to
* to to 5.7 which is above the limit. This was *
almost 35t of your work day. The mixing of asbestos shorts or plus one is also checked for appar nt reasons.
You will notice that Fibriglas is not checked in any
catagory. The reason for this has been pretty well covered
by Roy 5 Dr. Ducommon. I will only say that I've heard
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many controVersal words said about, fibriglas, but never have I heard or read any thing by a reliable source, thet
said it was dedtrimental to your health.' In fact I
have with me a pamplet put'out by the Industrial
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Hygiene Foundation of America from which I would like to
read you a few excerpts.
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I would say that under same circumstances that it is %
some what uncomfortable. According to most people, who have studied its use, a person using Fibriglas insulation should wear loose fitting clothing, no tight belts or cuffs and they should keep clean.
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Talking about cleanliness brings up another point that bears mentioning and that is that shower time for men using fibriglas is not and 1 repeat not, automatic or mandatory for health reasons. A supervisor will grant shower time.if he feels the condtions warrent it. 3. Replace our present asbestos containing insulation
with materials that don't cause a health problem. We have all of our resources on the lookout for replacements now. Ray Anderson will cover this subject further later on.
These were Roys recommendations and starting August
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) as rKUch as possible' with non asbestos Fij\brglas foam glas, cermic o'am(
polyurethane, etc.
b) Nhen using insulation containing asbestos, BB
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a bureau of mines approved a^gBBBKas per
the chart. We will passout a wallet size copy
.of the chart as you leave.
c) for moV$
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If we do these three things there is no doubt in my
mind that wc will be below the 2 M.P.P.C.F. limit that
will go into affect soon.
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Gentlemen, we have a problem; it isn't going away by
itself. We feel we recognize the problem and we have the
solution. You have heard the plans. We expect and insist
that we get your full cooperation to implement these
plans.
I'm sure some of you men are sitting there thinking about
possible additional costs, and of the possible corrosion in
some instances where a perfect weather barrier is not
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achieved. We know we have had some of these problems in
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By working together we know that all the problems can
be worked out. ' Our main objective today is to make the job
safe for you men. The economics are important, but not *
of prime importance at this particular time..
Thank you for your attention, now here is Roy Anderson to talk about possible substitutes.
Remember August 11th is the day that we must wear
respiratory protection when working with asbestos
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type insulation. The card is your quide.
Thanks again
Here's Roy.
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