Document oLRz2zadjb74MqoNZjRvq9Nw

Not only has the asbestos textile operation it* self been simplified, but at each machine dust, supp ressant is applied to the yam to prevent fibers from detaching. - Respirators are use* at any and all stations \ where the monitoring of the fiber count in the air J determines that the OSHA standard of 5 fibers per cubic centimeter has been exceeded.These areas re- ' quinng respirators are marked by lines on the floor and posted. Even maintenance personnel entering the marked area for short pefiods'must wear respirators./ under conditions that lead to me discovery of me deadly nature of the material they were procrssir.- presumably for the benefit of man. For those with less sentiment, who ask ii-.e question "Can American industry afford the ocean*, tional safety and health standards that the ] 9TO Act demands?" the answer seems also to be provided by JM's Man ville plant. It is operating at a profit. JM s Manville Plant... the record as the Union sees n Plant housekeeping is scheduled, controlled, and constantly checked. The mandatory procedures have become habit with all employees, and the responsibili ty for maintenance of standard practices lies with each plant manager. Corporate auditors for housekeeping pay unannounced visits to all JM plants such as Manville. Areas not passing proscribed practices arc photographed hy the auditors. The pic lure* are pre sented to the plant manager, who, within a prescribed period of about one week, must sene a picture of the same area to corporate headquarters shqwing that the condition has been rectified. These are not just in structions written in a manual; they are conditions that can be viewed any day in any part of the Man- ville plant. Manville is a plant with 2200 employees, with training and organization so well set up that no more than two dozen men are required full time for safety and environmental control. If you ask anyone at the plant why this is so, the answer is that it is everyone's job from the top-down. --"-- Safety is so integrated with environmental con trol for health that it is difficult to separate them. Ask when the safety program started at Manville and the answer comes back "Before any employee here can remember.' ' For the year 1971, three out of four manufacturing units at Manville had frequency rate of disabling injuries as low as the industries rated best by the National Safety Council. One of the four units did not have a goodmecord for 1971. The over all disabling injury rate for the seventy-odd JM plants for the last ten-year period has steadily de clined with the exception of 1971 and is among the best in manufacturing industries. If it were not for the fact that asbestos dust, in tlte last five years, has become recognized as a deadly health hazard, Manville might have been touted as a model plant. An environmental control program started at Manville in 19SS with one of the first trial hygiene laboratories in any American plant, and has been progressing steadily toward correcting the hciilih harnrd conditions of dust, noise, and toxic Mil'tlimm IvIimi1 uit'tl oilier imlti'InV* Mm Ini wli ')< iHlil'"' II mil'll I* !*#--r- (ill lllil I**11 lll'lil" IllViHllI l Hill l It'll1 III' III lllil Im'iH'I I Hllllll'lll" ii'i * .i |n ijinI ill ni.my yi:.<<*, Ilii.t j/J.iii I imell I * -- ! y li.ive been shut down. It is ironic that Ibis plant was the one wtic re so manv emnlovecs worked in the past Organized labor, which fought hard for the pass age of the 1970 Act, then worked equally hard fo; the "creation of a strong and effective permanent enforcement standard on asbestos under the Occupa tional Safety and Health Act to protect workers whe arc exposed to asbestos fiber dust." Much of the Union'* story of the Manvilic I'iani was obtained in an interview with Robert Klinger. Vice President of Local 800, United Papcrtr.akers and Paperworkers). Bob Klinger is alert, knowledge able, and impressive as representative of the Umor. He started in 1959 in the Manville Plant as a macr.ine operator m the pipe mill and has been a W of the Local for three years, spending full time now on Union business. He participated in a presents non io the press by the Industrial Union Department. ArL, CIO on March 14, 1972, prior to the puouc hearings, on the permanent asbestos standard. Until 1967, Local 800 did not receive much in formation from Johns-Manville concerning the rela tion of asbestos to the health of Manville Plant em ployees. According to the Union, the Public Healm Service studied the Manville Plant in 1965. The re sults of this study were sent to the Company and to the State of New Jersey, but not to Local 800. A union'request for an insection in 1966 by the State of New Jersey produced no results because the State lacked up-to-date air sampling equipment. As far as Local 800 is concerned, progress toward cooperation by Johns-Manville started in 1967 when, at the insistence of the Union, workers were told the results of their company medical exami nations. Also in 1967, there was the October 12 letter to Marshall Smith, then President of the Local, from Dr. Maxwell Borow which pointed to 18 cases of mesiothelioma in the area, possibly due to asbestos exposure. Dr. Borow stated in his letter that he had requested some financial aid toward preparing an exhibit to call the dangers of asbestos exposure to the attention of the medical profession. His letter states that he was turned down by Johns-Manville. Ilitlt K lilll'i-r irrtifind IihI'I* ll1 11* I ill (Ml i nic >.i * *- in..........1.. i 1,1 III l|. flll'lt- III *t * I !%*(- I *111 ! .................. Him n| ilii: In.illli Ii.i/,n11 iiiul ilu' i limin.iin" "l ll'- cause*. Certainly hy today's sland.mU. JM did m.il,v errors in judgement in its reunions with it* muun.