Document gED2G43MyXBnpEjJLjpo3ejaG

Ilr. Herman Alcy, General Manager, Atlantic i ivisx1 cn V. 1 . Shoemaker; MID Liv. ' nr,. Asbestos Textile Institute - 3/7/56 Air Ilygionc Committee Meeting ' a v> March 13, 1956. bill you pleaso express my sincere thanks to Ilr. Muchlech for my attendance at this mooting. I was sorry not to find anyone from Kcasboy and Mattison Company there so that I could do It personally. I did find from the management people present that two of the companies are Insured by Employers Mutual, one by Pcnna. Mfrs. and the others are self- Insured. Mr. Gatke, another guest and owner of a textile mill In Chicago, spoke very highly of our Mr. John Skinner, li. 0. Industrial Hygienist whnm he had known before Mr. Skinner camo with us. I am writing the attached letter to the committee chairman who Is manager of a local plant which is , new self-insured. ~ /. T2:ese meetings are usually closed affairs, as I understand, and future sclicitation for 3ome of the members1 business might boat come after more attendance if wc are asked. However, Mr. Muchlech could be of greater assistance to you on this score. ' I picked up quite a lot more technical information then I am putting In %his report to you, but believe the rest would bo cf main interest only to engineering Department representatives serving asbestos textile plants, cf which v;s have a number beside Koasbcv : Mattison. It occurred to mo that you i;ould like to be briefed on what this industry's problems a:*e and what they arc trying tc cc about them in the-liepr. of promoting continued advan tageous relations with Mr. Muchlech. ' Summary: _ (1) The substantial segments of the U. . k Canadian asbestos industry represented here have tho makings of excellent control over what can be very costly occupational disease claims, in my opinion. Essential good factors are; (a) Intorcst of thoir top managements--.-at least what appears to bo a desire to produce minimal health hazards in the ____ J . i. ^ / V \ A_ _ a i. 7 ' .. _________________L 1. _ 0 * -j ,, T?;* uu v urb-l ui <lu*j % iiuvo uoua UXoCCl'UJLng C to seek out the nest rollablo sources of technical help on knotty prcbloms, both engineering and medical. ' (2) Typical program operated by those companies: (a) Pre-employment physical examination, including lung x-ray read by nationally recognized authorities. Kcasbey & Mattison luiv.i c.-rcollect facilities for such x-ray diagnosis locally, but American Mutual havo not interested themselves In this ir-.-lem beyond the local plants. One of our ablo competitors * 'cJ'W' * Herman Illcy. Page :"2 larch 13, 1956. Inc let cn a nationwide Mels that all x-ray plates bo ob served by i^r, li. 0. dander, probably the nation's leading authority cn occupational chest discuses. (b) lericcic chest x-rayr., ucual3y at leant every two years. Cc) Their own ventilating engineering staffs to design and be responsible for proper functioning of ventilating equipment, (d) Periodic dust countin,- procedure to chock the effectiveness of tho engineering control moacurcc. iicmo cogpnnlga dn t-.bMr own counting, othere depend on Insurance company or state servicesr others use private consultants to do this technical work. (In the last several years, Kcasbcy & Kattison, against our advice, have given up periodic dust counting which they used tc be equipped to do them elves-.) ' (e) Free interchange of engineering control ideas among tho several member companies represented hero. (f) Several tints during the last 10-15 years, nerabor companies have joined in having their plants examined by tho Industrial - Hygiene Foundation. The original examination Included dust counts, engineering recommendations and medical control roccrunsendaticruj. Here recently, only rust count survey was conducted. Sinco such reports may have proved somewhat too costly, the plants have made combined dust count survey by taking their cwn samples and having then analysed by tho Industrial health technicians of Travelers Insurance Company. While the comncndablo health control measures instituted sono 15 10 years ago by Kcasbey & Kattison and others havo done yeoman service in keening lung disability claims well i/lthln a rcg^.nnaMn co3t firuro during a critical period of disease disability legislative liberalisation, what they arc doing and. net doing now appears* to be not completely adequate to meet a serious new threat that can be ex pected tc lncreaso future disability claim considerably. This threat ia the alleged causal relationship between lung cancer and exposure to asboaten dust. What are tho signs cn the horizon? (a) An award has been made within tho last year in ?enna. definitely connertlng asbestosis and cancer cf the lung. This is L2ie first atato handing down such an award. It is particularly alarming an Penna. law is net as 111 oral as noat state laws in allowing awards for aggravation, (b) W. C. llucper,'M.., Director, national Cancer Institute, Federal Security Agency is now quite vocal, without adequate factual data to back him up, that asbestos dust will cause lung cancer. Literature References: Public Health Monograph Ho. 36, published over Dr. Hueper's name by the Rational Institute of Health. lie also is quoted In an editorial in the American Journal cf pathology (Rov. 55 issue, I believe) as saying that anyenn living near an asbestos plant can get *r# Uornm Klcy T'ur.o !,3 March 13, 1956. lung cancer, liuoper has been quite reliable- in proving the car.cor causing properties cf quite a number cf commoditIon but very reliable medical opponents sa^ iic goer, eff the deep end and accuses ether materials of having cancer causing properties without sufficient factual basis fer his staton: nt. . r. Kenneth Smith of Johns I'anville r.ccusoc hir. of the latter iii the case of asbestos. Investigations in the asbestos nines of Canada where medical records nro ccmpleto for sonc years nay rive none indication of a slight relationship but present compiled data is toe i rief to give a conclusive answer to . euch a relationship. Ilonco, tho Quebec Asbestos Mining Association is new undertaking a krcad-acnlo a rvey of vital statistics, not only among asbestos nine workers lmt similar Canadian population control groups, to try to detornin reliably if thcro is causal relationship . between lung cancer anu exposuro to asbestos,. This survey is to b conducted by tho Industrial Hygiene Foundation who are wisely drawing on the skill of well known institutional nodical authorities as well as statistical experts of the U. A. fubTic health Service, (c) Another alar:^ing aspect of thi3 situation is that lung cancer is now in epidemic proportions among the n. 8. public in general. Cancer of all kinds new causos 16 per cent of all deaths and is second in im portance only to heart diseases. Three per cent of all people now die of lung cancer. This moans that out of very on hundred people employed in asbestos industries (or any ether industry for that matter) ' threo will die of lung cancer. V.'lth a vnad dog" like hr. Hueper loose- on tho subject of asbestos, future claim results can be alarming. Lr. Huepar testified fer the claimant in the Penna. ..case mentioned above. " (4) The Air Hygiene Committee of the Asbosto- Textile Institute are hav ing hr. Kenneth Smith report on this situation personally* to their Board of Governors today. The Committee is recommending that con sideration be given tc having tho Industrial Hygiene Foundation pre pare a proposal for conduct of an epidemiologic survey of U. 71, _ asbestos products industries along the lines cf the one to bo made in Canada, to determine if there is an asbestos-cancer relationship. The purpose of the survey will be the compilation of reliable factual information by an impartial institution and the giving of wide publicity in the literature to the findings to try to forestall the asbestos industry being tagged with a lot of human disabilities that do not have causal relationship with asbestos at all. In other words, even- con3cicnticus industrial physicians at present have little if any authoritative literature to refer to on thi3 subject. V.hat tho sur vey should come up with is infernntien such as the glass and pert land cement Industries developed reno years a o finding that dust exposure in these industries should net bo considered to bo a silica hazard. Those present at tho meeting: Lr. Leber (an operating executive) American Asbestos Textile Corp. Herristown, I'cnne. V r. Kumr. Kley. Page l:h March 13, 1956 Hr. Donald R. Iiolir.es, Manager' * Aston-IIill Kanufacturing Company ' Philadelphia 29* Penna. * Mr. Hugh M. Jackson, Director of Health Services ; Johns-Manvillo Corp. 22 East l^Oth Stroet, . Dev: York 16, IT. Y. ' .* .. Konneth V.'. Smith, M. D. Johns-Manvillc Corp. 22 V-ast 40th Stroet, How York 16, 11.1. (J-Mspecialist onasbestosis) Mr. Lautenbergcr, Manager Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc, Hanhoim, Pa. - . . Mr. Schmidt, Chiof Engine or Scuthorn Asbestos Co. Charlotte 1, N. C. Mr. G. E. Houghton, Chief Engineer <Garlock Packing Co, Palmyra, N.Y. Mr. Gatke, Ovmcr Asbestos Textilo Co. Chicago, 111. (?) - he next meeting of this committee will be in the fall when the members will e the guests of the Johns-Manvillo Corp. at their large mining facilities n Quebec. i\ li < (, , ^ * . Lt.-t' /. >. ('' Assistant Manager z: Mr* V.'. V. Ballontine, Phila.Dist.Eng.Mpn ; Mr. John E. Skinner, Industrial Hygienist, :I.D. I