Document oeGLnRLoz9QDE7L0792Y7ZqoR

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1973 July 16 DOC NMA077 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION NYT - Data Unclear on Possible Peril of Asbestos in Drinking Water JUTA BONES CHSTCHSTE EM JM US~fi381 1972 PRAIRIE PWSWspPa WSWspap perse PWSWsr papes rs i ne crEW TONK LIMES 165 2002 pg Data Unclear on Possible Peril Of Asbestos in Drinking Water By GLADWIN HILL Special to The New York Times WASHINGTON July particles we're looking for in communitiderms Warren physiological How many other comunitiderms likaid chemist , chemist Council Duluth the possibital Minncountry have for the Council on Environmen- posibtal Quality hazardous quantities of asbes- Secondly we don't know in their drinking tos in their drinking water of any analytical method The Federal authoritilat authoritilat could be geared into a scientifc would like to know But Herge scale survey to produce Comprehensive findings in a this juncture a panel of relatively relatively short time perts concluded last week The particles we have to scientific imponderables proprocalcal with range from two- clude even a meaningful questenths of a micron which is a for the answer Imicrons in The Environmental tion Agency cautioned millionth of a meter to size They're long enough DulutheoreticallyDulutheoretically you could two that see an last month that asbestos partthem in micro- partthem ordinary cles from nearby large scaladope scaladope But extremely city's water tailingSuch elecwtimirtcohrnoosuctopein effect a dumping of iron ore arrow and without width you into Lake Superior might bean't see length So you have to an undesirable element in the to an microscope supply electronic While asbestos has beergisters of objaectns shadt-o identified as a cause of lunew of objects small cancer through inhalation little by plain magnification is known about its effects of when swallowed Rather There declaring the Duluth water un A QuestCiapo acinty aren't a lot of elec on microscopes in use and safe for general suggestedconsumption microscopes chalysis is a sophisticated clarification penoperation ing of the penoperation Mr. Muir continued lem the water not be given propone sample may take most of to day to check out So the lem infants and children who had prospect of doing thousands had years Upon of . exposure thousands analysesabout way raises a big question about what capacities Analysis Under Way our are An extensive series of Only a few scientists have ysis of is being human tissue conducted to elucidatmedical sampledone much research on elucidatmedical affects of asbestos the par- asbestos - ingestion effects sticles One is Dr. Irving J. eli- connection with a Federal suitoff head of the Environmental in Duluth to stop the Reservciences Laboratory at Mount Reservciences Mining Company from puttingmai in New York Hospital into the lake 67,000 tons a dagity He did the principal stud- of crushed rock from whicles of slow - developing lung cancer iron has been extracted cancer among New Jersey ship- Meanwhile anxious queriesard workers exposed to as- have been coming into Wasbestos Wasbestos spraying during World Wasbestos ington from other communitiesWar II and a task force of specialists Selikoff has been the from the E.P.A. the Council oprincipal medical consultant to Administrationituation and has been Environmental Quality and the Government on the Duluth Food and Drug Administrationituation directing is exploring the implications are current tissue studies OfDuluth for the rest of cials hope that some conclu- country sions from these will be availfibrouble We know there's a fibrouble for the next court hearing material like asbestos in most the case Aug. 1 ubiquitous geologically water and asbestos Until considerably more in- fairly ubiquitous has been developed one researcher said addingbout Duluth Dr. Selikoff told genralthe that its occurrence generallthe task force last week it was presumed to be probablycould be difficult to organize probablycould at levels that aren't comprehensive study of pos- Millions of samples of auble asbestos hazards over the and water from all parts fest of the country the country have been put through chemical analysis in recent years but none of this work is of any help now be- cause asbestos was not one of the substances checked for Obstacles Noted ! The interagency task force's immediate inclination was to mount a nationwide survey of the incidence of asbestos in water supplies biHowever at the panel's bi- weekly meeting here Tuesday discussions produced two formidable obstacles to setting up such a survey We don't know what size Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission