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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Thursday. June 6,1972 VOL LI I NO. 168 Harry Bailey Is onsvasa wNikWft-Map'to find much solace In the new standards. Mr. Bailey isn't an asbestos worker. He's a brick Perilous Particles layer in a Mobil Oil Corp. refinery alongside the Delaware River in Paulsboro. N.J. He has been working at the plant for 33 years, and Tiny Asbestos Fibers every year he has gone to the company medi cal department for a chest X ray. "They never said there was anything wrong Pose a Health Threat with me," says 54-ycar-old Mr. Bailey, and in deed he has thus tar developed no outward symptoms. But a few months ago he and 18 To Workers and Public other workers from the refinery went to Mount Sinai for an examination, and every one of them proved to have scarred lungs--a sign of asbestosls, a nonmailgnant lung - dlseasa. Long Exposure Can Result (Mobil has refused to release his medical rec ords to the New York doctors. Mr. Bailey says. In Lung Disease, Cancer; The company declines to comment on the mat ter.) Industry Seeks Solutions First Scarring, Then Complications Asbestcsls begins with X-ray evidence of scarring like that found In Mr. Bailey's longs. As the disease progresses, the lungs stiffen and `The Bodies Are in the Street' breathing becomes difficult. The heart has to work harder and can become enlarged. Ulti mately. death may be caused by heart attack By Barry Nf.wma.n or.suffocation. Staff Reporter of Tm Wall Struct Journal The mineral can also cause lung cancer--to NEW YORK --At Jooeph Marino's gas ataIon on the fringe on Manhattan's Spanish Har lem, the proven method of cleaning an old brake assembly goes like this: Pull off the wheel, aim an Rir hose at the exposed parts and blow the dust out. A cloud of brown dust invariably flits right fact asbestos can cause cancer Just about any place in the body If particles are somehow In gested. The ability of the sharp, tiny particles to penetrate the lung once breathed in has pro duced a high incidence of cancer In the mem brane surrounding the lung, a disease called mesothelioma. In the general populace. It causes one in 10,000 deaths. Of 632^sf>MtM into the mechanics' faces, says Mr. Marino. jvorkcr^b^n^tudie^b^3r^^^^222^Stf But It doesn't bother them "We got masks and everything." Mr. Marino shrugs. "The guys *"Refinery, where Mr. Bailey don't use them. What the hell." works, like all high-heat factories in the oil and What the mechanics don't seem to know- chemical industries, uses asbestos for insula like thousands of other mechanics --Is that the tion. Mr. Bailey works with Insulation workers brown dust is dangerous. Brake linings are inside the furnaces, ripping out soft brick. made of asbestos. And if a mechanic breathes "There's asbestos and brick dust and a lot of In enough dust from the worn-out linings It sulphur, too," he says. "We complained about could eventually kill him. the dust and dirt. Nothing la done to keep it The lethal quality of tiny, indestructible as down. The fans make It worse, end you can't bestos fibers that lodge In the lung is well wet it because of the heat in the bricks. The known. Widely publicized studies by Dr. Irving company bought new respirators, but under the Selikoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine conditions they clog in 16 minutes." lead him to predict that of the roughly 250,000 asbestos industry workers today, about 95,000i will die unnecessarily of occupational cancer. "In the next 10 to 15 years we will enter the as-1 bestos cancer era." says Dr. Seltkoff. "Thls| is cne of the great disasters of our time." 1 Hazards for Others, Too The asbestos Industry is well aware of the problem and is taking action to combat it. ^"^^^"T^^ffiawneniSeinSulauonwoficeri SS sheets outside the room, or mix cement in a wheelbarrow, "anybody can the dust." Company Disagrees Mobil disagrees with the description of working conditions. In response to s query, the company issued this statement: "We have no though critics say the steps aren't as drastic as problems at the Paulsboro refinery concerning the situation demands. But asbestos Industry the use of materials containing asbestos. We workers aren't the cnly ones who might fall use very little of such material, and what we prey to the lung cancers and other diseases do use is used under strictly controlled condi caused by the mineral's irritating fibers. It's tions. Recently the Occupational Safety and likely that millions of workers in other indus Health Administration carried out an extensive tries using asbestos fibers could be affected, as and thorough Inspection of the entire Paulsboro well as ordinary people who have come Into refinery. No violations were found In th contact with asbestos in the atmosphere. plant's handling of asbestos materials." Perhaps the most tragic fact is that for Mr. Bailey's unton, the Oil. Chemical and those who have alrc3d> been cuff.cientiv ex Atomic Workers, is protesting that Inspection. posed. changes in procedures and standards of Steven Wonka, a union health and safety spe asbestos use --including a new act announced cialist. says little attention was paid to health yesterday by the Department of Labor--are violations. And he complains that after a week Pmeamnglcss. It ekrs is mar1-' as * ' - ' Caiifter the firs' w TTTT^Tni of accompanying the Inspectors, the company inexplicably "had me kicked out of the plant." Mobil declines comment on Mr. Wodka a but not for decides. charge. c 000280 LAM022190 Perilous Particles: Tiny Fibers Of Asbestos Pose a Health Threat Oil refineries are by no means "Die only, Afraid of a Checkup placet where asbestos turns up. The versatile Among construction workers outside the as substance Is a fireproof binder and Insulator In bestos trades--virtually all of whom are ex thousands of products. Including such things as posed to asbestos whether they work with It di plastics, shingles, paper and pipes. In moat of rectly or not--concern remains relatively low. these, the asbestos Is harmless to users. But, Jacob Novak, business manager of the Asbet- depending on how It's added to the products., tos Workers Union local In New York, says he asbestos can pose a threat to workers In the has tried without success, far instance, to in factories where the products are made. duce a group of plasterer* to have checkups. Until six months ago. for Instance, asbestos "Some of these people don't want to face a free was being used as an antlleak Ingredient in X ray because they're afraid of what they Prestone antifreeze, made by Union Carbide might hear," aaya Mr. Novak, a 43-year vet Corp. At a Carteret, N.J., plant, run for Union eran of the asbeatoa trades, who had a norona- Carbide by General American Transportation, iignant tumor removed from a lung last winter. the asbestos would arrive in paper sacks. Anxiety in the demolition industry also Workers would cut the bags open with knives seems minimal. "We don't have a dust prob and feed the powdery white asbestos Into tanks lem In demolition," says Leonard Kapy, vice of antifreeze, says James Irving, a fire and president of Wrecking Corp. of America, one of safety engineer who has worked In the plant for 22 years. "They'd wear face masks, but no protective clothing," Mr. Irving aaya, "and the blowers In the room where they worked would send the dust out to where others were working. Then they'd pile up the bags outside the building and a crew would pick them up and throw them onto the truck, raising a big cloud of dust." Asbestos was removed from the Prestone formula late last year. Mr. Irving says the change took piace after the Oil. Chemical and Atomic workers made an issue of It. Union the largest demolition companies in the coun try. "Some people think you can take down a building without dust," he says with a laugh. As for asbestos, Mr. Kapy isn't worried: "I know fellas who have laid asbestoa pipe for years, and there's nothing wrong with them." When working In closed quarters, he says, his men use drop cloths and fans, but they don't wear respirators because "they're too hot and they don't work." Nevertheless, the federal Environmental Protection Agency Is preparing regulations ex Carbide denies that. The decision, says Herbert pected to be announced this summer that J. Hannigan, the company's technical manager would attempt to Impose controls on air pollu of auto products, was based on marketing con tion from demolition operations. These could siderations and "had nothing to do with include requirements for wetting down the health." work areas or the removal of all asbestos be Asbestos also can pose hazards to the ulti fore a building la toppled. The technical prob mate consumers of certain products. Bits of as lem of measuring dust levels, however, "could bestos used in filters for beverage making have toss out the demolition regulation entirely," been found In wine and beer, for instance, and says James Krowder, an engineer with the could be dangerous if swallowed. The uae of EPA's hazardous pollutants branch. such filters in beverage making seems to have Setting a standard for asbeatoa concentra been curtailed, but knowledge of the hazard ap tions at work sitea has been similarly difficult pears to have had little effect elsewhere, even - for the fledgling Occupation Safety and Health In medical circles. Asbestos, says a soon-to-be- Administration, a year-old Department of published study, Is being used In some hospi- 'Labor unit. The reason: nobody knows how tala as a filter for lntravenoualy-fed liquids, much asbestos is dangerous. The asbestos tn- giving the particles an entry Into the blood duatry, led by Johna-Manville Corp., the larg- stream. est In the field, has fought for a standard aliow- The'uae of asbestos in fireproof textiles is |,,g f|ve asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of common. Once In a white, asbestos fiber even ^ the factorlei. But the doctori a, Mount finds it* way Into ordinary fabrics Dr. William 31nai and elsewhere that the only true Nicholson, an associate of Dr Sellkoff at Mount jaf(j ,eve, of ubtltD| polJutlon would J Mr0. Sinai, baa a girl s charcoal-colored winter coat A pOUT Year Delay with red trim hanging In one of his laborato- The decljllon ye,Urday was to ries It s one of more than 200 000 Imported , \ flve.flber average. JtUj . mLtlmum being worn. "Give that coat a shake." says Dr. cubl= cent'men " at tlme- ** 197*' " aew Nicholson, "and you get'dust levels as high as."*la,io" aaJ ,or a "ore stringent two-fiber In an asbeatoa factory " llmlt' wlth the fo"r-year delay Intended to give Asbestoa workers In the construction Indus- th lnduatry a chance to control the problem, try are perhaps the most sensiUve of all work- The lndustry says even a two-fiber limit ere to the asbestos hazard. It was the construe-'cou*<* burt ** economically. J. B. Jobe. Johns- tion Industry, which uses two-thirds of all as- Manvllle'a executive vice president, said at bestoa products, that was the target of the first hearings In March that it would be "socially ir- wave of antiasbestos publicity more than four, responsible" to adopt such stringent regula- years ago. r"' ty,. tlons. ^ton^Chicar^ The company operatea the largest asbestos 7T +Jii ^TTTTactory in according the countryet Manvlile, N..T) 'where, to a recent Mount Sinai study, 40% "TKough there's some question being of the workers die of asbestos-related cancer, raised about their safety, too. Corrective steps being taken already. Johns- c 000281 LAM022191 MonvUle maintain*, are adequate to deal with the problem without causing a cutback In the plant's production, the lifeblood of the New Jersey town of 1S.OOO. At least one asbestos fac tory. run by a PPG Industries and Corning Glass Works joint venture In Tyler, Texas, closed last February because of "profitability and concern over safety," a spokesman says. iB!nc*T';;^^^^uuS,^!!ilelhe coat of "^WppifS^ofluuo^SnP^Sver plant or smelter might run Into the hundreds of millions, the cost of cleaning up an asbestos operation would be closer to a 10th of that magnitude, accord ing to doctors, engineers and union officials. Some of the staples of such an operation, al ready In use In many plants, are compara tively Inexpensive closed plastic bags for mix ing cement, vacuum attachments on power saws, drop cloths, dust-suppressant chemicals and battery-powered respirators that blow fil tered air Into the user's face to ease discom fort. The new Labor Department standards do. Indeed, call for many of these work-practice rules. But while they are unquestionably a needed step toward strict controls. Dr. Sellkoff, says, he also says he remains pessimistic.. "The potential for surveillance Is remote," he ; says, because of the small, underfinanced i staffs of federal and state inspectors. A survey ; recently completed at Mount Sinai of 9,400 as-i be*to* workers around the country, for In-: stance, showed that In 1970 and 1971 there was only one dust count taken in asbestos plants for ! every 20.000 man-days worked. And while he says he appreciates the asbes-. to* Industry's expressed Interest in solving the problem. Dr. Sellkoff Is hard-pressed to ex plain the continuing apathy among many work-1 ers and managers. "This Isn't Just another j scare," he says. "Some people want to see the , bodies in the street before they become con- j earned. Unfortunately. In this case, the bodies ! are In the street."