Document ppRM2r8ZBEo8wk3KbL9nzMv5X

ST0272883 Use of asbestos so-said safe wall and floor coverings. They have to go outside for extended SIR: The journal Science published a periods to recover. Others had to take study of medical experts who found that the "asbestos panic" may be leading to costly and unnecessary removal efforts. We were brainwashed into believing that asbestos is a very dangerc ardnogen. Nobody can dispute the fact that asbestos is an odorless, nontoxic mineral But does not give up any vapors. It is also the best filtering material. Those who condemn the use of asbes tos do not recognise that flit Bluwbefof fire deaths has sharply increased since leaves of absence or could not return to work there. If we are forced to spend more than $30 billion to remove asbestos from pub lic and private buildings, we should as sume that asbestos it a major cause of death in the US. A 1986 statistic of caus es of death does not even list the 12JOOO people who, according to EPA claims, die annually from asbestos-related caus es. All persons who work in areas filled Triaafotton containing those fibers has with enormous amounts of dust are at been removed from many bniMi^gy risk to be afflicted with lung diseases. is not installed any more They slap Coal miners, flour millers, bakers, etc. seem not to know that many of the ma- fall into this category. If ever a school tfflais that replaced sstwstns teacher or student would have come more dangerous to health than it down with asbestosis, it would have was. The carbon monoxide. nicotineA made the national newt. nail polish, fumes emanating from some A section of the MacNeil-Lehrer kinds of carpeting and insulation mats' News Hour on Feb. 6 deplored the fact rials, etc. that are circulated with the that the Johns Manville Trust Fund is cooled or heated air of totally climate- unable to satisfy the outlandish claims of controlled buildings are thousands of i some suffering asbestos workers. The times more harmful to our lungs than] judge who tried these suits should have floating asbestos fibers. Asbestos is n-J asked those men and the tort lawyers plained by the air filters. / why they did not use common sense. The employees in the Environmental Simple masks'would have kept those Protection Agency headquarters outride . rather coarse and long fibers out of their Washington, D.C, get rick from inhal j lungs. It is also a good bet that most of ing the chemicals emanating from the i the afflicted claimants were heavy smokers. The benefits of asbestos outweigh the dangers of early death by so much, that its use should be considered an accept able risk--like trace amounts of carcino gens in our food and water supply. There is a definitive need that the en forcers of the Delaney clause use com mon sense when they make their rul ings. We ban substances that seem to cause cancer in highly inbred rets who are exposed to or fed unrealistically high quantities of the material to be tested. When minimal risks are outweighed by great benefits, the banning of the prod uct should be decided by experts. If the money spent on asbestos re moval were used to improve education or to fight such deadly killers as the hu man immunodeficiency virus and hepa titis, life in this country could be im proved. OttoSeilg Apl is. 1090 cast Petersburg. Vs.