Document v12pYvRO79oe0OVX4j62gKZgE

PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT GF-1I50 w*|:s, jag 4 ItWtl +** ** ^SERIES R iqusrsd Inc. 241 sast shoes rotd, grot Mck, n.y. 11023 novtmter 27,1972 l "Safely on the Job Bccoms-s a Major Job for Management''' ii the title of a feature article in the November iuue of "Fortune". The validity of this premise ha* been establishes!; now management of American huvine** mu*l Find way* to mount an efficient effort at manageable cost. Butlnct* in the USA no longer ha* the luxury of setting Us own pace in *olving on-the-job safely and health problems. The Occupational Safety and Health Act changed that. Industries facing the most difficult problems have found wlutions: all management can learn from their example*. "Report Sene* on OS1IA" prevents the problem* and the rnlution* for examination. Up to the present time most management has had to contend only with on-the-job safely, but the asbestos industry has. in addition, the serious problem of an occupational health hazard. In fact, the health hazard through exposure to asbestos dust is eonsidx-red to serious that it has become tin* first permanent standard involving a health hazard to be promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administra tion. When the hazard of asbestos dust is discussed, the asbestos plant that most often enters the discus sion is Johns-Manville's Manville. New Jersey plant. JM*S Manville plant .. . can it meet all of the OSHA standards and still operate profitably! The bulfveyein the target for critic* of American Industry's occupational health record has been the Johns-Manville plant at Manville. New Jersey. Here at this plant, one of the ohlcsl and largest asbestos processing plant* in the USA. the significant incidence of diseases connected to sxptrsure lo asbestos dust was first spotlighted. Sinee these diseases appear ten to twenty year* after exposure, corrective measure* taken today, or even those started ten years ago. can not he judged as effective for certain for many more yean to come. And so the argument as to whether enough is being done will continue. During the month of November, at least two symposia on asbestos related diseases were held. The press release for the American Industrial Hygiene Association meeting on asbestos related diseases stales The meeting may heroine one of a ctmtntrersiaf nature. " Meanwhile, asbestos processing at Manville con tinues on a best efTorl basis. This is not lo say that all plants in the entire industry are also making a best effort. Since l`*bl . complete records of dust and asbes tos fiber samplings have been kept for the three operating divisions that comprise the Manville plant: In l*N,u. the asbestos fiber count from 101 of a total ol .117 station* was over the then JM standard TLV of h fibers per cubic cenltmeleis. In IU7' to date, the asbestos fiber count from 7 of .tOh stations exceeded the OSHA standards of 5 fibers per cubic centimeter. The program to reduce total dust and airborne asbestos fibers started at least ten years ago. The written and phologiaphic records at Manville of these improvements over the yean show- how thorough and complete lire change has been. The dust collection equipment, originally in stalled liad lo be improved and upgraded year alter year lo meet ever more stringent JM standards. (At the imposition of lire emergency asbestos standards by OSIIA in IXwmhcr l**7|. JM's own standards w ere comparable. I I'rosi-vses were impruved and the handling of asbestos w as changed from burlap bags opened in the room lo seah*d paper containers opened in an en closed part of the processing machine. Th K,|i,t iwsrisj .ifS ,H I..m. wj row. Is IS* Oii.rilwsa S.l n , Ml HiMIO All. nhMm| wtft i,ii,I hmm, IWM Ml Mw NsImmiI ImimsH lo, n,,wr,ooM S, '-l| Ml HnM Ml Ml *-- of OsjMaofwal Hnllh. Ml wlvll Ml UiM mImWmsoT Ml Ml lollO SAMIS Ts Sum! a AsmUt, MIAMI II ASMS I I,0.mA*H|MO W*** A 1*1.0*. ~I I 3&SSSti. ,****] MICH09306 Net only hxa the asbcatoa textile operation itelf been lifliplined, but it each machine dual, suppicnant b applied to the yam to prevent fiben from detaching. ' Reapmton am uacd at any and all alaliom where the monitoring of the fiber count in the air determines that the OSilA standard of 5 fibers per cubic centimeter has been exceeded. These arras re quiring respiralors are marfcrd by lines on the floor and posted. Even maintenance personnel entering the marked area for short periods must wear respirators. under conditions that lead to the discovery of the deadly nature of the material they were processing presumably for the benefit of man. For those with Irm sentiment, who ask the question "Can American Industry affosd the occupa tional safrty and health standards that the 1970 Act demands?" the answer seems also to he provided by JM's Manville plant. It is operating at a profit. JM'a Manville Plant... the record as the Union sees It Plant housekeeping Is scheduled, controlled, and constantly checked. The mandatory procedures have become habit with all employees, and l he responsibili ty for maintenance of standard practices lies with each plant manaerr. Corporate auditors for housekeeping pay unannounced visits to all JM plants such as Manville. Areas not passing prescribed practices arc photographed by the auditors. The picturrsarv pre sented to the plant manager, who. within a prescribed period of about one week, ntusl tend a picture of the same area to corporate headquarters showing that the condition has been rectified. These are not just in structions written in a manual: they are conditions that can be viewed any day in any part of tlh- Man ville plant. Manville is a plant wjili 2'00 employees, with training and organization so well set up that no more than two dozen men are required full time for safety znd environmental control. If you ask anyone at the plant why this is so. the answer is that it is everyone's job from Ihc lop down. Safely is so integrated with environmental con trol for health that it is difficult to separate them. Ask when the safely program started at Manville and llte answer comes hack "Before any employee here can remember.* * For the year 1471, three out of four manufacturing units at Manville had frequent-} rate of disabling injuries as low as the industries rated best by the National Safety Council. One nl the lour units did not have a good record fur I o' 1 The oxerall disabling injury rate for the sc-xenty-ojj JM plants for the last ten-year period lias steaJily de clined with the exception of !`>7| and is among Iinbest in manufacturing industries. If it were not for the fact that asbestos Just, m the last five years, has become recognized as a deadly health hazard. Manville might have been touted as a model plant. An environmental control program started at Manville in 1455 with one of the first trial hygiene laboratories in any American plain, and has been progrrssi:--adily toward correcting the health hazard conditions of dust. now-, and toxic substances before most other industries started such activities. If so much progress had not two made toward correcting the health hazard conditions mer a period of many years, this plant might today have been shut down. It is ironic that this plant j> the one where so many employees worked m the past Organized labor, which fought hard for the pass age of lliv *470 Act. then worked ritually hard for llte "creatii 1 of a strong and effective permanent enforcement standard on asbestos unjer the Occupa tional Safety and Health Act to protect workers who are exposed to asbestos fiber dust." Much of the Union's story of the Manville Plant was obtained in an interview with Robert Klinger. Vice President of Local 800. United rapermakers and Papcrwotkcrs). Boh Klinger is alert, knowledge able. and impressive as representative of the Union. He started in I4J4 in jlic Manville Plant as a machine operator in the pipe mill and has been a VP of the Local for three yean, spending full time now on Union business, lie participated in a presentation to the press by the Industrial Union Department. AFL/ CIO on March 14. 147?. prior to the public hearings, on the permanent asbestos standard. Until I9b7, Local 800 did not receive much in formation from Johnv-Manvilk* concerning the rela tion of asbestos to the health of Manville Plant em ployees. According to the Union, the Public Health Service studied the Manville Plant in 14<iJ. The re sults of this study were sent to the Company and to Ills- Stale of New Jersey, hut not to Local 800. A union request for an inscction in I9t>h by the Slate of New Jersey produced no results because the Stale lacked up-to-date air sampling equipment As lar as Lie.it 800 is concerned, progress toward cooperation by Johns-Manvillc started in |47 when, at the insistence of the Union, workers were told the- results of their company medical examinalions. Also in |4(,7. there was the October I? letter to Marshall Smith, then President of the Local. Ironi l)r. Maxwell Borovs which pointed to 18 eases of niesioiliclioina in Ihc area, possibly due to asbestos exposure. Dr. Borow staled in his letter that lie had rc-quc-sicd souk* financial aid toward preparing an exhibit to call the- dangers of asbestos exposure- to the atlc-nlion ol the medical profession. His letter stales ' that lie was turned down by Johns-.Manviilc-. Hob Klinger recounted without rancor certain incidences where Local 800 was turned down by JM in its ettorts to obtain cooperation toward recogni tion ol tile healiti hazard and the elimination of the causes. Certainly by today's standards, JM did make emus m imlgeim-nl in its relations with ns union. (9vl.- -V; .?.tv ar.Mt ."i-W*... '`ST *Bob Ulster credit* Marshall Smith with centlnueu* . -.'-7 Publication of'a booklet "What You Need to ^ffort, beginlning hi the eariy sixties, to educate tha Know about Asbestos" for employees of companies . ^union memben to the danger and to obtain action using asbestos in manufacturing and construction to ; ' from the ManvOk Plant. In anawer to a question. Bob V serve as an employee safety and health guide. . ' Klfaifer said that he hlnneir teamed of the danger of asbestoa dust about I96J and even then treated the biformation with a certain amount of disbelief. . . - si; 7p- t Maintaining contact with the Occupational Safe*; ty and licailh Administration to discuss problems relating to asbestos and to obtain interpretation of There was a strike in 1970 when the contract standards. : . between JM and Local 800 ended. A hard-fought Issue, although not the only one, Wat Union Insistence on joint participation In the "elimination and control &f. try Assembling general information for members, government, and all about ihe industry. indus ..; of objectionable environmental conditions at the " -'"`The Executive Secretary of the Association is Manville Plant." : : -- Matthew Swelonk, a man who can and does provide The new labor agreement, dated January 71, (1971, established a Union/Managrmcnl Environmen tal Control Committee. Both sides now frel this Committee brinp about quick action on such en Ihe facts and straightforward answers to questions shout the health effects of asbestos. The Asbestos Information Association is located at 77 East 40th Slicct. New York. N.Y. 10016. vironmental problems. - The way that Local 800 and the Manville Plant handle safely and health related activities has ob viously built up a great deal of good will between the parties involved. Payment of wages by JM to hourly employees while they are engaged in safety and health activities passes without notice at Mattville. This arrangement should not pass without notice at other companies. Some generalized eonehtslons about the asbestos Industry * experiener f>4 months after thr permanent standards went Into effeet. . . The source is Mall-, hew Swclonic. Executive Secretary. Asbestos Infor mation Association . . . Most operations were not as far from the 5 fiber per cubic centimeter standard as was believed at first, Speaking from his own evaluation, hut cognizant of hi* position as a Union official. Boh Klinger feels that conditions art well on Ihe way to the point where he can say with confidence to a new employee that conditions at the Manville Plant are healthy as wed as safe. The S fiber limit has been met by most opera tions without excessive economic drain. Based on the experience or a few plants, the 7 fiber limit is obtainable within Ihe three years al lowed. hut it is still a problem and is expected to he costly. . . The loss of business through switch from asbes tos to other materials is not yet significant. Tha Alberto* Information Association . . .it gives biformation and answan for an industry with with a health hazard problem All manufacturers using asbestos in their pro ducts can handle asbestos in compliance with OSHA standards using known methods and technology. m Recognition of Ihe problems that would be fonheoming from the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 coincided with the formation in December 1970 of the Asbestos Infor mation Association/ North America. Today the Association, comprised of nineteen Corporate Members, is an outstanding example of how an industry information association can function. AIA provides authoritative information on the effects of asbest os on health and how the health hazard can be controlled. In general, the AIA has six areas of activity: Publication of a manual by Ihe end of 1977 con taining engineering and other data to assist in com pliance with the OSHA asbestos standard. Conducting seminars on problems of asbestos related to OSHA. in four geographical areas of the USA for customers of member companies. OSHA . .. what's dona and what's doing A one-month (August 1977) OSHA inspection breakdown: about half of Ihe total inspections. 1356. were of manufacturing establishments. 5b5 were follow-up inspections resulting in cita tions for eleven employers for failure to abate pre viously cited violations, with proposed fines of SI 7.6.10. 557 employee complaints were received by OSHA. - 108 cases were contested to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Revised Tart 1910 Occupational Safely and Health Standards, which appeared in thr October MICH09308 ^ _ ___ ______ ^ ............. ~AjP1apaggsr-*!ag>jA> ?ng>.tjr;-qj fiS,^197J FidefI^Re|ifefi^oaM now'll* rvzfl*bl3ti''jbited the violations, and thit all of thej ^ Fat Regional or Am OSHA ofllcea. Thb revision coo-^i *uch a. minor nature that no penalty was^mntcdL1} Ltalm amendmenu through September 22. 1972 and i^^RcWrir Comrnfaaton. Judg*;Allen M. Wiennwt* .coven th many dtangei and tonidiom of typop*;'6*jJ^oin (hv- case vu assigned, sustained the penalty j'phleal errors since Fart 1910 was published on May ^i propOMi| he ruled, risk of Injury by falling t29,:1972.The revised Fart 1910contains an Index forS |jg >:nf electrical'shock :wm'a veryVreal, possibility (29 CFR 1910 Occupational Safety and Health Standv^^QSAHitC Docket No. 'aids. Free single copies should be available now at.w^e^-^yn-e.t'.-Tt.(WA:--d _______ ?*& .'I.-';.In the case of one employer, the Review ConwJ ^BjgjfPMajtl mission ruled that the sire of the business and lu i ,_____ 'Intevested h an OSHA ,, r In (We volumes (volumes also available lndWklual-T*SS*?? Rbriew Commission Judge Joseph U Chalk had? ly) providing all the standards, Interpretations. regular- ~ already dismissed a proposed penalty of S165 against lions, and procedures starting in 1473 can gel applica Colonial Craft Reproductions Inc. on the basis of 4'--.- tions at OSHA field offices. previous Review Commission decisions regarding the ; value of relatively minor penalties in obtaining com pliance with the ACL -- I-w;- OSHA is developing a 100-hour home study ' course aimed at "recognition, avoidance, and pre vention of unsafe and unhealthy workitr. conditions" . to be available In the spring of 1973 ... for details, write Office of Training and Education. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 400 First Street, N.W., Washington, D.C 2021 a OSAHRC . . . It wisely considers potential ham to both employees and employers The gravity of a Job safety violation in terms of - Its potential harm to employees must be considered in assessing monetary penalties even in non-scrious cases. The three-man Review Commission, in unani. mously affirming the decision of one of its judges. r stated that "... thr assessnwnt of smalt monetary penalties fur nun-serious riolathins liarlng the leret of parity of the rkdatkms found in this i me effec tuates the purpose of the ,-trr. 1`enuhies oj this caliber srrre tu remind alt entphtyrrs that their primary responsibility under the Her Is adhemuT to its pnr teclire mechanisms. Failure to impose penalties re lating tu riotoHons itk higher lenh of gravity sene only to restrain the Art's effector operation and and hinderUs function to reduce hazard* of tin' uorlplace fur all employees." OSHA had riled the ilydroswift Corporation of Salt Lake City for alleged violations found during a job safety inspection. These were failure to proside railings for stairways and open mezzanines for storage of acetone in open containers, for failure to krep fire sprinkler heads f:.. f~sm deposits, and for nine in stances of failure to ground power tools. Tin- De partment did not propose an) penalties for the eight other non-scrious viola lions. The company argued that, while it was in violation of all the stand ards listed on the Labor Department citation, it lia-l Speaking for the majority. Commissioner Alan F. Burch staled that the Commission disagreed with ;'<? fudge Chalk's conclusions that the case fell entirely ''.'^ within previous Review Commission decisions conccming the ineffectiveness of minimum penalties. In- ';/ -^?1 stead.. Commissioner Burch noted that Die Review. 'j^: Commission is charged with using four criteria in assessing penalties under the Act:(the size of the business, the gravity of the violation, the good faith of the company, and its previous history of safrty violations, "Mr helirrt that In assessing chit penalties ' . . . occasion will arise when, despite the high gratify of the rdilation, overriding consideration must he giren to these modifying factors In order to best effectuate the purpose of the Art. Thr Commission rimes rhh rase as an appropriate one In which to girt the modifying factors such consideration."The Com mission considered the size of the business and its poor financial condition to be of overriding impor tance. (OSAHRC Docket No. kill). OSHA Recommends ASTM Consensus Standards Standards developed by llte American Society for Testing and Materials I ASTM) are now recognized as national consensus standards by Die Occupational Safely and Health Administration. To provide the basis of -tew Federal job safely and health rrgulations. OSHA initially adopted na tional consensus standards of two oilier nationally recognized organizations, the American National Standards Institute I ANSI) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPAI. Assistant Secretary of Labor George C Guen ther. OSIIA's Itcad, said he had determined ASTM standards "are national consensus slumlords within the meaning of the H'ilhants-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act of IV 71) . . . Therefore they mas hr pr,mmlgaled as national safety standards. ." Ij.Vj' rhwgiWf-u MICH09309 OSHA