Document nZe3yaw9VzNLY7yzKa0b551a

FILE NAME Manville JMA DATE 1970-1975 DOC JMA404 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION General Motors - Memo Letters & Report 103708 Manvil e Manvil e Manville LimiteshPOL LAT LAT rf ROUTE W 1 .... 1970 1 1970 1970 ^' 7th May 1970 : $hess Mr. L. A. Zwicker General Manager Harrison Radiator Division General Motors Corporation LOCKPORT, New York 14094 Dear Mr. Zwicker AFD ProdToyProdToy We are extremely disturbed to learn of the concern of various members of your division re the health aspects of asbestos fibre We understand your concern has resulted in a decision to use a substitute material or materials for asbestos fibre in the heater and air conditioning units manufactured at your plant Whereas we deplore the adverse publicity being given to asbestos fibre in magazines the press and various factually and honestly it is a matter which must be faced It is true however that the statements and conclusions which have appeared in print have often been totally misleading | and highly exaggerated Suffice to say that Manville and the asbestos producers over the past several years embarked on an extensive medical study of asbestos which has resulted to date in some very important conclusions Undoubtedly you are familiar with the visit to your plant of our Director of Environmental Control Mr. E. M. Fenner in 1969 and also our submissions to your personnel in the same year of a program to ship fibre to your plant in bulk tank cars This latter is particularly applicable in view of the automated plant facilities already in existence in your plant Also we would mention that the capital cost estimates relating to bulk tank shipments can be reduced substantially due to several new innovations in the bulk handling concept Based on the above preamble we request your permission to meet with you and your personnel to provide up to date information and facts on the following subjects viz 1 Asbestos and the health medical presentation 2 Environmental control as practised by M 3 The revised picture of bulk shipments of asbestos fibre 4. Other alternate methods of receiving and handling asbestos fibre TELEPHONE 819-879-5431 Continued TELEX 01-20411 Mr. L. A. Zwicker Harrison Radiator Division General Motors Corporation 2 5/7/70 We would appreciate receiving your comments and a meeting date or dates convenient to you and your personnel Yours very truly NWH bcc K. V. Lindell J. R. Hutcheson Dr. George W. Wright - Cleveland Dr. T. Davidson - Waukegan ' E. M. Fenner - Finderne H. G. Donovan - Res Manville J. F. Reis - Boston N. W. HENDRY General Sales Manager ; | ENVIRON - ~ 7 e w ' e METAL CONTROL CONTROL | et September 8 1970 . AF Prod Dr. George Rappaport Inland Manufacturing of General Motors Dayton Ohio 45401 Division Dear Dr. Rappaport I should with you linings like to thank you for the opportunity of discussing the results of Manville's work on wear of brake I believe that the data presented to you conclusively show that the decomposition products contain less than 1 per cent of chrysotile fiber For this reason the wear of brake linings is not considered to be a significant contributor of asbestos to the atmosphere I hope to have clearance to send you the most significant parts . ~~ of these reports for your further examination in the next few weeks May I take this opportunity of again inviting you and any of your colleagues to the Manville Research & Engineering Center to discuss this problem in more detail and to assist you in planning any work either at Inland or by an outside laboratory Very truly yours Dr. Sidney Speil Director Corporate Mining & Pipe Divisions bcc F. . . W. L. R. M. C. Pundsack Blair Fenner Streib Remarks Vice Thomas O. Mathues President Manufacturing Staff General Motors Corporation The proper and safe use of asbestos is obviously an area of vital interest and I know from experience that programs of this type can be extremely helpful in all our thinking General Motors is a large user of asbestos fiber and containing products We use these materials in many of our products including passenger cars and trucks buses road vehicles electric locomotives and powerplants for stationary applications They also are incorporated in some maintenance items and other production materials Both applications are used in General Motors operations around the world But in order to address the specific interests of this group I would like to confine my comments today to our North American operations Asbestos is just one of hundreds of toxic materials which are constantly under study at GM And before we go further let me make a distinction between hazardous and toxic materials All chemical materials are to some extent inherent- ly toxic Ordinary tap water for instance is toxic -- though obviously to a very low degree With improper use however toxic materials can become hazardous If this room was filled with water right now we would be faced with a rather hazardous situation PRODUCED JM - 83 * A paper presented at the Fifth Government Conference Washington D.C. September 17-18 1980 sponsored by the Asbestos Information Association of North America General Motors Corporation has for years been committed to protecting our employees by recognizing evaluating and controlling exposure to toxic materials To a large extent these programs are only now being required by various regula- tions It is our continuing practice to evaluate all materials prior to their use The evaluation considers impact on the environment health product performance and cost including the cost of government control Thus if a material we might be considering requires environmental assessment or the administration of medical examinations to employees those costs are also included We are prepared to change present practices when there is need to do so For example when it became accepted by the medical community that excessive borne exposure to asbestos fiber was more hazardous than previously thought we evaluated our use of the mineral Workplace and ambient air quality were monitored Employees were given medical examinations designed to determine the presence of typical abnormalities caused by asbestos New processes are continually being investigated and substitute materials are being sought The use of asbestos fiber and containing products was reviewed by local GM plant hazardous materials control committees The committees are composed of people knowledgeable about production processes chemistry and health and environ- mental effects They evaluate all present or potential materials and recommend safe methods for storage handling use and disposal PRODUCED J-M 80 As a result of all this review and testing -- which is continuing today -- we revamped our asbestos operations at many GM plants The changes required a significant investment but resulted in improvements in the environment and in the protection and preservation of employee health and safety Let me emphasize that we did this in response to new med- ical findings Much of our work occurred before the federal government published its asbestos rules One phase of our evaluation of asbestos considered avail- ability and cost of control We do not foresee an imminent supply problem with grades currently in use at General Motors But the legislative and regulatory climate is uncertain and the cost of the continuing use of asbestos may be dependent upon the existence of stringent compliance requirements For example if the exposure limit is reduced to that which NIOSH has proposed our compliance costs will certainly increase However if the limit is not as stringent as presently proposed by NIOSH we feel that with some added processing and tooling expense we could meet the standard in most of our operations Based on current information however we do not see an urgent need to curtail all asbestos usage But we do believe alternate materials must be examined should the need arise for economic or health reasons to replace containing materials Thus we agree that nonessential uses of asbestos JM - 83 } " should be controlled whenever adequate substitutes are readily available providing those substitutes are economically feasible and providing they will not result in any new health risks | At General Motors our largest use of asbestos is in friction materials such as the 5-6 million sets of brake linings andflabout andflabout 44flflmilIfo4 n 4flflmcill utIcfhof nacingwse prod eacu h y c ea e r Other uses include various gaskets sound deadeners for metal fillers in mastics and adhesives and some electrical component parts We also use construction materials containing asbestos -- cement asbestos pipe roofing felt and floor tile for example We believe there is a basic distinction between processes using raw asbestos fibers and those using containing materials Whenever loose fiber is used we exercise great caution to minimize the potential release of fibers to the work place or the ambient environment The same care is used whenever asbestos materials are handled in such a way that loose fibers could be generated -- for example in cutting asbestos paper or grinding a brake lining For many containing materials such as adhesives brake linings mastics and floor tiles the asbestos is bound in a matrix This matrix is either flexible -- as in based sound deadeners -- or highly durable as in asbestos cemert products In these kinds of materials asbestos fibre generally is not released during our manufacturing processes unless the material is misused PRODUCED J-M 83 In our view this is an important distinction In con- sidering risk analyses or in considering regulations and standards we think it is important to differentiate between applications involving loose fibers and those involving non- friable materials or encapsulated fibers Such differentiation is not the case today -- and it should be in our opinion The techniques designed to control and devices the release used by Gene Motr orsaarl e of asbestos fiber Recently there has been considerable discussion about the use of substitute materials for automotive friction pro- ducts While asbestos substitutes are being used in some light duty brake systems we have not found effective substi- tutes for many other applications Various substitutes for asbestos in clutch plates have been investigated but no suitable alternatives have been found Certain products therefore will probably continue to contain or use asbestos So we should avoid any ban on use and distribution of either original equipment or replacement parts for which there are no substitutes In most cases for example asbestos brake linings if installed as replacement parts will not provide suitable performance in older brake systems designed for asbestos linings In such cases the con- figuration of the entire braking system has to be changed Changes of this magnitude would require extensive and costly modifications and testing Since we cannot recommend substitu- tion of asbestos linings in brake systems designed for asbestos an adequate supply of replacement asbestos linings should continue to be available This same situation will hold PRODUCED for friction materials used as clutch facings in both manual and automatic transmissions General Motors does not use body fillers containing asbestos However sound deadeners today contain asbestos as an inert filler The matrix doesn't dry to the point of becoming brittle nor is it sanded or ground during vehicle production Thus asbestos fibers used in sound deadeners and other types of under- coatings really do not constitiu n touer opinion a ready source of airborne asbestos fiber However we are encouraging development of substitutes for most containing mastics sound deadeners and the like For example mineral wools and glass fibers may be effectively substituted in some applications Perhaps some products can be reformulated to eliminate the need for fiber fillers But we recognize that the substitute fillers may be more costly In conclusion let me say that General Motors Corporation has a long standing commitment to protect the health and well- being of its employees the general public and the environment While we encourage the use of materials having little or no hazard we are prepared to continue using materials that require more extensive controls whenever substitutes are not available We are proud -- justifiably -- of our record of safety in dealing with potentially hazardous materials And I assure you we will pursue every effort to continue that safety record Once again it has been a great pleasure to take part in this program