Document pe50eGYyYxQ1YDbRnpRm9xXVE

FILE NAME Newspaper & Magazine Articles NMA DATE 1972 June 7 & 8 DOC NMA013 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION The Wall Street Journal - Safety Unit Sets Tough Rules for '76 on Plants Asbestos & Perilous Particles - Tiny Asbestos Fibers Pose a Health Threat THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 6/46/72 4/1/72 4/1/72 4/1/72 4/1/72 Safety Unit Sets Tough Rules for '76 oO Plants Asbestos P On A Aya Watt STARKY JADRNAL #tug Reporter WASHINGTON - The Occupational tafely and Health Administration announced lough new curbs on asbestos in plants but gave am- ployers tour years to comply The new standard wil mit of asbestos in the work place concentrations concentrations to two Mbera per cubic centimeter of air beginning July 1 1978 the agency administering the new Fed eral Job Safety Law said Unth 1976 the asbestos standard will re- main five fibers per cubic centimeter That emergency standard imposed by the aarreencnycyemergency last December December under pressure from from the 3 The inhalation of asbestos has to a number of human diseases been linked The standards for bestos repissent a weighted average over eight hours But starting July 7 1972 asbestos concentrations aren't to exceed 10 fibera per cubic centimeter of air at any time during the eight period The emergency standard currently in effect h^...sn't any such upper limit the average of five fibers Government sources said the year per- delay in effecting the new standard was to mit employers to design systems to controi na rapidly bestos Imposing the new limits more would have encouraged employers to comply by simply rotating workers during an eighthour work turn or providing protective breath ing devices government experts believed . The Environmental Protection Agency last December banned open spraying of asbes- the fireproofing and insulation and required in- b dustry to use filters duced in the mining to clean any gases promilling and manufactur- ing of materials containing asbestos Perilous Particles Tiny Asbestos Fibers Pose a Health Threat To Workers and Public Long Exposure Can Result + In Lung Disease Cancer Industry Seeks Solutions The Bodies Are in the Street BY BARRY NEWMAN Sta^ Reporter of The WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK Joseph Marino's gas klas _ Com on the fringe of Manhattan's Spanish Har lem the proven method of cleaning an old brake assembly goes like this Pull off the wheel aim an air hose at the exposed parts and blow the dust out ^ cloud of brown dust invariably fles Might Into the mechanics faces says Mr. Marino But it doesn't bother them We got maska and everything Mr. Marino shrugs The guya don't use them What the hell What the mechanics don't seem to knowlike thousands of other mecharucs that the brown dust is dangerous Brake linings are made of asbestos And U a mechanic breathes In enough dust from the worn linings it could eventually kill him The lethal quality of tiny indestructible bertos fibers that lodge in the lung is well known Widely publicized studies by Dr. Irving Sellkoff of the Mount Sinal School of Medicine lead him to predict that of the roughly 250,000 asbestos industry workers today about 5,000 will die unnecessarily of occupational cancer In the next 10 to 13 years we will enter the ss bestos cancer era BAYI Dr. Selikoff This is one of the great disasters of our time Hazards for Others Too The asbestos industry is well aware of the problem and is taking action to combat it though criues say tie steps aren't an drastic as the altuation demands But asbestos industry workers aren't the only ones who might fall prey to the lung cancers and other discases caused by likely that tries using the mineral's irritating fibers It's millions of workers in other indus asbestos fibers could be affected as well as ordinary people who have come into contact with usbestos in the atmosphere Perhaps the most trame fact is that for those who have already been suthciently ex- posed changes in procedures and standards of asbestos including announced announced announced announced yesterday by the Department of Labor meaningless It takes as many as tu years after the first exposure for asbestos di- seases to surface Controls instituted now will inderd have an effect but not for decades Harry Halley one man who isn't likely to find much solace in the new standards Str Balley Lan't an asbestos worker He's a bricklayer in a Mobil Oil Corp. refinery alongside the Delaware River in Paulsboro N.d. He hus been working at the plant for years and every year he has gone to the company medi cal department for a chest ray They never said there was any Dnwgrong with me anya year Mr. Halley and in deed he has thus far developed no outward symptoms But few month ago he and la other workers from the refinery went to Mount Seal for an examination and every one of them proved to have scarred julgema slym of BabeiluavaS om nonnialignant lung ducase Mobil has refused to release has indicat rec ords to the New York doctors Mr. Bader 1857 The company drelincs to comment on the mat- tes Le Perilous Particles Tiny Fibers Of Asbestos Pose Pose Health Threat 6/8/72 Fast Scarring Then Conspirations and Asbestusta begin with ray evidence scarring like that that found in Mr. As the durave Balley's lungs progresses the lungs suffen breathing becomes difficult The work barder heart has to and ead become mately death may be caused or auffocation lung The mineral can also cause cause cancer fact abestes can cause cancer cancer just place in the body If particles gested The are somehow in- to ability of of the sharp tiny particles lung penetrate the once breathed in has = duced a high Incidence of pro- brune cancer in the mem- surrounding the lung a disease called - mesothelioma In the general populace it causes one in 10.000 deaths Of workers being studied 63 asbestos died of it so far by Dr. Selikoff 32 have : refinery Balley chemical The Mobu where Mr. works like all heat factomes factomes in the old and |, industries uses asbestos for Lan Mr. Batley works insula- with insulation workers about under the sulphur too he brick dust and a lot of says We complained the dust and dirt Nothing is done to don The fans make it keep it wet it because worse and you can't of the heat in the bricks The company bought new respirators but conditions they clog in 15 minutes In the bestos cutting there aren't any vacuum altachments on the Maw asbestos cement in a the dust sheets outside , or wheelbarrow wheelbarrow anybody can mix get Mobu disagrees with the description of udr^uigconditions In response to a query the company issued Uus statement We have tphreobulseemsofatmtahteemPaaluslsboro refinery concernin ngo use containing asbestos We very little of auch material and what we : do use is used under strictly controlled | tions Recently the Occupational condi- Continued Prom First Page tr these the asbestos is harmlear to users Hul years and there's nothing When working in closed wrong with them depending on how it's added to the men quarters he says his producta asbestos can use drop cloths and lane but they don't pose & Ureat to workers the in and factories where the wear respirators because they're loo hot products are made they don't work 1 Until six months ago for instance asberlos Nevertheless the federal Environmental Protection was being used as an antitak ingredient in Agency is preparing regulations Prestone antifreeze made by Union Carbide pected to be announced Unip summer ex- that impose Corp. At a Carteret N.J. plant run for Union would attempt to impose controls on air Transportation pollu Carbide by General American tion from demolition operations These could the astestas would arrive in paper sacks include requirements for wetting down the Workers would cut the bags open with knives work areas or the removal of all asbestos be and feel the powdery while asbestos into tanks of antifreeze says James fore & building is toppled The technical lem of measuring dust levels prob Irving a fire and however could safety engineer who has worked in the plant toss out the demoillion regulation entirely for 22 years says James Krowder an engineer with the branch They'd wear face EPA's hazardous pollutants elathing Mr. masks but no protective Setting a standard for asbestos concentra Irving says and the blowers in tions at work ailes has the roam where they worked would send the for been similarly difficult dust out to where others the fledgling Ocetipation Safety and Health were working Then Administration & year Department they'd pile up the bags outside the building and Labor unit The Qi crew would pick them up and throw them onto the truck much asbestos reason Nobody knows how is dangerous The asbestos in raising a big cloud of dust dustry led by Manville larg Asbestos was removed formula late last from the Prestone Corp. the est in the field has fought for & standard allow- year Mr. Irving says the Ing hive asbestos fibers per cubic change took place after the Oil Chemical and Mount Atomic Workers made centmeter of air in the factories But the doctors at an issue of It Union Sinai and elsewhere argue that the Carbide denies that The decision ^/ysHerbert J. Hannigan the only true safe level of mabestos pollutan would be sera of company's techrucal manager The government's decision yesterday was in auto products was based on marketing con siderationS und had impose a liber average with a maximum nothing to do with concentration in the work aren of 10 Tibers health . per cubic centimenter at any time In 1936 the Asbestos also can pose hazards to the ulti new regulations call for a more stringent fiber a mate consumers of certain products Bits of limit with the year delay intended to give beatos used in filters for beverage making have the industry a chance to control the been found in wine and beer for instance and The problem .. could be dangerous if swallowed The we of Industry says even a fiber Jimit could hurt 11 economically J. B. Jobe Johns such filters in beverage making seems to have Manville's execubve been curtailed but knowledge of the hazard ap vice president and at hearings in March that it would be sociativar sociativar - pears to have had little effect elsewhere even responable to adopt such in medical circles Asbestos says a soon hons stringent regwa published tala as a study is being used in filler for intravenously some haspi fed liquids iving the particles an entree into the blood Atream The use of asbestos in Hreproof textiles Is common Once in a while asbestos fiber even William finds its way into ordinary fabrics Dr. Nicholson an associate of Dr. Selikoff at Mount The company operates the largest asbestos factory in the country at Manville N.J. where according to a of the workers recent Mount Sinaj study 4077 die of asbesing cancer Corrective steps being taken already Johns Manville maintains are adquate lo dral with the problem without causing a cutback in the plant's production the lieblood of the New plant's Mr. Atomic Steven were found in handling of asbestos materials the Bailey's union the Off Chemical Workers Is and Modia prolesting that inspection inspection union health and safety spe Sinal has a girl's charcoal winter coat with red trim hanging in one of his laborato ries It's one of coals made with more than 200.000 a4, Destas fiber Imported sold two years ago Some of them are presumably shil Jersey town of 15.000 At least one asbestos faci tory run by Class Works a PPG Industries and Corning joint venture in Tyler Texas closed last February because of probita and concern over safety a spokesman says | being worn Give that coat a shake says Dr.Ition Actually the curbing of asbestos contaminan week Uie inexplicably had inspectors the company Mobal me kicked out of the plant charge declines comment on Mr. Wodka's , Out places refineries are by no means where besins turns up The the only versatile thousands binder and insulator in of products including such plasture shingles things as paper and pipes In niast of Please Turn to Page 10 Colum~-nI Nicholson and you get dust levels as high as in an asbestos factory Dr.Ition is more an exercise in good houteatening than capital expenditure While the Cool ni Asbestos workers in the construction indus slopping pollution at a prower plant or smelter try are perhaps the most sensitive of all work might run into the hundreds of millions the era to the ssbestos hazard It was the construc cost of cleaning up an asbestos operation would bon industry which was thirds of all sing be closer in & 10th of that magnitude acrquoi bestos products that was the target of the first wave of antinsbestos publicity more than four years ago At least four cities New York Bos ton Chicago and Philadelphia banned sing to doctora engineers and union officials Some of the staples of such an operation al compari ^ ready in use in many plants hively inexpensive closed plaque are compari bags for compari musi the spraying of asbestos fireprooting material altogether Substitute materials are being de veloped though there's some raised about their safety too question being Among construction workers outside the asbestos virtually all of whom are ex- posed to asbestos whether they work with it disj recly or concern remains relatively low Jacob Novak business manager of the Astra- tos Workers Union Incat in New York days he has tried without survess for instancs la in duce a group of plasterers Some of these people don't to have checkupa want le fure a free ray might because they're hear saya Mr. afraid Novak of what they a year vete tr^nof the sabealgs trades who had a nonnik Jignant tumor removed from a lung laat winter ing cement vacuum attachments on power saws drop cloths muppressant chemirate and powered respirators that blow fil- ftered air into the user lace to ease dis^ MI fort . The new Labor Department plandards da indeed call for many of these w rainra bire rules But while they ate urquesnanet needed step toward strict ennirnis Di se ire? says The he atro potential ... ...Me ... remains for surveillance je pees: jemne * a Bays infin because of federal nj the Brnall ribance^ and atate inspectors & surve recently completed at Mount Siran of time as bestos workers around the country for 13 BLAZINE Znowed that in 1910 and 1971 there was onis one dust suuut lagen in asiestus pl^RIA751 every 20.000 dave worked Anxiety in the demolition Industry also And while he says he appreciates the soles prema minimal We dran have a dust pink lies lies industry a papressed papressed interest industry lem in demolition eats Leonard Kapy vire problem Dr in enising the Selkaff is Ras^' por com ta os president of Wrecking Corp of America one of the largest demolition plain the contiming apathy among intant works coun- conipanies in the Pa and managers This isn't just anothe try Some people think you ran take down a state he ace Some people want in are the 7 building without duet he save with laugh mes in the street before they becarne m 76 As for asbestos Mr Kapu isn't warned " cerned Unfortunately In this case the majes Duntry know fellas who have init antistre pipe for i fare in the alrert PLAINTIFI EXHIBIT 1611