Document k9RQaoRdbVJLOpDq1nDY6qgny

FILE NAME: Talc (TALC) DATE: 1973 June 27 DOC#: TALC077 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Newspaper Article - US Asked to Ban Asbestos in Food and Drink Processing  A 10 W ednesday, Ju n e 27, 1973 o By STUART S. TAYLOR, ,U. Svn Staff Concspovdr.nt Washington--Millions of Americans may be gradually poisoning themselves by swal lowing food, beverages and drugs contaminated with can cer-causing asbestos fibers, ac cording to a petition to be filed tomorrow with the Federal Food and Drug Administration. Asbestos fibers find their way into rice, peanuts, salami and other foods from the com mercial talcs used in process ing, according to the petition, prepared by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the . Environmental De fense Fund. Gin, beer, fruit juice The two nonprofit, public-in terest groups also claim that such beverages as gin, beer, and fruit juices arc contami nated with asbestos from the filters used to purify them. Lung cancer, cancer of the digestive tract and other fatal diseases have been shown to result from exposure to asbes tos, through swallowing as well as through inhaling, the peti tion states. The petition demands that the Food and Drug Adminis tration ban the use of asbestos filters and the use of talc in food processing, charging the agency with " delays, false promises 1and 1 obfuscation" in dealing with past calls for ac tion. Albert J . Fritsch,- a director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, promised yes terday that the groups ` will take the FDA to court if it fails to satisfy the demands in the petition. " A critical dose" " Millions of Americans may already have received a criti cal dose of asbestos fibers not merely through the air they breathe but through their food and drugs," the petition states. " The seriousness of the con sequences and the absence of a known safe level make it im perative, therefore. that human exposure from all known sources be reduced to an absolute minimum." An FDA ban is already in effect on the use of asbestos in manufacturing clothing, and the agency has had before it ' 0| since Inst. August a proposed regulation forbidding the use of food additives that contain asbestos, according to the p eti-; tion. Develops slowly Cancer induced by asbestos develops slowly, the petition asserts, so that those exposed to asbestos may be killed by it ; after decades of apparent good! health. ! While admitting that the ef- fects of eating peanuts treated { with talc and drinking beer j filtered through asbstos have not been established with any precision, the petition claims that cancer is rampant among asbestos workeis who have! been heavily exposed. j Asbestos filters are in use In the manufacture of almost all i kinds of beverages, but othei materials can be substituted' easily, according to the 24-page: document j Talc, which according to the j petition is often contaminated! with asbestos, is used in mak ing pills and tablets, in mold ing candy, in packaging dry foods and as a chewing-gum base.