Document qa3Bpjg10BYRXepmMREV0BKm5

FILE NAME: Raybestos-Manhattan (RBM) DATE: 1975 May 5 DOC#: RBM062 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Memo with Newspaper Article - Disease Found in 25% of Small-Business Workers Messrs. F. D. Baues D. F. C a llia r! F. S. Daly R. M. Gordon R. A. Jann J. F. Maciachlan R. R. Monili W. S. Sirpscn Many of you have probably seen the enclosed article distributed nationally by the Associated Press cn April 27. I t should be given.careful attention because i t points to an area where industry is especially vulnerable to third party suits because of lack of knowledge on the part of workers of hazards associated with the ra te ria ls they are handling. As workers in snail business are rare apt to use poor work practices because of lack of knowledge of occupational hazards, the liklihood of occurrence of injury or disease is greater than in larger and core sophisticated operations. The Bore! Case established beyond question the duty of manufacturers to warn of hazards. Assistant Secretary Stender has repeatedly and forcefully stated that manufacturers have the obligation to educate their customers in the safe use of their products. This is not an OSHA responsibility. It is questionable whether a caution label-such as that required by the OSHA Asbestos Standard is sufficien t warning in cases where a significant hazard can e xist. We know from the results of our own field te sts and those conducted by Mt. Sinai personnel that high dust levels can exist ;;.in brake service shops. Instruction sheets have been distributed to a ll <:Grey-Rock and Raybestos distributors of friction materials describing ' proper'procedures but we should nake certain that these instruction sheets got down o the small shops where they are most needed. Wo should also make certain ve have adequately covered other areas whore asbestos-containing products ray be processed in such a fashion as to cause unacceptable dust levels. C EiiC lo i? ir& John H. Marsh V` # Disease Found ` " ` ; in 25% of V/orkers i'**0 2 'w WASHINGTON, April 27 ia ?hs 5tud># -eluded chronic health and afety nihconntrt-; r(A ?w A study cion'' for the nrspirutory diiC2.se due to tee, Representative Dominick: Government has found that one.asbestos and ocher fibrous*Uke;V. Daniels. Democrat of New: out of every four workers work areasi loss of Jersey* said that the results of! a sample of small businesses: due to noise; eye cata*.che study were ^shocking. re-j employing from eight to lS0!rac.tt. ^rom m/ra.reradiation, jveaiing a possible people has an oecuoationaily!?0^, lead absorctioa.^f nacionai proportions." | derived disease and that 39 p e r t h e bloocLx I "If we had statistics from anl cent of these are not reported! 0n Iea<* osorption. the re -jj^ g p ^ medical survey of the? as recurred to the Labor De*iF?rt says. If exposures con-:naljon'3 workers, they would} pareneat. .tinue. senous illness may nrsultj^^y paint a picture of disease! The study was done in i ^ n o a u o n s . an(j chronic illness as horri-i state of Washington and Oregoni0^ a,Sn levels of lead storeoinify^ng ^ conditions in the sweat! bv the Uni-v-e-r-s-i-t-y of Washi--ng-*^6 blood is uruenown. \ iilc:'t*sbhlooopds oisf tuhneknlaoswt nc.eTnthureyi,-1^M--r. ton for the Nationai Instiruce;fi:t2nt f such conditionst^gjjjgi^ of Occupational Safety andjanong the employed popuiationi yjj* stuev was conducted be-1 healLh. It is to be published in (are no where available," the tween 1972 and 1974 in three? about six weeks. ireport says. industrial areas of Tacoma and! Seme of the diseases listed* The chairman of the House Seattle. Wasiu and Portland,) Ore., and an agricultural areal of Yakima County, Wash. *--------- -* t . . m j *