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FILE NAME: Shipbuilders Council of America (SHIP) DATE: 1978 July 14 DOC#: SHIP083 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: ABC News Transcript - Asbestos: The Way to Dusty Death RADIO TV REPORTS, in c . 4435 WISCONSIN AVENUE. N W WASHINGTON, 0 C. 244-354 FOR THE ASBESTOS INFORMATION ASSOCIATION PLAINTIFF'S 6 EXHIBIT | 'j SB.C..A-- 5...0-5-1--- |x PROGRAM ABC News Closeup s ta tio n WJLA-TV A8C Network DATE July W , 197 8 10:00 PM CITY Washington, D.C. SUBJECT Asbestos: The Way to Dusty Death JULES BER G M A N : A s b e s t o s is a c o m m o n m i n e r a l , easily mined, to make textiles, cement, insulation, and hundreds of commercial pr o d u c t s . The d a r k e r side is t he dust. When inhaled, it can start t he body to.wards cancer or i r r e v e r s i b l e lung dis e a s e years later. ~ MAN: Sometimes i t 's so dusty like a foggy day. And one time 1 asked he said to me, "Well, we know that it's but it won't h u r t n o body." t h e r e t h a t it was just my s u p e r v i s o r , and ail a little uncomfortable, BERGMAN: Before this century ends, asbestos will kill or c a u s e serious d i s e a s e in h u n d r e d s of t h o u s a n d s of people. MAN: T he real e f f e c t of t he d i s e a s e is the living death. The person is c r i p p l e d . He is a r e s p i r a t o r y cripple. MAN: asbestos to any 1ated c a n c e r . Fifty p e r c e n t of those p e o p l e w h o '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 b r e a t h e t oday is going to kill you 20-30 y e a r s from now. WOMAN: My m o t h e r died 10 years ago from p Ie u r o m e s o t h e - * lioma. And my father died last year of metastatic edena passanoma (?), a form of cancer. And I was stricken lasT May with d 1e r u o n e s o t h e 1 ioma. I d i r e c t l y a t t r i b u t e it to asb e s T o s exposure. MAN; rp.minh innl VatnaJ ftaoo TV Inc. may t> us*d ior fll* and ffftwoooe purposes &m i t not be sens V 0^.5-ctv o a rw e -v * * <>/ 2 B E RGMAN: T h e real t r a g e d y is t h a t this need not have h a p p e n e d . T h e r e w e r e c lear w a r n i n g s , but th e y were ignored by industry, by a n e g l i g e n t g o v e r n m e n t , and by the medical p r o f e s sion. All failed to warn m i l l i o n s of w o r k e r s in time. MAN ^singing!: ain't no need of tryin'. just s h o r t of dy in ' . They tell me I can't work at alt, there Bu t livin' like some used - u p thing is B ERGMAN: In "this p r o g r a m we'll look at what h appened to the workers and other victims, and who allowed this human dis aster to take place, who led them on the way to a dusty death. . * # * . B ERGMAN: G e o r g i a Tech had some g r e a t football teams In the early '50s, and Franklin Brooks was part of them. The Yellow J a c k e t s played in four c o n s e c u t i v e bow! g a mes, and F r anklin Broo k s p l ayed in all of them. T h a t 's him, number 60, m a k i n g the tackle. T h i s is t he Sugar Bowl g a m e of 1956. was voted the most valuable player.. Franklin Brooks Su m m e r s , he worked in an i nsulation plant, like this, with a s b e s t o s board and pipes. It was dusty. N o - o n e told him it was d a n g e r o u s . coach. Football was his life. First as a player, then as a By age 42, he was back at Georgia Tech, an assistant coach. Then he got sick: asbestos cancers. mesothelioma, the most deadly of F R A N K L I N BROOKS: I 'd say it's w o r s e n e d lately, bec a u s e I have the most severe pain that I've had and 1 have a real short ness of b r e a t h . 1 've had to get an o x ygen t a n k in my room. And 1 h a v e n ' t used it yet, but it w o n 't be long b e f o r e I t h i n k I'll have to use oxygen. I c a n ' t w a l k fast or w a l k up s t eps. If 1 do, I get' o u t of breath. That's an indication that thi n g s are not as good as they were, the shortness of breath and the severe pain that I have. BERGMAN: The asbestos dust that does the damage has to be m a g n i f i e d t h o u s a n d s of times b e f o r e you can see it. Two hundred and fifty thousand of these specks laid end to end would equal one inch. It was j u s t such s p e c k s th a t c h a n g e d F r a n k l i n Brooks' life. BROOKS: I was just about a 200-pounder, and that's what 1 wei g h e d when 1 became ill. I'm down now to a b o u t 140. I wear my turtleneck to hide the loss of my muscles. 3 I'm not talk to it, you I h a v e t w o children, one y o u n g s t e r 20 and a d a u g h t e r 16. sure t h a t they r e a l i z e how s e r i o u s it is. I 've t ried to them at times,, but they're very reluctant to talk about know, and my w i f e is r e l u c t a n t to t a l k about it. MRS. BROOKS: 1 think one day it's going to get better and it's going to all disappear. But I guess not. I'm hoping for a miracle. Well, maybe. Because we love him. CCIip of woman saying prayers with Frank CullenJ B E R G M A N : F r a n k C u l l e n is t oo s i c k to go to chur c h , so . the church comes to him. . CCIi p of praying! BERGMAN: I t 's been more than 30 years since Frank Cullen last w o r k e d wi t h a s b e s t o s . T h a t was d u r i n g W o r l d War II. CCIi p of pray ingU BERGMAN: Frank Cullen was a boilermaker during the war, serving on destroyers like the U.5.5. Davidson. . ~ 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 be w a l k i n g in all this g a r b a g e , a s b e s t o s all over t h e place, soot. You na m e it, it was all there. MAN C s i n g i n g ] : I did my part in W o r l d W ar II, got for the nation. Now my lungs are a l 1 shot down, 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 tine. 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. T h e n , in 1977, he star t e d to c o u g h u n c o n t r o l l a b l y . DR. IRVING SELIK0FF: These are Mr. Cullen's X-rays. This first film in 1975 was normal. A c t u a l l y , his tung at t he ti m e was not normal, but we c o u l d n ' t see it on the X - r a y . A little over a - year or a year and a half later he began to have some problems. And this fi l m is in April of 1977, and you begin to see s o m e t h i n g growing here on the lining of his chest. And that's unhappy news. That turned out to be a mesothelioma. BERGMAN: Hosp it a !. Dr. Irving Selikoff of New Y o r k 's Mo u n t Sinai 4 DR. S E L I K O F F : Our t r e a t m e n t for m e s o t h e f i o m a is not very e f f e c t i v e in m o s t cases. BE R G M A N : M e s o t h e l i o m a is c a u s e d by what? DR. SELIKOFF: for it i.s a s b e s t o s . Weil, so far the only cause that we know . CULL E N : My s t r e n g t h is ail gone; I have no s t r e n g t h anymore. I can't even take the top off a catsup bottle. All i know is t h a t I *m 60 years of age r i g h t now, and my w h o l e I ife has taken a c omplete turn. 1 was figuring on retiring at 62. Now -- I'm not going to be a bed case, but I'm not going to be able to do anyt h i n g like I used to do. I used to do a lot of woocworking and stuff like that. I'm restricted now. . J d o n ' t sleep in a bed; I s leep in t h i s chair. have T o e l e v a t e t h i s chair. I c a n 't lay In a flat bed. to sit up. O t h e r w i s e I -- once I lay down, the coughing And I 1 have sTarTs. ' ' - ^ I'm at the point now when I have four children married, and these are the times when you should enjoy your family. But the way it is now, you c a n ' t even have t oo m a n y in your house at the same time. You've got to be every mindful' of colds and disease end e v e r y t h i n g that c o m 6 s in. B e c a u s e any kind of a r e s p i r a t o r y disease that you get, you have a problem. And the biggest danger is p n e u m o n i a . If you ever g o t p n e u m o n i a , f o r g e t it. You d o n ' t " /"r'.. have a c h a n c e in hell to get over it. L ' BERGMAN: About every month, Frank Cullen goes into Mount Sinai for a week of chemotherapy. CUL L E N : If this d o e s n ' t work, t h e n t h a t ' s it. nothing else open for me at the present time. There's S o m e t i m e s I feel t h a t my lung is pulled up golf ball, and I get a little pain, but'not anything then it goes away. Y o u ' r e never c o m p l e t e l y fr e e of, where you can see you were really feeling good. tight as a too -- and you know, B E R G M A N : F r a n k C u l i e n is d e e p l y in debt. T he V e t e r a n s Administration has denied his claim for compensation, saying he can't prove that his illness came from his service during World War II. Me is t he v i c t i m of an i n d i f f e r e n t Navy, a Navy that for too many years deliberately ignored the dangers of asbestos. And we'll look at that next. ft * BER G M A N : In a sense, it all began back in World War II with the frnatic effort to build enough ships to win the war. More than a m i l l i o n men and women w o rked a r ound t he clock in t hese sti ip- 5 yards, and the use of asbestos jumped dramatically- Part of what w e 're seeing today, a sharp increase in a s b e s t o s disease, goes back to those days. A s b e s t o s is safe and useful as an insulator and f Iamer e t a r d a n t as long as it r e m a i n s intact or is s a f e l y covered. T h a t 's why so much of it is used on ships' b o i l e r s and pipes. B ut when it b r e a k s down or is d i s t u r b e d , the s u b - m i c r o s c o p i c a s b e s t o s dust is released, can be inhaled, and ultimately cause cancer. In t h e rush to build t h o u s a n d s and t h o u s a n d s 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 using large amounts of asbestos. AY C H A R L E S EYE- (20; 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 Asb es t os Workers Union at the Long Beach Nava! Shipyward. AY Er-: And today we have w o r k e r s w h o a r e dying as a r e s u l t of t h a t t r e m e n d o u s Navy. T he only t h i n g t h a t h a p p e n e d is the guns quieted but the disease that we built Into that ship on t h e person w h o b u i l t it. And we c o n t i n u e to kill the -- actual!y, at a rate faster than we did -- or, more than what we did during the war. now has turned our own at number-wise, ABC News tell the BERGMAN: The Navy could have avoided today's disaster. has obtained Navy documents never before made public that ( behind-the-scenes story. * Itrrlf.L9:$<'3%t's~-:aw riS's'afe-T.yzr'ev'ie w w a r n e t f ; o t;:th ey d a n g er S7 o ff ,asbestos\;dusd~.'t:;Bu^^l,t:-tpok' a !nos 1~3 0; y e a r s f or the Navy to act ^ Final ly:>"-'Tit'-I9747~`th e-' N a v y said' it' w o u l d I imlt t he use of asbestos' aboard its.,,,sh Ips.? At about the same time, shipyard unions at the Electric Boat C o m p a n y in G r o t o n , C o n n e c t i c u t , w h i c h m a k e s nuclear s u bmarines, b e came c o n c e r n e d . They called in Dr. S e l i k o f f 's s p e c i a l i s t s from Mount Sinai Hospital. OR. SELIKOFP: We examined a thousand men who were actu ally in the yard at t h e time. We d i d n ' t e x p e c t to find too much, because, in g e n e r a l , when you e x a m i n e p e o p l e w h o are working, well, those are the healthy people; and the fellows who are sick aren't there anymore. And we were rather surprised to find that about half of them had changes on their X-rays which were rather typical of what we find with asbestos. . BERGMAN: Half of them? 6 OR. SELIKOFF: Yes. And mind you, we tended to examine on l y the men who w e r e t h e r e 15 or m o r e years. We examined c a r p e n ters and electricians and riggers and machinists, radiation tech nic i a n s , g u a r d s , t r u c k e r s , all sorts of men who worked in the yard, w e lders, for e x a m p l e , b o i 1e r m a k e r s , p a i n t e r s . And among them, 50% had abnormal X-rays. BERGMAN: The Navy and Electric Boad, did they help you? Did they let you see worker records? DR. S E L I K O F F : No. T h e E l e c t r i c B o a t C o mpany, in any case, d i d n 't se e m to t h i n k it was wise to s h o w us any records. . BERGMAN: Did they help you at all? DR. SELIKOFF: W e ! I , no. . BE R G M A N : Even toda y , Navy y ards a r e n 't as clean, and the r e f o r e not as safe for the worker, as they should' be. The Navy did take some positive steps at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, with high-powered vacuum cleaners and protective clothing for the asbes tos workers. This was a demonstration put on just for us, using an asbestos substitute. ' The Philadelphia yard was the only one the Navy would would let us film. But ABC News has obtained internal Navy reports which show that its own inspection of that same yard found numerous violations: damaged asbestos insulation, inadequate vacuum cleaners and protective masks, and loose asbestos scrap around the yard. And t h e r e is the same patt e r n of v i o l a t i o n s at o t h e r yards. Norfolk: personnel protection inadequate, new workers ' not properly trained. And at Puget Sound: lack of proper protective clothing, improper use of respirators, and a weak enforcement program. The c o n c l u s i o n is i n e s c a p a b l e . jeopard iz e d . Workers are still being . John Cleary of the Metal Trades Council at Puget Sound. JOHN CLEARY; So they get in t h e r e with saws, saber saws s o m e t i m e s , w h i c h blow air around; and they just- chop it away, s o m e times with h a m m e r s , even. And it looks like a s n o w s t o r m when y o u 're in there, p u l l i n g t h e s e v a l v e s and t h e s e s t e a m lines out to take them back to the shop to work on them. BERGMAN: T h e N a v y 's medical p r o g r a m is also d e f i c i e n t . A l t h o u g h it m a d e a big show of e x a m i n i n g 5000 work e r s at the P h i l a delphia yard, the medical procedures were inadequate. You cannot do a proper study for asbestos disease without using specially 7 qualified doctors to read the X-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 c ent of its shipyard w o r k e r s had a s b e s t o s - r e l a t e d lung changes, a figure far below any other such study. * ' Nor were there any B readers at the Long 8each Shipyard several years ago when Charles Eye became suspicious of the Navy exams being given. A'/ *TE: Everyone was told the same thing: " E v e r t h i n g 's all right. E v e r y b o d y ' s in good s h a p e . " We d i d n ' t bel i e v e it. We started getting suspicious after looking at some mortality rates. And so my local sent 22 X - r a y s to Dr. S e l i k o f f , which is a c r o s s sample, age-wise, duration of trade, that sort of thing. of the 22 came back with asbestos-related disease. And 17 . B E RGMAN: S o m e of t hose 17 have a l r e a d y died. C h a r l e s Eye's father, also a shipyard worker, has died of asbestosis and cancer. And Eye himself now has a problem. AY EYE: 1 have about 25 of my lung c a p a c i t y is gone as a resu lt of a s b e s t o s disease. I tire very e a s i l y going up and down stairs, doing any type of physical, hard physical work. 1 become .very fatigued very rapidly. But o n c e you get it, it's i r r e v e r s i b I e. t i n u o u s thing, and u l t i m a t e l y I'll die from it. It's a con BERGMAN: Finally, the Navy has started using qualified doctors to interpret the X-rays. - * In t he s t u d y just c o m p l e t e d at Long B e a c h , c overing 6640 e m p l o y e e s , th e y found th a t 1061, a l m o s t \6% -- t h a t 's I out of 6 -- with asbestos-related abnormalities. That was for the whole yard. But for o l d e r w o r k e r s , t h o s e w h o have w orked at Long Beach for more than 22 years, the figures doubled. One out of every three of them has a s b e s t o s d i s e a s e , and were told t h e r e is no cure. At Pear! Harbor the Navy seems more concerned about-bad publicity than about the health of its workers. Four years after the asbestos-control program began, only 237 out of 3000 workers have been examined, and only 72 of them have been X-rayed. A record so 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 m ake us look I ike we are being dragged k i c k i n g and s c r e a m i n g into doing w h a t is legal and the right thing, end quote. ' At the Mare Island Navy Yard, the unions, not the Navy, arranged for a study by Dr. Polakoff, an occupational health s p e c i alist from Berkeley, California. Dr. Polakoff examined 359 shipyard 8 workers, and found that 59$ had lung a b n o r m a 1i ti e s. John Morris was one of them. JOHN MORRIS: Hey, when you're down there, this stuff exposed, you know. It's laying there, it's do rm an t- Ii ke , you know. And o n c e you hit it or tear it, it's going to fly on people, it's going to get on them; and it's going to kill them, you know. And t h e r e ' s n o t h i n g t h a t t h e y ' r e doing a b o u t it r i g h t now. MAN: It's not the government that has to answer to the widow- The widows call me up and say, "Where do we go from here?" It's not the government that has to answer to the worker who's coughing and short of breath. It's not the g o v e r n m e n t who has to try to file a claim so workers who worked for the government or in p r i v a t e I n d u s f r y for 30 y e a r s can g et s o m e c o m p e n s a t i o n , w h e t h e r he's alive or not, to help his children get through school. It's not the government who's answering these questions. . BERGMAN: The Navy has been just as law with its ships as it has w i t h its s h i p y a r d s . it's o l d e r s h i p s w e r e b uilt with asbestos. It's newer ones are supposed to be asbestos-free, wher ever suitable substitutes can be found. But these insulating pads containing 80$ asbestos came off two brand-new vessels, the U.S.S. Elliott and the U.S.S. Tarawa. Both ships were built by Litton J n d u s + r i e s at t h i s s h i p y a r d in P a s c a g o u l a , M i s s i s s i p p i . When we asked, Litton told us flatly th a t it used no a s b e s t o s on t h e ships. B u t t h e s e pads ca m e from t h o s e ships, and t h e r e is a s u i t a b l e s u b stitute. 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 ships were not complying with the original orders, and they were not because they could not. Again, unreleased Navy documents. T h e Commander of the U.S.S. E n t e r p r i s e , r e s p o n d i n g to t h a t d i r e c t i v e , said he coul.d not comply because the necessary filters and respirators were not on board . More recently, and mor e 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 Na v y Issues o r d e r s , and nothing much MAN: You have this giant marshmallow Navy, and where'do 9 you grab the corner to get a m a r s h m a l l o w down on its back? And i t 's hard to p e r s o n a l l y get mad at -- if you had s omebody sta n d i n g t h e r e d e n y i n g it, one single person could s i n g l e out, then the u n ions could go a f t e r that. But w e ' v e got the Navy and w e 've g ot all their su b o r d i n a t e agencies, and t h e y ' r e contracting this work out. And all of t hem deny that any of them have an asbestos p r o b lem, and that they're doing their best. And as Charlie said, they just snow you under with paperwork. BERGMAN: We confronted the Navy with its own reports, s u r v e y s and a u d i t s . It ref u s e d to co m m e n t . Why? The m a j o r reason h u n d r e d s of m i l l i o n s of d o l l a r s in u n s e t t l e d claims. The government has advising shipyard workers to to pay for the exams. f i n a l l y t a k e n a t e n t a t i v e step by see t h e i r do c t o r s . It d i d n 't offer . now, yard B e f o r e o ur a s b e s t o s e p i d e m i c is over, ma n y years from those claims will climb into the billions, not only from ship wor k e r s , but o t h e r s as well. And w e ' ll look at th a t next. * * * - B E R G M A N : The" r ivers Ide se.ction of P a t e r s o n , 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 d e p r e s s e d area. ' When the h i s t o r y of a s b e s t o s is wri t t e n , this building, now a paint w a r e h o u s e , will play a g r i m l y p r o m i n e n t role. It used to be the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company, UNARCO for short. D u r i n g World War II, it m a d e a s b e s t o s p r o d u c t s for our ships. At the time UNARCO operated here, there were no controls at all. The plant was filthy. And we now know that as little as h a l f - a - d a y 's 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. T h a t 's more than t h r e e t i m e s as m a n y as would normal ly die of cancer. The study, now 10 years old, Is still g o i n g on. WOMAN: Your father worked at Union Asbestos and C o m p a n y in 1944, and we are interested in wh a t he has been s ince then, and to see if the e f f e c t s of t h e a s b e s t o s dust fest themselves 30 years later. Rubber doing mani BERGMAN: The UNARCO studied. So far, 35? of them, The family c o n n e c t i o n is a new workers' as well, concern. families are also being have lung abnormalities. * 10 A week before this interview, one of Mrs. Barbara Gury's lungs was r emoved. Her only e x p o s u r e came, from her father, an insulator in a M a s s a c h u s e t t s s h i p yard. MRS. BARBARA GURY: When he came home, his clothing was c o v e r e d with a s b e s t o s . And I don't know if you know what it looks like. ' It's a c h a l k y s u b s t a n c e when it a c c u m u l a t e s and dries on c l o t h i n g , and it forms like a d u s t - l i k e p a r t i c l e when it's t o u c h e d . And that was my exposure to asbestos, being hear his -- near my dad when he came home from work, and when my mother took his work clothes and shipped them over the porch to take off the excess dust before washing them. . BERGMAN: You had mentioned you used to run down and meet your father at the bus stop. . MRS. GURY: Yes, very often, and give him a big hug. And he was c o v e r e d at t h a t t i m e with t h e a s b e s t o s , and it would d i s s e m inate in the -- you could see it f l ying a r ound in the a t m osphere. REPORTER: How did you react when the doctor told you? MRS. GURY: 1 was frightened, frightened to death. i knew -- 1 recalled every day of my mother's illness, recalled my f a t h e r ' s illness, and kri'ew what was in s t o r e for me. And 1 was ' that much more well-read, and 1 was frightened to death. I'm a 35-year-o!d mother of two children, a happily married woman with e v e r y t h i n g to live for. It sort of puts a d a m p e r on e verything for me. R E P O R T E R : Ed, how did you fee! when you first heard it? ED GURY: I cried. I -- I wasn't angry, I don't think. I think 1 was very upset and perplexed. i couldn'T believe it. I didn't know anything about asbestos or anything at that time. I knew her father had w o rked with it, and t h a t ' s wh a t caused his cancer. And I knew that the mother had also had mesothelioma. And 1 c o u l d n ' t at th a t p a r t i c u l a r m o m e n t in t i m e r e l a t e B a r b ara's m e s o t h e l i o m a with th e parents. But as t h e year w e n t on, boy, it got more b i z a r r e and m o r e bizarre. And 1 can h o n e s t l y say that if it hadn't been for God and the gift of faith, that I would have pro bably jumped out a window a long time ago. I have two small children whom I love very, very much. And the other day I was -- I left the hospital and l went across the street here to Central Park, and I sat on the rock over there to get a little fresh air and sunshine, and 1 saw this father playing with his five-year-old boy and his six- or seven-year-old daughter, and they were playing baseball, which I do at home with my two kids. And the girls wasn't as good a hitter as mine, but the -- l just sat t h e r e and cried my eyes out, b e c a u s e that is what it's done to my wife. ' B E RGMAN: M e s o t h e l i o m a , o n c e very rare, is b e coming almost commonplace. OR. SELIKOFF: From 1930 to I960 we saw three cases, o n e every 10 years. And w e ' r e a p r etty big hospital; we have 1200 beds, we do almost 20,000 operations a year, and so forth. And imagine, we o n l y saw t h r e e cases in 30 years. Now, why, Dr. Holland had three cases on his service at any one time. ' B E R G M A N : It cost Yale U n i v e r s i t y $ 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 to g e t rid ' of its a s b e s t o s p roblem. Evry c e i l i n g in its n i n e - s t o r y A r t and A r c h i t e c t u r e B u i l d i n g had to be removed. T h e y had all been spr a y e d with asbestos. Two thousand students use this building every day. D e s p i t e all we have known a b o u t a s b e s t o s , it was p e r fectly legal until 1973 to a p p l y it inside b u i l d i n g s . During the '50s and '60s, thousands were built that way. Dr. Robert Sawyer- of Y a l e 's Health S ervice set t h e c l e a n up in mot ion. , 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 t h a t w e r e up near the ceiling were -- if you put t h e book in, it m i g h t s t r i k e th e c e i l i n g a little bit. It w o u l d be cove r e d with the asbestos material. The people would blow them clean on opening them... BERGMAN: The layer of asbestos dust... DR. SAWYER: The cloud of dust would come up. T h i s we found in persons doing m a i n t e n a n c e work in t h e building or doing custodial work, dusting. For instance, we found that the custodians would go through the library area holding a p l a s t i c bag in front of t h e i r face and d u s t i n g the fallen debris into the bag. And we used personnel-monitoring devices to find out what the exposures to these individuals were. We were quite s u r p r i s e d to find t h a + the levels found in such s i t u a t i o n s , not only in this b u i l d i n g but in many, ma n y m o r e that w e 've looked at since, can be in t he v i c i n i t y of or indeed, on o c c a sion, exceed industrial standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for industrial exposure. BE R G M A N : This is the World T r a d e C e n t e r in Nev< York. That's asbestos dropping on the worker below. tos. A n o t h e r b u i l d i n g in New York. T h e d u s t c ontains a s b e s An a p a r t m e n t c o m p l e x in New Jersey. C e i l i n g s t h r o u g h o u t 12 were sprayed with asbestos. Some tenants are suing the builder ' because they consider the asbestos a health hazard. Even after 1973, you called It d e c o r a t i v e . that use. a s b e s t o s could still be sprayed if It took EPA five m o r e years to stop . School buildings, too. Thousands of them had been built with s p r a y e d - a s b e s t o s ce i l i n g s . A g o v e r n m e n t inspection in Mew Jersey of 48 schools showed two-thirds of the ceilings were d a m aged, with c o n si derable risk of asbestos contamination. The government now recommends they be removed. . And in t h i s country, what goes u p 'e v e n t u a 1 Iy comes down.. Most buildings, except the very oldest, contain some asbestos; and demolition spreads the dust into the area, an unintentional d a n g e r for a p r o d u c t t h a t serves man in m a n y useful ways. ` A l m o s t e v e r y o n e who lives in an u r b a n area has some a s b e s t o s dust (n t h e i r lungs. . D espite all that was known about asbestos, the EPA only recently tightened up regulations for house wreckers to keep the dust from spreading. But there are still many people who work - with asbestos and don't know that if can be dangerous. All drum-brake linings contain asbestos, some as high v~- as 13%. As they wear down, or when they are replaced, asbestos dust is r e l e a s e d . Three years ago, government scientists recommended that the asbestos dust be vacuumed out instead of blown. But the Occu- , pational Safety and Health Administration ignored the recommen dation. A 1976 study found that 25* of the mechanics sampled had lung abnormalities. Nine hundred thousand workers are exposed to brake-lining dust. Nor is t h e r e any r e g u l a t i o n on lab e l i n g bra k e - l i n i n g boxes. Of the five we examined, one had rather detailed precau tions printed on it. Two had caution labels, on e on the bottom of t h e box, w h e r e it was not likely to be seen. And two o t h e r s had no warnings at all. And the a r g u m e n t of how m u c h a s b e s t o s is too tos still goes on. T h e c u r r e n t s t a n d a r d is tw o fibers centimeter of air. The government wants that lowered. resists. much asbes per cubic Industry Dr. Paul Kotin, Medical Director and Senior Vice Presi dent of J o h n s - M a n v II Ie , the largest a s b e s t o s c o m p a n y in the world. DR. PAUL KOTIN: In t he case of a s b e s t o s , I think that we are creating no asbestos disease: or 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 t o s ee t he t w o fibers per cc lowered to .5 or even less? DR. KOTIN: Because the government experts have been wrong before and they're wrong now. BE R G M A N : D i d n ' t you on c e say th a t t h e r e is no such thing as a safe level of exposure for any carcinogen? ` DR. KOTIN: i sure did, and S u r g e o n G e n e r a l ' s c o m m i t t e e in 1970. tell you i'm smarter now. 1 said it as part of the And I guess I'm going to - BERGMAN: A lot smarter now, but smart enough to prevent a recurrence of the past? Dr. Kotin thinks yes. Most other d o c tors disagree. . Over the years, industry and government too often be lieved that t h e limits then in e f f e c t w e r e good enough. And time and again, t h e y w e r e wrong. - Wh a t is m o s t d i s t u r b i n g is t h a t t h e d a n g e r s have been known for d e c a d e s , and no one did a n y t h i n g a b o u t it. * * * B E RGMAN: It's not as if the d a n g e r s of a s b e s t o s have just been discovered. We've known about them for 70 years. 1907 :- A s b e s t o s disease. Is r e p o r t e d , for the first time/, fn G reatBn:f/ta.i.tv*. !9I8: T h e first r e p o r t in the U n ited States. The g o v e r n m e n t says t h e r e is an u r g e n t need for m o r e investigation of the health aspects of asbestos manufacture. But no one was listening. T h e war to end all wars was ending. A m e r i c a was about to enter the Roaring Twenties. , Even if the w o r k e r s knew a n y t h i n g a b o u t a s b e s t o s -- and they didn't -- there wasn't much they could do. They had few rights. They could be fired at will. Unions were either weak or nonex i s t e n t . :19 2 e ~ B ' f r 7 M e d : i t c a J l 7 J o u r n a l r e p o r t s on asbestos. No one seemed to care. A m e r i c a n s were more intrigued by Babe Ruth's 60th home run; and an adventurous young pilot, Charles _ Lindbsrg, flew the Atlantic all alone. P re si d e n t 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 r e p o r t e d on a y o u n g woman who died of a s b e s t o s i s . It wondered why a s b e s t o s d i s e a s e w a s n 't g e t t i n g m o r e a t t e n t i o n . One reason, A m e r i cans w e r e living it up. P r o h i b i t i o n had been in e f f e c t , f o r almost 10 years, but t h e r e was still plenty of b o o z e t o be had. P e o p l e were having a good time. No one cared. JF930':.XTha Bri tIsh a r e j n o w ' s u r e . Dr. E.R./Merriweather? exanvi-necf -360 'tex*ki-t e w o r k e r s and.v.-found a s b e s t o s i s in 26J of -them. Shor-tf y.. t h e r e a f t e r ^.-Kthe Bri t ish .took t h e first- s t s p s ~ t o f r e d ucff :`asbasfos.-dust'-.clrr,the.x,workp, 1ace . ,,No. o n e :h e r e dj_d .anythj_ngf. By this time, America was deep into the Depression. were hard to come by. Jobs C C 1 ip of song, " B r o t h e r Can You S p a r e a D i m e ? "l BERGMAN: Workers competed for what jobs there were. Occupational health got low priority. Nothing was done. 1934: The British medical magazine Lancet reports on 100 c ases of a s b e s t o s i s - a n d the first cases of lung cancer in "a s b e s t o s wor k e r s . ' 1935: in this country, Dr. A n t h o n y Lanza, in a study do n e for the industry, r e c o m m e n d s d u s t - c o n t r o l m e a s u r e s in a s b e s tos factories. The industry, he says, seems quite uninformed of t h e hazard. Little, if a n y thing, is done. There were other things to worry about: asters, drought creating dust storms. natural dis [[Clip of song, "I'm a D u s t Bowl R e f u g e e " ] B E R G M A N : By th i s time, a s b e s t o s p r o d u c t i o n is growing, from under 100,000 tons in 1910 to 700,000 tons at the end of World War II. M i l l i o n s of p e ople have been exposed. And still, little is done. ' 1949: Dr. Ken Smith, Medical Director of the Johns- Manville Company, studies 708 asbestos workers and finds 534 with iung changes . John McKinney, the President of Johns-Manville. Did you know Or. Ken Smith when he was your corporate med ica I d irector? JOHN MCKINNEY: Yes, I did. I 5 BERGMAN: You know he did a study of 708 Johns-Manvil!e e m p l o y e e s and found an a s b e s t o s d a n g e r way back in 1949? MCKINNEY: Yes. BERGMAN: ' Smith called for a warning label on asbestos p a c k ages, and has since -- and it was o v e r r u l e d , he's t e s t i f i e d , for b u s i n e s s p u r p o s e s . He was told it w ould hurt b u s i ness. MCKINNEY: I know nothing about that, that that was the reason for it. i know that Dr. Smith has t e s t i f i e d to that, but i don't know that that's accurate at all. .' B E R G M A N : Well, it's sworn t e s t i m o n y in a federal court. MCKINNEY: Undoubtedly. We think Dr. Smith was mistaken about a lot of things, including his own policies. ports eyes, BERGMAN: on asbestos. and did very By the '50s and '60s, t h e r e are scores of r e But the government turned its back, closed its little. sician. Dr. William Johnson, a former Pubjic Health Service phy ` OR. WILLIAM JOHNSON: The U.S. Public Health Service conducted s u r veys of these plants under as s u r a n c e s of c o n f i d e n tiality. They essentially shared the data between themselves and the c o m p a n i e s , and in a few instances with s t a t e a g e ncies, which t r a d i tionally have not been very a g g r e s s i v e as far as occupational health protection. B E R G M A N : W h a t y o u 're s a ying is t h a t the g o v e r n m e n t , state governments, and companies worked together. DR. JOHNSON: Yes, very much so. BERGMAN: Doesn't that amount to collusion? DR. JOHNSON: fa ir t o s a y . If you want to cai l it that, 1 think it's Unfortunately, I think there was an attitude of, "Well, let's -- let's treat t h e w o rker as a g u i n e a pig o ut t here in that - plant, and let's expose him over a Iifetime. Let's see how many of t he m develop problems with asbestos-related diseases. Then m a y b e in that way, over a long time, we can d e t e r m i n e what a safe level of e x p o s u r e to a s b e s t o s is. DR. S E U K O F F : Wh a t w e ' r e seeing now is the r e sult of our i n a d e quacies of +be past, of r e s e a r c h that w a s n ' t done, of _ inspections that weren't made, of regulations that weren't pro- 16 duced, of laws that weren't passed, of studies that were never started. And now, unfortunately, we're paying that price. Unfor tunately, too, it's the people who worked under those circumstances that are paying the price; we're not. It's unhappy to think that these people, like Mr. Cullen, went to work thinking that somebody must be looking at the situa tion to see th a t it was safe; or they knew a b o u t g o v e r n m e n t d e p a r t ments, industrial hygienists and scientists, and so forth. And there was no somebody. MAN L s i n g i n g j : i did my part in W o r l d War It, g ot wounded for the nation. Now my lungs are alI shot down, there ain't no compensation. P m going to go to work on Monday one more time. I'm going to work on Monday one more time, one more time. P m going to work on Monday one more time. The doctor says l smoke too much, he says that P m not tryin*. He says he d o n 't know w h a t 1 got, but we both know he's a l y i n '. I'm going to go to w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time. I 'm g o i n g to go to work on Mo n d a y one more time, one more time. P m g o i n g 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 b r e a t h e for c h o k i n g , { 'm g oing to go to w o r k on M o n d a y o n e more time. P m going to go to work on Monday onemore time,one more time. I'm going to go to work on Monday moremore time. The doctor says both lungs are gone, t h e r e a i n ' t no way shake it. But I c a n ' t live w i t h o u t a job, s o m e h o w I've go t to take it. P m going to go to wo r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time. I 'm going to go to w o r k on M o n d a y one m o r e time, o n e m o r e t im'e. I 'm going to go to work on Monday one more time. They tell me I can't work at a 11, ~ t h e r e a i n 't no need of t r y i n '. Bu t livin' like some u s e-up thing is j u s t s h o r t of dyin'. P m going to go to w o r k on M o n d a y one , more time. I'm going to go to work on Monday one more time.... V