Document gDQx609MZ9eJoNjZNX2LJL29N

FILE NAME: Shipbuilders Council of America (SHIP) DATE: 1978 June 28 DOC#: SHIP082 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Press Release RE ABC News Story c PLAINTIFF'S 6 EXHIBIT SBCA 5081 FROM SHIPBUILDERS COUNCIL OF AMERICA 600 MQ7 HAMPSHIRE AVh., M VV WASHINGTON, D. C. 2 0 0 3 / ' June 29, 1978 THE FI FA LTD HA7ARDS OF A S B tS IO S IN INDUSTRY AND TO "I HE GENERAL PUBLIC W ILL BE EXAM IN ED IN "ABC NEWS CLOSFUP - ASBESTOS' THE WAY 1 0 DUSTY D E A TH " ON JULY 14 Asbestos, as the biggest industiial killer in history which w ill claim hundreds of thousands of lives before the? turn of the century, w ill be examined in the investigative, hour-long documentary special, "ABC News Closeup -- Asbestos. The Way to Dusty Death," airing FR ID A Y , JULY 14 (10.00 11:00 p.m., f D I ), on the ABC Television Network "ABC News Closoup - Asbestos' The Way to Dusty Death" reveals original investigative materia! showmg that the U.S. Navy and other federal agencies knew long ago about the hazards of asbestos but faiL o to act. The correspondent is ABC News Science Editor Jules Bergman. In Paterson, N J. -- foirner home of the Union Asbestos and Rubber C o , which made asbestos pro Lifts for American ships during World War li, and where asbestos workers have been studied mom thoroughly than anywhere else in the nation -- about 22 percent of those workers have already died of carver or other asbestos-related diseases, and 35 percent of their family members have lung abnormalities Barbara Gurrio, a 35-year-old mother, recently had a lung removed because of mesothelioma, the n.ai* cK.diy of asbestos cancers. Barbara's contact w ith asbestos was indirect. Her father, art insulator at a f.L. c icbusetts shipyard, biought home asbestos dust on his workclothos Her father died of lung cancer, iiv >()>>. imm;: killed hut mother Asbestos disease, when originally detected, is irreversible, leaving its v,i n ms w iili </;i average of two years to live. f lanklm Bionks a former football p'ayer w ith Georgia Tech's Yellow ^Jackets - commoted mf'-oiJiuliom i two years ago As a teenager, tic was an esba>tos worker to help pay his way through college. Nov. be suffers fiom scveio pain in his lungs and shortness of hreath, and soon w ill require oxygen; he has omV a short time to live. For Franklin, 20 years passed before he saw the grim consequences of the "deadly dust " More than 30 years ago, Frank Cullen worked with asbestos as a boilermaker in the navy during World War IS Fin left the navy after the war and never again worked w ith asbestos, but in 1977 developed an L.ncontio'lable cough - mesothelioma. Fie is rendered so weak that he "can't even take the top off a cats.ip bottle " Mr Cullen undergoes chemotherapy treatments for one week every month at Mount Sinai Fio-pruil in New Y o ik, the nation's leading cun to; for asbestos related diseases. Dr. Selikoff, Director of tm- r nvironmental Sciences la boratory at Mount Sinai, says of mesothelioma' "So far, the only cause v r n, ,'v fo; it i>, ashrstos " Mesothelioma, now relatively common, onre was hire. Selikoff explains, "From ] p.'-.'i t,>1-JGi p w r saw th u v i a ,es, one even/ ten yean. " ABC NEWS CLOSE UP - 2 'Frank Cullen," Correspondent Bergman states, "is deeply in debt . . . the; Veterans Administration has denied his claim for compensation, saying lie can't prove that Ins llliriess cornc from his service during World Weii II. He is the victim of an indiffom nt navy , , A t the Mar'1 Island Navy Yaid north oT San Frannsco, the unions not ihr. navy amar,- -d fur a study b\ Dr Phillip Pohkoff, an om ipa tiorial health spenelist from Rerke'ey, California. Dr. P u lilofr examined 359 shipyard workers and found that S)9 proc.i:nt had lung abiiorrmthLiu.. Asbestos inay also be a problem to the general population. "ABC, New;, Clot,cup A'.bmios The Way to Dusty Death" examines the effects of asbestos in building conshuction, and goes to Y< A Uni/ersity which has spent $250,000 to remove the cancer-causing mineral from its modern, recently constructed Arts and Architecture Building. The program also explores the hazards of asbestos in automobile brake linings, which leave tons of the deadly powder on the nation's roadways Dr. Pouf Kotin, Medical Director and Senior Vice. President of Johns Manville Company, whose products contain asbestos, responds to the federal government's attempts to tighten industrial standards for asbestos particles in the air: "Government experts have been wrong before, and they're wrong now ." Coirespondent Bergman asks Kotin, "D id n 't yon once say there was no such thing as a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen7" Dr Kotin "I sure- did, one! I said it as part of the Smgvm Generals commuter* in 1970 . . I guess I'll tell you I'm smartw n o w " Dr Kotin is former head of me National hw im itu of f nvironmental Health Services (N lfH S ), tne government's top environmental I -alth body. Tire documentary also examines what the na\ / is doing to control asbestos use. Among trie finding.-, a navy survey of 119 ships in the Atlantic flc -l reveals that 35 percent cannot corrp'y w itli the navy's own ashes to-. standards Phil l ecus is the producer of "ABC News C lo / up - A Jrotn., The Way to Dusty Death." Pamela Hill r> f- \e - u iiw Producvi of ABC N '-v, TcT vision Ducuniontuiics. Rich./.; Richter is