Document qayZY9NQ1qbxzroL2ZaOrE96M
FILE NAME Special Asbestos SA DATE 1978 Aug 22
DOC SA010
DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Letter to Special Materials Inc from ABC with Program Transcript
News Street New York New 10023 Telephone 212 LT1-7777
August 22 1978
Mr. R. Wareham President
Special Materials Inc.
3628 West Pierce Street
Milwaukee Wisconsin 53215
Dear Mr. Wareham
Your letter to Mr. James Duffy has been forwarded to me for reply We regret that you found Asbestos The Way to Dusty Death unsatisfactory
The relationship between smoking asbestos and disease applies only to lung cancer as far as is now known and there seems to be no relation between asbestos and smoking when it comes
to asbestosis or mesothelioma Since asbestosis is the most
frequent result of exposure to asbestos and mesothelioma
increasinagt an incredible rate it seems
argument isn't really all that valid
to us
that
the
is
smoking
As for zeolite none of the experts we talked to in or out of the industry ever mentioned it As you point out Dr. Selikoff who surely must be regarded as one of the reigning experts on asbestos and disease clearly says that as far as is known asbestos is the only cause of mesothelioma
Nowhere in the program did we espouse the benefits of
socialization or nationalization That is your own interpretation As for government controls they've been in existence for some years now The question is not whether the controls should exist but at what levels they should be set
Fr Weg hopyoeu find other Closeups more to your liking 007701705 175
Sincerely
. PH li
Pamela Pamela Hill Hip
Executive Producer
Spec_Mat_0067605
RADIO TV REPORTS INC
+
3
91185
4435 WISCONSIN AVENUE N.W WASHINGTON DC
244-35
& boeeEvB e]
FOR
THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION
PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT con
_
SBCA 5051
exhibtscker
PROGRAM
ABC News Closeup
STATION
WJLA ABC Network
2
DATE
July 14 1978
10:00 PM
CITY
Washington D.C.
SUBJECT
vos
Asbestos The Way to Dusty Death
JULES BERGMAN Asbestos is a common mineral easily
mined to make textiles cement insulation and hundreds of
commercial products The darker side is the dust When inhaled
it can start years later
the
body
towards
cancer or
-
irreversible
lung disease
MAN
Sometimes it's so dusty
like a foggy day And one time I asked
he said to me Well we know that it's
but it won't hurt nobody
there that it was just my supervisor and all a little uncomfortable
BERGMAN Before this century ends asbestos will kill or cause serious disease in hundreds of thousands of people
The
MAN
The real
person is crippled
effect of the disease is the
He is a respiratory cripple
living
death
MAN asbestos to any lated cancer
Fifty percent of those people who've worked around degree will die of lung cancer or some other re-
;
MAN
It's the same as putting a gun to your head and
pulling the trigger and the bullet has 20 years to get there
what you breathe today is going to kill you 20-30 years from now
WOMAN My mother died 10 years ago from pleuromesothe-
lioma And my father died last year of metastatic edena passa-
noma ? a form of cancer
And I was stricken last May with
pleruonesothelioma
1 directly attribute it to asbestos exposure
MAN Coughing
OFFICES IN YORK
LOS ANGELES
CHICAGO
DETROIT AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
BERGMAN The real tragedy is that this need
happened There were clear
not have
industry by a negligent
warnings but they were ignored by
government and by the medical profes-
sion All failed to warm millions of workers in time
MAN ain't no need
just short of
singing
of tryin
dyin
They tell me I can't
But livin like some
work at
used
all there
thing is
BERGMAN
In this program we'll look at
to the workers and other victims and who allowed
aster to take place who led them on the way to a
* *
what happened
this human dis-
dusty death
BERGMAN Georgia Tech had some great football teams in the early 50s and Franklin Brooks
Jackets played in four
was part of them The Yellow
consecutive bowl games and Franklin Brooks
played in all of them That's him number 60 making the tackle
was
voted
This is the Sugar Bowl game of the most valuable player
..
1956.
Franklin Brooks
with
Summers he worked in an insulation plant like this
asbestos board and pipes It was dusty one told him
it was dangerous
coach
Football By age 42
was his life he was back at
First as a player then as a .
Georgia Tech an assistant coach
Then he got sick asbestos cancers
mesothelioma the most deadly of .
FRANKLIN BROOKS
I'd say it's worsened
I have the most severe pain that I've had and I
lately because
ness of breath
I've had to
have a real short-
I haven't used it
get an oxygen tank in my room And
yet but it won't be long before I think I'll
have to use oxygen
I can't walk fast or walk up steps
If I do I get out
of breath That's an
they
the
indication that things are not as good as
were
shortness of breath and the severe pain that I have
BERGMAN The asbestos dust that does the
be magnified thousands of times before
damage has to
and
fifty thousand of these specks
you can laid end to
see
end
it Two hundred would equal one
inch
It was just such specks that changed Franklin Brooks life
I
BROOKS
I was just about a pounder and that's what
weighed when I became ill
I'm down now to about 140
I
my turtleneck to hide the loss of my muscles
wear
& Ero
EE 22
2
I'm not talk to
it you
I have two children sure that they realize
one
how
youngster 20 and daughter 16
serious it is
I've tried to
them at times but they're very reluctant to talk about
know and my wife is reluctant to talk about it
and for
MRS
it's going
a miracle
BROOKS ^ think one day to all disappear But I
it's going
guess not
Well maybe Because we love him
to get better
I'm hoping
Clip of woman saying prayers with Frank Cullen
BERGMAN Frank Cullen is too sick to go to church so
the church comes to him
Clip of praying
last
BERGMAN
It's been more than 30 years since Frank
worked with asbestos That was during World War II
Cullen
Clip of praying
serving
BERGMAN Frank Cullen was a boilermaker
on destroyers like the U.S.S. Davidson
during
the
war
FRANK CULLEN Every time you did 2000 hours you'd have
to remove the asbestos on the lines While they were doing this
you'd
soot
be walking in
You name it
all this garbage
it was all there
asbestos
all
over the place,.
for
_ MAN singing
I did my part in
the nation
Now my lungs are all shot
World
down
War II got
there ain't
pensation
I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time
going to go to work on Monday one more time one more time
going to go to work on Monday one more time
wounded
no com-
I'm I'm
BERGMAN Frank Cullen never worked with asbestos again
He left the Navy married had eight children
Now he has eight
grandchildren as well
Then in 1977 he started to cough uncontrollably
first
DR film in
IRVING SELIKOFF 1975 was normal
These are
Actually
Mr. his
Cullen's rays lung at the time
This
was
not normal but we couldn't see it on the ray
A little over a
"
year or a year and a half later he began to have some problems
And
this here
film is in April
on the lining of
of 1977 and you begin
his chest
And that's
to see something growing unhappy news That
turned out to be a mesothelioma mesothelioma
Hospital BERGMAN Dr. Irving Selikoff of New York's Mount Sinai
very
DR
effective
SELIKOFF
in
Our treatment
effective in most cases
for mesothelioma
is not
BERGMAN Mesothelioma is caused by what
DR SELIKOFF
for it is asbestos
Well so far the only cause that we know
CULLEN My strength is all gone I have
anymore
I can't even take the top off a
no strength
know is that I'm 60
catsup bottle All I
has taken
years of age right now and my whole life
a complete turn
I was
Now
-~
I'm
not
going
to
be
a
bed
figuring on retiring at 62
able to do
case but I'm not going to be
anything like I used to do
I used to do a lot of
woodworking and stuff like that I'm restricted now
I don't sleep in a bed
have to elevate this chair
I
I sleep in this chair
to sit
can't in a flat bed
up Otherwise 1 -~ once I lay down the coughing
-
And I
I have starts
I'm at the point now when I have four
~
and
these
are
the
times
when
you
should
enjoy
children married your family But
the way it is now you can't even
the same time
have too many in your house at
and
You've got to be every mindful of colds and
everything that comes in
disease
disease that you get
is pneumonia
If
you
have
Because any
a problem
kind of And the
a respiratory biggest danger
have
you ever got pneumonia forget it You don't
a chance in hell to get over it
Sinai
BERGMAN About every month
for a week of chemotherapy
Frank Cullen goes
into Mount
nothing
CULLEN else open
If for
this doesn't work then me at the present time
that's
it
There's
Sometimes I feel that my lung is pulled
golf ball and 1 get a little pain but not
up
then it goes away You're never
anything
where
completely free of
you can see you were really feeling good
tight as a
too 33 and
you know
BERGMAN Frank Cullen is deeply in debt The
Administration has denied his claim for
Veterans
can't prove that his Illness
compensation saying he
War II He is the victim
came from his service during World
too
of an Indifferent Navy a Navy that for
we'llmanlyookyeaarts thdaetlibneerxattely ignored the dangers of asbestos And
*
*fi
*
with than
BERGMAN In a sense it all began back in the frnatic effort to build
a million men
enough ships to win
and women worked around the clock
World War the war
II
More
in these ship-
0
B)
yards and the use of we're seeing today a
back to those days
asbestos jumped dramatically Part sharp increase in asbestos disease
of what goes
retardant
Asbestos is safe and useful as an insulator and flame-
as long as it remains intact or is safely covered That's
why so much of it is used on ships boilers and pipes But when it
breaks down or is disturbed the microscopic asbestos dust is
released can be inhaled and ultimately cause cancer
In the rush to build thousands and thousands of ships
no one really considered the health hazards Ships to carry goods
to our fighting men and allies around the world and warships a
huge
fighting
fleet all
AY
using
large
amounts of
asbestos
CHARLES EYE The Navy during the early war years
they built a tremendous armada to rain havoc and hell on the whole
world And we did that
BERGMAN Charles Eye of the Asbestos Workers Union at
the Long Beach Naval Shipyward
AY
EYE And today we have workers who are dying asa result
of that tremendous Navy The only thing that happened is the guns quieted but the disease that we built into that ship now has turned on the person who built it And we continue to kill our own at the -- actually at a rate faster than we did -- or number more than what we did during the war
ABC News tell the
BERGMAN The Navy could have avoided today's disaster
has obtained Navy documents never before made public that
behind story
E947safety warneddangers asbestos dust But it took almost 30 years for theNavy to act
Finally Navy said it would limit the use of asbestos
aboard itsships
At about the same time shipyard unions at the Electric
Boat Company Groton Connecticut which makes nuclear submarines
Dr. specialists became concerned They called in
Mount Sinai Hospital
Selikoff's
from
-
DR SELIKOFF
We examined a thousand men who were actu-
ally in the yard at the time We didn't expect to find too much
because in general when you those are the healthy people
examine and the
people who are working well
fellows who are sick aren't
there anymore
And we were rather surprised to find that about
half of them had changes on their rays which were rather typical
of what we find with asbestos
.
BERGMAN
Half of them
ey * vt so
Pata
ly
DR SELIKOFF Yes And mind
only the men who were there 15
you we tended to examine
ters and electricians and
or more years We examined carpen-
nicians guards
riggers and machinists radiation tech-
welders
for
truckers all sorts of men who worked
example boilermakers painters And
in the yard
had abnormal rays
among them 50
:
Did
they
BERGMAN The Navy and Electric
let you see worker records
Boad
did they
help you
case
DR SELIKOFF No.
didn't seem to think it
The
was
Electric Boat Company in any
wise to show us any records
BERGMAN Did they help you at all
;
DR SELIKOFF Well no
-
|
-
BERGMAN Even today Navy yards aren't
therefore not as safe for the
as clean and
did
take
some
positive
steps
worker as they should be The Navy at the Philadelphia Navy Yard with
tpoo s wwe orrkeerds vacuum cleaners and protective clothing for the asbes-
an asbestos suTbhsitsitwuatse a demonstration put on just for us using
.
a
The Philadelphia yard was the
would let us film But ABC News has
only one the Navy would
which show that its
obtained internal Navy reports
violations
own inspection of that same yard found damaged asbestos insulation Inadequate vacuum numerous
and protective masks and loose asbestos
cleaners
there is the same pattern of violations atscroatpheraroyuanrddsthe yard And
Norfolk personnel protection
not properly trained
Inadequate new workers
'
improper
And at Puget Sound lack of
use
of
respirators
and
a
proper weak
protective clothing
enforcement program
The conclusion is inescapable
jeopardized
Workers are still being
John Cleary of the Metal Trades Council at Puget Sound
saws JOHN CLEARY So they get in there with
sometimes which blow air
saber saws
times with hammers even around and they just chop it away some-
in there pulling these
And it looks like a snowstorm when you're
them back to the
valves and these steam lines out to take
shop to work on them
BERGMAN The Navy's medical program is also deficient
Although it made a big show of examining 5000 workers at
delphia yard the medical
the Phila-
do a
procedures were inadequate You cannot
proper study for asbestos disease without using specially
J
@
@@@ @@
@@
qualified doctors to read the rays They're called B readers
The Navy did not bother to hire B readers for the Philadelphia
medical survey The result was that the Navy found only five per-
cent of its shipyard workers a figure far below any other
had asbestos
such study
lung changes
Nor were there any B
several years ago when Charles exams being given
readers at
Eye became
the Long Beach Shipyard suspicious of the Navy
Ay
;
all
EYE Everyone was told the same thing Everthing's right Everybody's in good shape We didn't believe it We
started getting
And so my local
suspicious after looking at some mortality sent 22 rays to Dr. Selikoff which is a
rates
cross-
sample wise duration of trade that sort of thing
of the 22 came back with asbestos disease
And 17
BERGMAN Some of those 17 have already Eye's father also a shipyard worker has died of cancer And Eye himself now has a problem
died Charles asbestosis and
EYE
I have about 25 of my lung capacity is gone as
a result of asbestos disease
I tire very easily going up and
down stairs doing any type of physical hard physical work 1
become very fatigued very rapidly
tinuous
But once
thing and
you get it it's irreversible ultimately I'll die from it
It's a con-
doctors
BERGMAN Finally the to interpret the rays
Navy
has
started
using
qualified
U
In the study just completed at Long Beach covering 6640
employees
they
found
that
1061
almost
16 --
that's
{
out of
6
--
with asbestos abnormalities That was for the whole yard
But for older workers those who have worked at Long Beach for
more than 22 years the figures doubled One out of every three of
them has asbestos disease and were told there is no cure
At Pearl Harbor the Navy seems more concerned about
publicity than about
the asbestos
the health of its workers
program began only 237 out
Four years after of 3000 workers
have been record so
examined and only 72 of them have been rayed A bad the yard's commander wrote other yard commanders
urging they move more rapidly to quote get ahead of the power
curve before the media make us look like
kicking and screaming into doing what is thing end quote
we are being dragged legal and the right
At the Mare Island Navy Yard the unions not the Navy
arranged for a study by Dr. Polakoff an occupational health specialist from Berkeley California Dr. Polakoff examined 359 shipyard
workers and found was one of them
that 59
had
lung
abnormalities
John Morris
dotaa ie
4 45
JOHN MORRIS Hey when you're down there this stuff
exposed
And once
you you
know hit it
It's laying
or tear it
there it's dormant
it's going to fly on
you
know
going to get on them and it's going to kill them
people it's
there's nothing that they're doing about it right nyoow u know And
MAN
It's not the government that has to
widow The widows call me
and
answer to the
It's not the
up
say Where do we go from here
government that has to answer to the worker who's
coughing and short of breath It's not the government who has to
try to file a claim so workers who worked for the
in private Industry for 30 years can get some
government or
he's alive or not to help his children get thrcooumgphensscahtoio ol n whIett'hser
not the government who's answering these questions
630
BERGMAN The Navy has been just as law with its ships
as it has with its shipyards
It's older ships were built with
asbestos
It's newer ones are supposed to be asbestos wher-
ever suitable substitutes can be found But these insulating pads
containing 80 asbestos came off two brand vessels the U.S.S.
Elliott and the U.S.S. Tarawa Both ships were built by Litton
ndustriesat this shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi When we
asked Litton told us flatly that it used no asbestos on the
But these pads came from those ships and there is
ships
stitute
a suitable sub-
-
So the Tarawa and the Elliott join the rest of the fleet still using asbestos insulation And the Navy can't seem to control
asbestos repairs at sea to cut the down the exposure of its own
crewmen .
.
Last October the Navy again prohibited asbestos repairs at sea unless stringent safeguards were met The directive com-
plained that some and they were not
ships were not complying
because they could not
with
the original
orders
U.S.S.
comply board
Again unreleased Navy documents The Commander of the
Enterprise
because the
responding to that directive said he could not
necessary filters and respirators were not on
More recently and more damning a Navy study of the Atlantic fleet found that 85 of the ships inspected had no controls
at all on asbestos repairs performed at sea
happens
And so it goes
The Navy issues orders and nothing much ,
MAN You have this glant marshmallow Navy and where do
C
you grab the corner to get a marshmallow down on its back And
it's hard to personally get mad at -- if you had somebody standing
there denying it one
unions could go after
single
that
person could single out then the
But we've got the Navy and we've got
all their subordinate agencies and they're contracting this work
out
And all of them deny that any of them have an asbestos prob-
Iem and that they're doing their best And as Charlle said they
just snow you under with paperwork
BERGMAN We confronted the Navy with its own reports
surveys and audits
It refused to comment Why The major reason
hundreds of millions of dollars in unsettled claims
The government has advising shipyard workers to
to pay for the exams
finally taken a tentative step by
see their doctors
It didn't offer
-
now
yard
Before our asbestos epidemic is over many years from
those claims will climb into the billions not only from shipworkers but others as well And we'll look at that next
*
*
*
_
BERGMAN The riverside section of Paterson New Jersey
a grimy part of an old industrial town an area full of small fac-
tories and warehouses
Up on the hill rows of modest houses
All in all a drab and depressed area
When the history of asbestos is written this building
now a paint warehouse will play a grimly prominent role It used
to be the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company UNARCO for short
During World War II it made asbestos products for our ships
'
At
at all
The
day's
the time UNARCO operated here there were no controls
plant was filthy
And we now know that as little as
heavy exposure can start the deadly cycle
The men who worked here have been studied more thoroughly
than any other group of asbestos workers About 35 of them have
already died of cancer and other asbestos diseases That's more
than three times as many as would normally die of cancer
The
study now 10 years old is still going on
WOMAN
Your father worked at Union Asbestos and
Company in 1944 and we are interested in what he has since then and to see if the effects of the asbestos
fest themselves 30 years later
been dust
Rubber
doing
mani-
BERGMAN The UNARCO studied So far 35 of them The family connection is a new
workers
as well
concern
families are also being have lung abnormalities
.
10
lungs was
insulator
A week before this
removed Her only in a Massachusetts
interview one of Mrs.
exposure came from her
shipyard
Barbara
father
Gury's
an
MRS BARBARA GURY When he
covered with asbestos And I don't
came home his clothing was
like
It's a
know if you know what it looks
clothing
and
chalky substance when it accumulates it forms like a dust
and dries on
And that was
particle when it's touched
dad
my exposure to asbestos being hear his CCOU near
when he came home from work and when
my
clothes and
shipped
them over
the
porch
my mother to take off
took his work the excess dust
before washing them
your
BERGMAN father at the
You had mentioned
bus stop
you
used
run
down
and
meet
.
MRS GURY Yes very often and give him
he was covered at that time with the
inate in the 10
asbestos and it
you could see it flying around in the
big hug And
would dissem-
atmosphere
REPORTER How did you react when the doctor told you
of MRS GURY I was frightened frightened to death
knew -- I recalled every day of my mother's
I
father's
illness
and
knew what was
illness recalled my in store for me And I was
that much more read and I was frightened to death I'm
year mother two children a happily married
a
everything to live for It sort of
woman with
for me
puts a damper on everything
REPORTER Ed how did you feel when you first heard it
ED GURY
I cried
1 43 I wasn't angry I don't think
dI idtnh'itnk knI owwas very upset and perplexed I couldn't believe it !
knew her
anything about asbestos or anything at that time I
father had worked with it and that's what
- cancer
And I knew that the mother had
caused his
I couldn't at that
also had mesothelioma And
thelioma with the particular moment in time relate Barbara's meso-
more bizarre
parents But as the year went on boy it got
and more bizarre
And I can
hadn't been for God and the gift of faith htohnaetstlI y wosualyd thhaatve if it
bably jumped out a window a long time ago
pro-
I have two small children whom I love
And the other day 1 was -- I the street here toCentral
very very much
left the hospital and I went across
to
Park and I sat on the rock over there
get a little fresh air and sunshine and I saw this father
playing with his year boy and his six- or
daughter and
my two kids
they were playing baseball
And the girls wasn't as
which
seven
I do at home with
the 443 I just sat there and
good a hitter as mine but
what it's done to my wife cried my eyes out because that is
11
" almost
BERGMAN commonplace
Mesothelioma
once
very
rare
is becoming
DR SELIKOFF
From 1930 to 1960 we saw three cases
one every 10 years And we're a pretty big hospital we have
1200 beds we do almost 20,000 operations a year and so forth
And imagine we only saw three cases in 30 years Now why Dr.
Holland had three cases on his service at any one time
BERGMAN It cost Yale University 250,000 to get rid of its asbestos problem Evry ceiling in its story Art and Architecture Building had to be removed They had all been sprayed with asbestos Two thousand students use this building every day
Despite all we have known fectly legal until 1973 to apply it 150s 60s thousands were built
about asbestos it inside buildings that way
was per-
During the
Dr. Robert Sawyer of Yale's Health Service set the clean-
up in motion
C
DR ROBERT SAWYER
What drew our interest was the facts
that these open and exposed ceilings as we found them had begun
to break apart and to disintegrate And for instance these books
that were up near the ceiling were 14 if you put the book in it
might strike
the asbestos
the ceiling a little bit
It would be covered
material The people would blow them clean on
with
opening
them
BERGMAN The layer of asbestos dust DR SAWYER The cloud of dust would come up
This we found in persons doing maintenance work in the
building or doing custodial work dusting For instance we found
that the custodians would go through the library area holding a
plastic bag in front of their face and dusting the fallen debris
into the bag And we used monitoring devices to find
out what the exposures to these individuals were
We were quite
surprised to find that the levels found in such situations not
only in this building but in many many more that we've looked at
since can be in the vicinity of or indeed on occasion exceed
industrial standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration for industrial exposure
BERGMAN This is the World Trade Center in New York
That's asbestos dropping on the worker below
tos
Another building in New York The dust contains asbes-
An apartment complex in New Jersey Ceilings throughout
12
were sprayed because they
with asbestos Some tenants are suing
consider the asbestos a health hazard
the
builder
you
Even after 1973
called it decorative
that use
asbestos could still be sprayed if It took EPA five more years to stop
with
School buildings too
asbestos ceilings
Thousands of them had been built
A government inspection In New
Jersey of 48 schools showed thirds of the ceilings were damaged with considerable risk of asbestos contamination The
government now recommends they be removed
.
And in this country what goes up eventually comes down
Most buildings except the very oldest contain some asbestos
and demolition spreads the dust into the area an unintentional
danger for a product that serves man in many useful ways
Almost everyone who
asbestos dust dust in their lungs
lives
in an
urban
area has some
recently
Despite all tightened up
that was known about asbestos regulations for house wreckers
the EPA
to keep
only
the
dust
with
spreading But there are still many people who asbestos and don't know that if can be dangerous
work
as 73
dust is
All brake linings contain
As they wear down or when they
released
asbestos some as high are replaced asbestos
Three years ago government scientists recommended that
asbestos the asbestos asbestos dust be vacuumed out instead of blown But the Occu-,
pational Safety and Health Administration ignored the recommen-
dation
1976 study found that 25 of the mechanics sampled had
abnormalites lung abnormalities abnormalities Nine hundred thousand workers are exposed to
brake lining dust
SafetyNor is there any regulation on labeling lining
boxes OfOf the five we examined one had rather detailed precau-
tions printed on it Two had caution labels one on the bottom
of the
where it was not likely to be seen And two others
warnings had no warnings at all
And the argument of how much asbestos is too
tos still goes on The current standard is two fibers
centimeter of air The government wants that lowered
resists
.
much asbesper cubic
Industry
Dr. Paul Kotin Medical Director and Senior Vice Presi-
dent of Manville the largest asbestos company in the world
DR PAUL KOTIN
In the case of asbestos I think that
13
C
C
we or
are creating no asbestos disease
Gl cancer as you -- at two fibers
career
lung cancer mesothelioma per cc or less for a working
BERGMAN Then why do the government's top experts want to see the two fibers per cc lowered to .5 or even less
wrong
DR KOTIN Because the government
before and they're wrong now
experts
have
been
BERGMAN Didn't you once say that there is no such thing as a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen
DR KOTIN
I sure did and
Surgeon General's committee in 1970.
tell you I'm smarter now
I said it as part of the
And I guess I'm going to
;
.
BERGMAN
a recurrence of the
tors disagree
A lot
past
smarter now but smart
Dr. Kotin thinks yes
enough to prevent
Most other doc-
Over the years industry and government too often be-
lieved that the limits then in effect were good enough And time
and again they were wrong
-
known
for
What is most
decades and
disturbing
no one did
is that the dangers anything about it
have
been
#
*
*
just
been
BERGMAN
It's not
discovered We've
as if known
the dangers of
about them for
asbestos have 70 years
1907 Asbestos disease is reported for the first times
In Great Britain
1918 The first report in the United States The
government says there is an urgent need for more investigation
of the health aspects of asbestos manufacture
But no one was
listening The war to end about to enter the Roaring
all wars was Twenties
ending
America was was
Even if the workers knew anything about asbestos -- and they didn't 14 there wasn't much they could do They had few
rights They could be fired at will Unions were either weak
or nonexistent
3927 ghe Best Medical Journal reports on asbestos
No one seemed to care
Americans were more intrigued by Babe
Ruth's 60th home run and an adventurous young pilot Charles Coolidge
Lindberg flew the Atlantic all alone President Calvin Coolidge
said the business of America was business He didn't say anything
14
about the worker
1928 The Journal of the American Medical Association
reported on a young woman who died of asbestosis asbestos disease wasn't
It wondered why
getting more attention One
cans were
10 years
living it up
but there was
Prohibition still
had
been
reason Ameriin effect for almost
plenty of booze to be had People
were having a good time No one cared
workers In 1930 The British now sure Dr. E.R.Merriweather
textile found asbestosis 26 of them Shortly thereafter the British took the first reduce
workplace one here did anything
were
hard
By this
to come
time by
America was
deep
into the Depression
Jobs
Clip of song , Brother Can You Spare a Dime]
BERGMAN
Occupational health
Workers Workers
got low
competed for what jobs priority Nothing was
there done
were
1934 The British British medical magazine Lancet reports on 100 cases of asbestosis and the first cases of lung cancer in
asbestos workers
1935 In this this country Dr. Anthony Lanza in a study done for the industry recommends control measures in asbes-
tos factories The industry industry he says seems quite uninformed of
the hazard Little if anything is done
asters
There
drought
were other other things to worry
creating creating dust storms
about
natural dis-
Clip of song , I'm a Dust Bowl Refugee
from
BERGMAN
under 100,000
By this time asbestos tons in 1910 to 700,000
production is growing
tons at the end
of
World War II Millions of people have been exposed And
little is done
still
1949 Dr. Ken Ken Smith Medical Director of the JohnsManville Company studies 708 asbestos workers and finds 534 with lung changes
John McKinney , the President of Manville
medical
Did you director
know Dr.
Ken Smith when
he was your corporate
JOHN MCKINNEY : Yes I did
15
employees
BERGMAN and found
You know he an asbestos
did a study of 708 danger way back in
Manville
1949
MCKINNEY Yes
BERGMANsince Smith called for a warning label on asbestos
packages and has since -- and it was overruled he's testified
for business purposes He was told it would hurt business
reason
MCKINNEY
I
for it
I know
know nothing about
that Dr. Smith has
I don't know that that's accurate at all
that that that was the testified to that but
BERGMAN Well it's sworn testimony in a federal court
about a
MCKINNEY Undoubtedly We think Dr. Smith was mistaken lot of things including his own policies
-
ports
eyes
BERGMAN on asbestos and did very
By the 50s and 60s there are scores of reBut the government turned its back closed its
little
sician
Dr. William Johnson a former Public Health Service phy-
.
.
DR WILLIAM JOHNSON The U.S. Public Health Service
conducted surveys of these plants under assurances of confidentiality They essentially shared the data between themselves and the companies and in a few instances with state agencies which traditionally have not been very aggressive as far as occupational health protection
state
BERGMAN governments
What you're saying is that the government and companies worked together
DR JOHNSON Yes very much so
BERGMAN Doesn't that amount to collusion
.DR fair to say
JOHNSON
If you want to call
it that
I think it's
oo .
Unfortunately I think there was an attitude of Well
let's 13 let's treat the worker as a guinea pig out there in that
plant and let's expose him over a lifetime
Let's see how many
of them develop problems with asbestos diseases Then
maybe in that way over a long time we can determine what a safe
level of exposure to asbestos is
DR SELIKOFF What we're seeing now is the result of
our inadequacies of the past of research that wasn't done of|
inspections that weren't made of regulations that weren't pro-
s < am
16
att
te
duced of laws that weren't passed of studies that
started
tunately
And now unfortunately we're paying that
too it's the people who worked under
were never
price Unfor-
that are paying the price we're not
those circumstances
It's unhappy to think that these
went to work thinking that somebody must be pelooopklieng laitke tMhre. sCituulal-en tion to see that it was safe or they knew about government departments Industrial hygienists and scientists and so forth And
there was no somebody
singing MAN
_
I did my part in World War 11 got
wounded for the nation Now my lungs are all shot down there
ain't no compensation I'm going to go to work on Monday one
more time
I'm going to work on Monday one more time one more
time
I'm going to work on Monday one more time The doctor
says I smoke too much don't know what I got
he says that I'm not tryin
but we both know he's
He says he
to go to work on Monday one more time
alyin I'm going I'm going to go to work
on Monday one more time one more time
I'm going to go to work
on Monday one more time The last time I went near my job I thought
my lungs were broken Chest bound down like iron bands I couldn't
breathe for choking I'm going to go to work on Monday one more
time
I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time one more
time I'm going to go to work on Monday more more time The
doctor says both lungs are gone there ain't no way shake it But
I can't live without a job somehow I've got to take it
m
going to go to work on Monday one more time I'm going to go to
work on Monday one more time one more time
I'm going to go to
work on Monday one more time They tell me I can't work at
-
there ain't no need of tryin But livin like
all
is just short of dyin
some use thing I'm going to go to work on Monday one
more time
I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time