Document dn75rqKbwXgMQ03wwDJbDX7Y5

October 6,19Sl Supply Dvlopmnt and Planning ' 1 To.: L. 7. Dixon . A. z, K, Houston . '' P. I. Toth > K. A, Weiss`S . cc: M.. A.' Wheeler Subject: A.sbestos Information Assoc. Conference For jour information.' 105577 805482 . . PRODUCED BY FORD Inter ONtc* Advanced Vehicle Engineering and Technology October 5, 1981 MEMO TO FILE: cc: Q. 7. Bolling JJ. E. McCarthy 5C L. Wheeler ' Subject Asbestos .Information Association Meeting - Alexandria, VA - 9/15/81 The fcSlcwing are my notes on the Asbestos Information Association (AIA) meeting held Sgtember 16, 1981 in the Alexandria, VA Holiday Inn. The AIA is a trade assoccsHun of asbestos raw material producers, asbestos product manufacturers, etc., iadquartered in Arlington, VA with ties to a similar International Associ. AIA inSfcj an Industry-Govemment Conference annually t; bring their members and other* fco date on developments in health, regulation, etc. Feder.agsicies were the biggest group represented (prooably because of close ness ^Washington D.C.). Also attending were people from the automotive supplier compajfio -- Bendix, CertainTeed, Hodgers, Armstrong, H. Z, Porter and Borg-Wamer. Only 5a (mil GM of the anto manufacturers were represented. GM1 s representative was VsA, Erebs, who holds a job similar to our Larry loslynski. All tisspeahers were excellent, even though a couple arrertised stars sent standins. See, the most interesting points made were these: Thomaflfe Hopkins, Office of Management and Budget (QMHl - Lead off the meeting with g'j of President Reagan's plana for regulaticn reform. . Shimiastry spends billions to comply with regulations and Reagan vahathe unnecessary part identified and made available for productivity iaocements instead. So, under Presidential order, 0MB has taken on a ^^Istory review function paralleling their budge-: function. . Tb^jegan philosophy is: Consider new regulation only if market forces fail. Then ask why and tailor a solution t; me problem. Often tfe^T-rrm*nn is 11 consumer information" rather than regulation. If S^jfcfcicm is necessary, make it performance rather man via specific 0MB/Agency aroitration goes to V. P. Bush. lew regulations will aiagsr" necessarily favor engineering compliance ever personal protective . ISinds that regulations defining specific equipment and control methods to wash out the snail, innovative manufacturer :ecause of the capital to comply. 005483 PRODUCED BY FORD MEMO TO FILE Page Fwo October 5> 1981 . GMB is likewise reviewing need for existing regulations, Particularly mentioned was the OSHA generic cancer policy. . Accomplishments to date are 1/3 fewer pages in the Federal Register and l/2 of the rules in progress dropped. (Note that Reagan quoted the 1/3 figure on TV 9/24/81.) Monroe Hams, Johns-Manvllle T.P. - Talked of Progress m Health. . Says that J.M. "has reduced dust level to 1 fiber per cc in mining opera tions and has stopped all manufacture of friable products. . Holds EPA and OSHA threats of regulation responsible for J.M.'s decline in business...like 50% in the last few years. Frank J. Frodyma, OSHA - Talked about what OSHA is doing to implement President Reagan's directives, . OSHA will change its adversarial role to a cooperative approach with private industry to regulation writing (sounded alitcle like theory Z on a gcverament-industry scale). . "Mist0 features of future OSHA regulations are: - Side effect evaluations - documented. - Cost/benefit basis for regulation - to the extent permitted by law. - Evaluate alternatives - personal protective devices may be OH if provide same level of protection as would engineering solutions. - Net benefit to society. - Regulatory flexibility - special treatment for small business, e.g., stretch out of deadlines. - Performance preferred over design. - Recognition of recent Supreme Court rulings (Benzene, cotton dust and lead). . OSHA policy for future regulations will be: _ - Scientific evidence must show substantial risk, and proof that the standard will reduce risk substantially - Ref. Supreme Court ruling on Benzene. - Ordered compliance must be feasible as a whole (meaning some manu facturers might find it impossible to comply, but as an industry, feasible). Ref: Supreme Court ruling on Cotton Dust. - Ordered compliance must be least costly alternative. . In answer to question, what is happening on proposed reduction in asbesuos exposure level to 1 or 0,5 fiber/cc., Frodyma answered: nothing (the proposal stands). But the regulation writing procedure is fcaca to square one, i.e., documenting the nsk. Same status applies to 10 or 15 other substances and may take 2 years before new regulations are ready. 005484 PRODUCED BY FORD Page Three October 5, 1981 John B. Pitch - TSCA Industry Assistance Office, E?A - Talked about what E?A is doing to implement Reagan's Plan. . Pitch reported that the ANFR of October 79/December 79 (Under TSCA) which pro posed banning certain uses of asbestos is obsolete. In reconsideration, ETA finds increasing controversy about the risk from brake repair, demolition, etc, and thinks a broader scientific study is needed, e.g., fiber size and smoking. So, a new ANFR seems warranted. However, the next seeps - possible cross agency task force; new rules on how to measure cost, new questionnaire ideas, are waiting to be reviewed with new agency heads, (when confirmations are complete). , Answering a question about future regulations on asbestos in waste water, Ritch answered that tests with animals show no hazard from ingestion of asbestos. Paul Kotin, Retired V.P. for Health, Safety and Environment of Johns-Manville - Lead of panel on1update of asbestos and health. . Kotin read a draft of his retirement address to the J.-M. President listing his suggestions for research to find the truth of "plural response" to asbestos as a way to end the legal controversy (law suits are argued on bias and conjecture today, he said). His tone was slightly critical of j.-M. Management in that he said none of his research ideas would take more than 20 mos. and could have been started years ago. - Clinical history pathology - what does exposure mean to the workers in the industry. - Biological changes due to asbestos - do they predict cancer. - "What is the asbestos exposure to the general public - tne background level. - Study cigarettes and asbestos - can asbestos cause cancer alone, - Does asbestos in water produce G.I. tract cancer. - Can purely asbestos-caused cancer he diagnosed. Wiliam "Weiss, Professor of Medicine, Hahnemann Medical College - Talked about some of his recent research, mostly analyses of medical studies. . He concludes from his own and others studies, that to $0% of lung cancer in the asbestos industry is preventable by simply not snaking. . As to why the relationship, it nay have something to do with smokers retaining asbestos in the lungs longer. In an experiment in which non-smokers and smokers breathed a magnetic dust allowing the residue in lung to be measured after periods of time, non-smoKers purged nearly all dust afuer 12 mos. Smokers retained a significant amount. Hptih Weill, Professor of Medicine, Tulane University - Spoke about whether we can live with the asbestos risk. , Public policy has to smart by quantifying the risk in a dose/response plot. Scientists plotting historical data come to conflicting conclusions becao.se of uncertainty of interpreting older measurements. Weill finds that his most reliable data tell bin that it's uncertain with 99% confidence that there is a threshold - but doesn't exclude the existance of a threshold does at which risk is no greater than general population. 005485 PRODUCED BY FORD Page Four October 5 j 1981 Because of decreasing exposure in the last 15 to 20 years, asbestos caused pleural plaques are blending into the noise background of cigarette and other environmentally caused disease. . Finding aev evidence that fiber type is a factor in mesothelioma and that tins disease night also be caused by other minerals (reference to some village in Turkey where mesothelioma occurs commonly, a-nri where no asbestos could be found). Gary J. Nash - Industry, Trade and Commerce, Government of Canada - Opened a Pre sentation on Canada's feeling on the future of asbestos. . Nash announced that a world sumposium on asbestos, health gad society will be held May 1982 in Montreal. Purpose will be to bring to regulators from all parts of the world, the latest evidence on what is/is not a safe level of exposure. Symposium will touch on substitutes, economics, etc. Attendance will be limited to only 600 with 150 seats for industry. Aoiendees to xhis AIA conference will receive notices of the meeting. Jacques Dunnigan - Institute for Research and Development on Asbestos (IRDA), University of Sherbrooke, Quebec - Talked of Canadian health research. . He believes the future of the asbestos industry depends on proving to the general public that asbestos is as safe as he believes it to be which is: exposure to a workplace concentration of 2 fibers/cc equals 1 cigarstte/day. He believes that labor is now satisfied with safety controls. . He is convinced that hazard of raw asbestos no longer exists, after "locking up" the fibers in a mixture as in asbestos cement (A/C). He quoted from a study in which asbestos filled thermoplastic was machined and the dusx analysed. Zero to very small amounts of unmodified asbestos fiber were detected in the dust. (Further work might show brake wear material not cancer causing). . He says researchers are finding that treatment by milling or phosphating "pacifies" the biological effects. Treated asbestos shows a unique spectrograptic signature. Daniel Perlstein, President - Quebec Nationalized Asbestos Industry. . The Quebec government created its own asbestos industry 3 years ago, has in vested $50 million, now employs 1200 people and has opened a new friction materials plant to manufacture brake pads. They are betting that future will show no excessive risk in mining or use and will take up the production lost by U.S. suppliers. . Said that asbestos products are today effectively outlawed by regulation in Denmark, Sweden and Germany. He believes this to be partly economic since their regulators are vague on evidence of a problem and tnese countries have no commercial asbestos, accordingly, he intends to price his product low. 005486 PRODUCED BY FORD ttMU TU JT1U5 Page Five October 5> 1981 , Hi3 company is doing a lot of work on pbosphating of asbestos fiber for tex tile and paper. Says it's cheap and easy to do by gas impregnation. To verify its worth, he has a biological test to compare relative toxicity of modified asbestos and asbestos substitutes against toe raw product. Other speakers were: . D. Elliott Wilbur, Jr., 7.P., Arthur D. Little, Inc. and an expert an the construction business. He pointed out that construction is the biggest user of asbestos products particularly A/C pipe and sheer, voice are excellent products as a business and as a desirable material. He berated the manu facturers for not making these products more attractive as they are losing out to leas durable steel and plastic. . Senator John E. Chafes, Republican from Rhode Island. He says that Congress will vote on a Clean Air Act probably early next year. It's in the hearing stage now. Whatever it is, he favors Federal funding for a maximum of 55/6 for waste treatments, etc. vs. current 75- More local participation assures fever frills. He said that members of Congress can only act when people cite specific problems, not generalities. . Representative Eugene Johnston, North Carolina. He explained, very enthusi astically, Reagan's plan to make more capital available to increase private sector productivity and growth and to stop the spend/uao^spend/tax habit of Congress by cutting taxes first. Says nothing worries Congress more thm having to fund new programs in the face of a deficit, unless ixs to raise taxes. /ksh 005487 PQ PRODUCED BY FORD