Document peMmLq7GnJYVz30o2ZYL29brw

DR. H.C. FH03KIZ FOSSCO INC., U.S.A. 2nd July, 1971. J.H. MACKAIR SUBJECT i ASBESTOS o / jyy/tcpj DR. M.E. EARLmOTC )<MR. E.J. JAOOX Dear Dick, Thank you for your letter of June.2^th whioh I have Just studied on return from holiday. Your letter opens up a complex, and at the moment, rather ill-defined sphero of- interest.- In spite of u massive amount of work and a lot of published papers, the whole field of the toxicity of asbestos in the "cold" condition is clouded with uncertainty, different bodies drawing different conclusions from the medical evidence. I think it is true to say that the U.K. has taken a'considerable lead in the study in this field, which has had two .main effects. Firstly, i^he Factory Regulations relating to the use of asbestos in industry are tighter here than anywhere else in the world. Secondly, the asbestos industry itself has set up various bodies to defend its own position and produce responsible counter-attacks to the scaremongers. The main suppliers of asbestos have formed the Asbestos Information Committee which is mainly a publia relations function employing undoubtedly high-powered public relations consultants. This is a whitewashing job. They have also given large sums of money and grants to an independent body with no commercial axe to grind, called the Asbestools Research Council, which is also'sponsored to-a-certain -extent--by -she .Ministry of Health. Following your letter, I re-contacted Dr. Holmes who is the Secretary' of the Asbestcsis Research Council, specifically on this question of the toxicity of asbestos after thermal degredation. To be honest, the information that he could give me was fairly' thin but here is a summary of it for what it is worth : At temperatures above lOG^C all grades of asbestos undergo a progressive degree of thermal degredatian such that by 7P0 C the.asbestos fibres are converted into an amorphous 'silicate, above 9CO C further structural change "occurs leading to the formation of Forsterite. Some work has been done at Cambridge University on injecting these minerals into animals and these experiments have not given rise to the harmful medical, effects (apart from normal foreign body' rejection mechanisms) that occur with the original cold asbestos. This work has been reported' to the Asbestcsis Research Council anp any published references will be sent to us. There is continuing work along these lines, but again on animals only, which is duo for reporting and publication within the next few months, again this will be supplied whan available. 000-00-0000000102 continued - r Q S -- 00--02jGj30>2oc< r IP.. R.C. PHCBTEt FCSECO INC., O.S.A. z 2nd July, 1^71. jm/NFJ I also got in touch with Dr. Alan Hodgson of Capo Asbestos Pibrec Who is oortainly one of tho world's technical experts of amosite-asbestos. He oould add littlo information to that already given by Dr. Holmes except to say that tho transformation temperatures in amoalte vere slightly higher than those in oruoitile as referred to by Dr. Holmes. Following the lead of tho U.K. Asbestos industry, I did gather from Dr^.Holmea that tho Ame.nican counterparts have also recently set up a .United States Asbestos Information Committee. ThiB is based on the offices of Johns Kannville. in New York and they employ the P.R. firm of Kill & Knowlton Inc. also of New York. Since this committee Is Yitally iconoemed with maintaining and increasing the sales of asbestos to industry, they could be a useful source of information in the U.S.A. Their counterparts in the U.K. do issue a number of helpful documents from time to time and some' of their activities were referred to in my Heading Systems Bulletin - Special Issue No.l. (with FMlVEJJ). You ask if there is any group in the U.K. that could perform the sort of research that would help us to defend our continuing use of asbestos in hot -tops : and here I must certainly agree with you that there is no known material at the moment whloh gives the same cost/effectiveness in hot tops as asbestos. I think the most concise answer to this question is that work is being currently done by various workers in the U.K. under the aegis of the Asbestosis Research Council, but like all experiments involving gestation periods it takes a very long time to get any positive results. My own feeling is that to sponsor any additional research into this field is unlikely to-be productive except on the purely public relations, whitewashing aspect that- by spending all this amount of money we oould prove to our customers that ve are responsible suppliers. When I get these actual nedical reports, as promised by Dr. Holmes, I will send them on to you. I think that the evidenoe at the moment is that the degredaticn products certainly above 700 C are not harmful, though we must be prepared to face the argument that the temperature at the back of Profax tiles in many applications does not rise above 400C and hence the breakdown products here will be borderline. The real problem is that since people don't know exactly what parameter of asbestos cauees the hazards in the first place, it is impossible to cheok whether these are reduced cr removed at higher temperatures except by these long drawn out and inconclusive tests on animals. Finally, I third: that our best defence should be based on the following : ever, in thus U.K. where the Factory Acts with regard to the handling cf asbestos are tighter in their legal encorceability than anywhere else in the world,the regulations that impose the need for special dust extraction ecuipcer.t are based on both the concentration cf asbestos fibres in. the atmosphere and the length of time that workers are exposed to '-his on a continuous basis. I believe that it is most unlikely that these concentration time limits are ever met in a steel works stripping area, though because of the exclusion of asbestos in all hot tops supplied in the U.K. it would now be impossible to verify this fact here in England. I think it is also important to bear in p OS-SGj--Q2)3S2iCikoB IP.. K.C. PHGENH PSSZCO INC., U.S.A. 2nd July, 1971 JMH/N7J that if F.S. Llnltod had not taken this aggressive lead , asbcstos00atainlng hot tops might still be aoooptaale within the U.K. steel industry. I trust that these re marks are gelpful and look forward to your oommentB, I will natural ly be happy to discuss it in more detail when we next meet. Kind regards. Yours sinoerely. J.M. MACflAIR FDS-GG-CSSG0G2