Document daBxrozRBKkbmmM7dB0XedY7b

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1958 Feb 22 DOC NMA009 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION The Nashville Tennessean - Cancer Tie Stirs Furor ae ia om eet ne a re ee Pete we mm tee else se THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN Thursday Feb. 22 1955 , s Cancer Tie Stirs Furor By FRANK RITTER \ Metro councilmen and ai - Vanderbilt University profes-+ | sor clashed verbally yester day over what prompted the! professor to infer recently that asbestos cement might cause cancer pipe 1 _ Dr. James Snell assistant professor at the Vanderbilt school of medicine was ques ; tioned at length by Council- man James Hamilton about c letter he wrote recently in which he raised the cancer ' question ! 1. THE IMPLICATION of your letter Hamilton told Snell during a council com- mittee meeting was that Metro Council under the 6 guise of saving a few cents was going to place hundreds of thousands of people in danger of getting a dread disease . We certainly don't want to do that And coming at the time it did and in the alar~-n- ing way it was written and distributed to the public it would seem to me the letter : was unfair : The meeting a joint session of the finance and public works committees of Metro , Council was called to c^,,n- sider whether the city should / permit asbestos pipe - com- panies to bid on Metro pipe contracts Cast iron pipe has been used exclusively although it more expensive initially , than asbestos pipe for al least 40 years in the Nashville water system HAMILTON asked Snell yesterday if there have been any studies to determine if iron oxide from cast iron pipe _ might cause cancer Snell re- - plied that there have been no such studies to his knowledge There has been no re- Hamilton asked on whether asbestos cement pipe or cast iron pipe can cause cancer has there . Snell said there has not been Hamilton said if Snell was sincere in raising the question about asbestos pipe he should have raised the sante question about cast iron pipe think it is perfectly rea- sonable to raise such a ques- tion about cast iron pipe Snell replied WOULD YOU raise the question doctor asked Councilman James LaPenna " would be very happy > Turn to Page 1212 Column 7 om wee 0s. er t - Cancer Stirs Forum Tie te en we em moe Continued Front Page One to write the Public Health Service about it Snell - an- K. RAYMOND Augst assis- | swered The whole question ' tant district sales manager for of contamination of food and - Manville told the coun- | water should be raised in my : cilmen that there are strong opinion Snell sent his letter last indications Metro could save . November to Robert L. Law- 34 on its pipe purchases if rence waterworks director supporting Law- rence's decision to prohibit pipe asbestes cement manufac- . turers from biddibiding ng on Metro waterpipe purchases The professor said he would nme consider the use of asbestos pipe a medical hazard of significant degree until the the city permitted the asbestos pipe firms to bid Augst sald Metro bought 1.3 million worth of * cast iron pipe from July 1966 to September 1967. As- bestos pipe Augst added would have cost only 364,000 - giving Metro a savings of : Public Health Service has 459,000 } . checked it out completely Lawrence has defended buy- . ing the more expensive pipe ~ EXPLAINING TO the coun- on grounds it is better and cilmen yesterday that he had no _ ulterior motive in writing - the letter Snell said - regret the vindictive at- . titude that some people have against me merely as a re- sult of tion my raising : this ques- swe I'm not vindictive against" * you doctor Hamilton inter- > rupted In fact I had never _ met you until now It just seems to me that a scientist _ is under a requirement to state all factors in a case has a greater factor of safety However Johns Manville representatives insisted yes- terday that their product will - serve the city equally as good ! as cast pipe if it is in- H stalled properly t : r) SHORTLY AFTER Snell ' wrote his letter last year t^ ? Lawrence raising the ques- : tion of whether asbestos pipe - AY could cause cancer the Metro - - Health Board took a similar " don't think you under- stand $ stand how this came about Snell said " simply raised thought that before Nashville undertakes to buy large amounts of asbestos pipe this The board voted Jan. 17 to not approve the use of asbes- : tos pipe until sufficient in- : formation could be obtained to prove if it is medically question should be raised _ IF YOU DESIRE to raise the same question about cast iron pipe then I think it is very reasonable I have no po- litical motive I have no fi- nancial interest in these pipe companies I am not aligned ' politically with any group this Hamilton reacted angrily at this statement by Snell and declared > safe - * Yesterday at an early . . morning meeting the board e voted to reconsider its stand on the basis of evidence sub- mitted by Manville Co. : representatives *, We're not inquiring doctor into your political align- ments your religion or anything else _ - The exchange between the councilmen and Snell followed presentations by representa- tives of both Clow Corp. which , has supplied all Metro . : waterpipe the past four years and Manville Sales i Corp. an asbestos pipe deal- ~ er seeking to bid on pipe pur- chises here wee e