Document daMaZLXb9753D4Qak7J0Bz3G6

FILE NAME: New York State & NY Times (NY) DATE: 1973 June 16 DOC#: NY051 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT Article - Asbestos Found in Duluth Water ASBESTOS FOUND IN DULUTH WATER E.P.A. Links Fibers in Lake to Industrial Discharge . By JANE E. BRODY The Environmental Protection Agency disclosed yesterday that "high concentrations" ofpotentially dangerous asbestos fibers had been found in the drinldng| water of Duluth and surround ing Minnesota communities that use Lake Superior for their water supply. The source of the fibers, the agency said, is believed to be the discharge of waste from the Reserve Mining Company, a taconite processing plant that has been embroiled In an anti pollution suit for several years. The company, whose plant in, Silver Bay, Minn., 85 miles northeast of Duluth, has been dumping 87,000 tons of taconite tailings into the lake daily for 116 years, called the charges un founded and said there was no indication that the tailings preIsented any hazard to the drink ing water. While there is no health ef fect known to be associated with the ingestion of asbestos fibers, the Federal ageniy rec ommended that communities us ing Lake Superior water find alternative, sources of drinking water for very young children. In studies over the last two decades, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff. an expert on environmental medicine at Mount Sinai Hospi tal here, showed that the in halation of asbestos fibers can cause a chronic lung disease called asbestosis and cancer of the lungs, stomach and colon. In an interview yesterday. Dr. Selikoff said his laboratory had identified the asbestos fibers in the Duluth water as being the same type (amosite) that has been implicated in half the deaths among workers in a Paterson, N.J., asbestos plant. These workers expe rienced three times the expected death rate from cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. "It can be assumed that anyone who inhales asbestos fibers also ingests them, but there have been no pure studies of the effects of ingestion in humans," Dr. Selikoff said. Dr. Lawrence Plumlee. a physician on the staff of E.P.A., said that limited studies in ani mals have indicated that when asbestos is placed in the stomach, it rapidly enters the blood stream and is widely distributed to tissues through, out the body. The agency said it had tfe tfe s e rv e Mining Company, Dr. Selikoff to determined in 60 days the average wH In company is the only ma* mulation of asbestos tib< if dustry dumping anything the tissues of residents ( IIitbe! .ake Superior, whose wa Duluth area. Using tlssu ' -pave long been regarded talned at an autopsy, D r., koff and his colleagues \e most pristine of the Mount Sinai will compai _ __ Lakes. Besides . Duluth, bestos accumulation m Ifheeidommunities in Minnesota, dents with that of asi n Wisconsin and one in workers to have and of persons be! minimal exposu jp-- i * >an use the once-thought the persistent mineral fib iinel-y .pure wate.r of the Dr. selikoff and Dr. e. taks- or drinking purposes, ler Hammond of the A m ^ rig ^ .P,A. 5aj(( t was hying ^ .................. ` " setnods j wa- the Duluth area might halrembfj asbestos fibers. However, ready shown evidence of i roest , ... tos-reiated health effects. u--- But even if no definl l v%? !e co,n" nKStIon TM f'!rs potential health effect ci lit it out 100 billion per liter readily defined, the find! of ter. "we don't know how asbestos particles in the g-*--1-ive t-hese methods will supply is expected to strenS the Government's ease. agathst Rtfxoduced wth petmtesten of the copyrkfit own Furth (production pttfittiod w*hout permission