Document r6ebQM8M71oV0bwnn5j6QKVZJ

FILE NAME: WR Grace (WRG) DATE: March 1, 1970 DOC#: WRG083 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: 1970 Newspaper article on clanger of asbestos. With cover letter sent to sales personnel by C Wendel. ZONOLITE CONSTRUCTION PRO D U CTS DIVISION INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE to: A H Sales Personnel-Pacific RegionoATE: f r o m : C. Wendel, Los Angeles cc: R. Vining, Cambridge R. Sterrett, Cambridge J. Beveridge, Cambridge T. Egan, Cambridge March 12, 1970 You will be interested in the attached article taken from the Seattle Times of Sunday, March 1, 1970. ' PACIFIC REGION C3A CE PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT tm M W A 6 ch i frratilf tTintrfl Sunday, March I, 1970 Professor atU. W. Meeting Notes Danger Spraying Asbestos for Insulationy By AL DIMFFENBACH Times Medical Editor Coreless praying of as bestos insulating materiai is on air-pollution n-t/olcm that has become a serious heaitii hazard. a Mount Sinai Scfcwi ni Medicine professor said her Friday. R e g u l a t i o n s should be ctratgenr. rapidly prepared and quukly whorced." Or. Irvinp l sriiknif. New York, a professor of medicine and environmental m e d i c i n e . ' said. Here to speak at the eighth annual symposium on Res piratory Diseases. Dr. Sefi- koft said ooa out at every four or five asbestos workers dies of lung cancer. The very fine mineral fibers are found almost invariably in the lungs of persons autop- sted in New York City, he said. i ONCE THE FIBERS get into the lungs, there is no way to remove them and they cannot be dissolved, he said. Dust counts taken during asbestos-spraying jobs show "on the'order of 20 times the normal amount" of dust in th r air, he said. Dr. Seiikoff said entire b u i l d i n g s sometimes are "contaminated ter life" bfr cause asbestos fibers are left loose after pipes and beams are sprayed with the insulat ing material in the areas bo- twee* floors and ceilings. These areas of "dead apace" often are used as re turn air ducts for a build ing's circulation system. he raid. "When asbestos fibers, are being sucked from these area* into the circulation . system of a building, 1 think I would have to call this one nf the most reprehenstole habits we have found," he said. ' He said he has become in creasingly concerned about the introduction of new ma terials and techniques before their effects have been ac curately measured. The. present controversy about -possible harmful ef- I'SJs of birth-cootrol pills is one instance. Dr. Seiikoff said. Another is the use of enzymes in detergents, he added. He said there have beea a "very significant" numocr of asthma cases -- some with serious illness and others with permanent ill-effects-- among workers in deter gent-packaging factories. THE ENZ YME S form about 1 per cent of a deter gent m i x t u r e . About 10,000,000 pounds of the en zyme was used in 1S6S. Dr. Seiikoff said, but about 10 times that much will be used this year. Workers now are protected from the hazards of inhaling the detergent dust and its "very active, biologically" enzyme cargo, be said, but asked: "What happens to th 60.0<.i).000 women exposed t a low level, intermittent dor of possible enzyme inhai; lion?" He said there is lift! ,knowled2e on the suijec extent that the ill effect could be culler .lilcrpiC rea> tion to inhaling thr sut stance or a direct effect c> the lining of the bronchi* lubes. 200005A5