Document o9zZJMbxR1VXZVpXo9v5q8Gx7

Asbestos And Health \ THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION / NORTH AMERICA CAPCO KIN 0001617 Asbestos and Human Health Asbestos, used since antiquity, has widespread and important applications in our modem technological society. Approximately 3,000 different products containing asbestos are in daily use throughout the world. Its increased use in the 20th century has lent urgency to the need to cope with occupational health problems related to the excessive inhalation of asbestos dust. Such problems are not unique to the asbestos industry. Many substances and materials in common use today can be ( detrimental to the health and safety of industrial workers under uncontrolled conditions. A vital and widely used raw material, asbestos is but one of a number of potentially harmful substances used by industry. Basically, the known facts about asbestos-related disease can be summed up as follows: First, asbestos-related health risks today are almost exclusively confined to the occupational setting. Second, the effects of excessive inhalation of asbestos are both time and dose related. This means that asbestos-related diseases may develop, generally, only after the inhalation of substantial amounts of asbestos dust over a substantial period of time. Thus, there are levels of exposure that will not result in any increased risk of disease. Third, there is presently no evidence of risk to the general public from exposure to the minute amount of asbestos that have been found in community air. Fourth, because of the long latent period of asbestos-related disease, the disease being found today among some long-term industry employees is not an indication of present day conditions, but is a result of conditions existing decades ago, at a time when neither the industry, government, nor the medical ( profession knew very much about the health effects of asbestos and even less about the proper means for their control. 1 CAPCO KIN 0001618 As with asbestosis, the amount of fiber to which an employee is exposed is an important factor in lung cancer development. A continuing study of workers in a British asbestos textile plant has shown that dust control measures, which had substantially reduced the incidence of asbestosis, also reduced the incidence of lung cancer among the workers to that existing in the general public. In addition, it is the considered opinion of many scientists that lung cancer will not develop in an employee if he did not first have asbestosis. Unquestionably, factors other than heavy asbestos exposure are important in the causation of lung cancer among asbestos industry workmen. The most documented example is cigarette smoking. Studies conducted of as many as 17,500 asbestos insulation workers show that those who smoke have a much greater risk of contracting lung cancer than non-smokers in the general public, but that those asbestos industry workmen who do not now smoke cigarettes and who have never smoked regularly, have no greater risk of lung cancer than the average man-in-the-street who does not smoke. Mesothelioma This disease is an extremely rare cancer of the lining of the chest (pleura) or the abdominal cavity (peritoneum). It is found more frequently among those with occupational asbestos exposure than among the general population. It also has been found among people who, in the past, lived in close proximity to uncontrolled crocidolite asbestos plants or mines, and even, on rare occasions, in the households of employees who worked in crocidolite asbestos factories or mines and who presumably brought substantial quantities of this particular type of asbestos fiber into their homes on their work clothes. This has not been found to be the case with individuals exposed only to chrysotile asbestos, which accounts for 97% of the asbestos fiber used in the U.S. today. Since the latent period for mesothelioma ranges from 30 to 45 years, it is impossible at this late date to determine precisely the exposure levels experienced by these "neighborhood" and "household" cases, however, they were probably quite high by 3 :APCO KIN 0001620 air. "Neighborhood" and "household" cases of mesothelioma are cited extensively in this regard, as are the frequent reports of the findings of free asbestos fibers and so-called ferruginous bodies (which sometimes contain asbestos) in the lungs of city dwellers at autopsy. The truth is, however, that there is no evidence -- either from experience or from scientific research -- that anyone in the general public has ever contracted any asbestos-related disease from exposure to these minute amounts of airborne asbestos, which are many times lower than levels which have been demonstrated to result in no excess of disease in occupationally exposed populations. (f* This conclusion is supported by both the Asbestos Panel of ^ the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Biologic Effects of Atmospheric Pollutants, and the 33 member Advisory Committee on Asbestos Cancers of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization. In its 1971 booklet, entitled, "Asbestos: The Need For And Feasibility of Air Pollution Controls," the NAS Asbestos Panel, which consisted of seven of the nation's top experts on asbestos and health, stated that "there is no evidence that persons in the general population -- without occupational, household or neighborhood exposures - have any increased risk of neoplasm, even though there may be ferruginous bodies or fibers in their lungs." Warning against conclusions of the type frequently reached by the uninformed with regard to asbestos, the report further stated: "One cannot extrapolate from the mortality experi ence of, on the one hand, those who are directly and indirectly exposed to asbestos in their employment to, on the other hand, the general public, who have had moderate or slight exposures from ambient air." The report concluded with the statement that "there is no evidence that the small numbers of fibers found in most ^ members of the general population affect health or longevity." The report of the IARC Advisory Committee represents the concensus of present world medical opinion on all aspects of the 5 CAPCO KIN 0001622 sponsored or cooperated in by the world asbestos industry. In fact, two of the largest non-governmental sources of funds for asbestos-health research are the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (IOEH) in Montreal, which is sponsored by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, and the Asbestosis Research Council, sponsored by the British asbestos manufacturing industry. The results of research sponsored by these two agencies and also by individual companies acting independently have contributed significantly to our knowledge of the biological effects of asbestos. In addition, industry environmental control experts are constantly working to develop new or improved methods of (handling asbestos and asbestos-containing products safely. ^ Much has been learned about asbestos and health in a very short time -- especially when you consider that the greater part of all medical information about asbestos-related disease is less than a decade old. According to Dr. Premysl Pelnar of the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, approximately 90 per cent of all information and data now available is the result of medical studies undertaken during the past ten years. Much more is still needed: In late 1972 The International Agency for Research on Cancer made recommendations for further research and indicated priorities for work of immediate and long-term value. Emphasis was placed on epidemilogical and pathological studies, and high priorities were urged for certain projects. These included: 1. Usefulness of early detection in the prevention of progressive fibrosis and asbestos cancers and in the identification of hazardous conditions; 2. Assessment of excess cancer risks following exposure to only one variety of asbestos; 3. Amount and type of asbestos in the lungs of mesothelioma cases; (flfe 4. Secular changes in incidences of pleural and peritoneal imesctheliomas nationally and internationally; 'APCO KIN 0001624 I t J For Additional Copies or For Further Information Contact THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION / NORTH AMERICA 22 E. 40th Street New York, New York 10016 (212) 689-3378 103 D 37 CAPCO KIN 0001626