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734 THE LANCET, APRIL 3, 1976 Occasional Survey GENETIC RISKS OF VINYL CHLORIDE Peter F.

on the power saWs And when the Insulation workers don t use them What the heH I saw asbestos sbeets outride the room or mix What the mechanics don t seem to know--' cement In a wheelbarrow anybody can get like thousands of other mechanics--Is that the the dust V brown dust Is dangerous Brake Hirings are1 Company Disagrees made of asbestos And U a mechanic breathes Mobil disagrees with the description of In enough dust from the worn out linings It working conditions In response to a query the could eventually kill him company issued this statement `We have no Tfie lethal quality of tiny indestructible as* problems at the Paulsboro refinery concerning bfcstoe fibers that lodge In the lung la well the'use of materials containing asbestos We kriewn Widely publicised studies by Dr Irving use very little of such material and what we SeUkoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine do use la used under strictly controlled condl lead him to predict that of the roughly 230 000 Hons Recently the Occupational Safety and asbestos Industry workers today about S3 000 Health Administration carried out an extensive win die unnecessarily of occupational cancer and thorough Inspection of the entire Paulsboro In the next 10 to 15 years we will enter the as* refinery No violations were found In the bestoa cancer era, says Dr nerfSnff "IUs la plant s handling ot asbestos materials one of the great disasters of our time Mr Bailey's union the Oil Chemical and Hazards tor Others Too Atomic Workers Is protesting that inspection N The asbestos industry is well aware of the problem and Is taking action to combat It though critlts ssy the steps aren t as drastic as the Situation demands But asbestos Industry workers aren t the only ones who might tall prey to the lung cancers and other diseases caused by the mineral s llrttaUng fibers It s likely that mlUlons of workers in other indue tries rising asbestos fibers could be affected as well as ordinary people who have come Into oontact with asbestos In the atmosphere Perhaps the most tragic fact la that for those who have already been sufficiently ex posed changes In procedures and standards of Steven Wodka, a union health And safety ape clallst aays little attention wan paid to besJtb violations And he complains that after a week of aocompanylng the Inspectors the company Inexplicably 'had me kicked out of the plant Mobil declines comment on Mr Wodka a charge Oil refineries are by no means the only places where asbestos turns up The versatile substance Is a fireproof binder and insulator In thousands of products including such things as plastics shingles paper and pipes In moat of these the asbestos is harmless to users But Please Turn to Page IT Column S asbestos use-Including a new set announced yesterday fay the Department of Labor-are meaningless It takes as many as 40 years after the first exposure for asbestos related diseases to surface Controls Instituted now will Indeed have an effect bdt not for decades ' Harry Bailey Is one man who Ian t likely to find much solace In the new standards Mr Bailey Ian t an asbestos worker He s a brick layer In a Mobil Oil Corp refinery alongelde the Delaware River In Paulaboro N J He has been working at the plant for 33 years and every year be has gone to the company medl cal department for a chest X ray They never said there was anything wrong with me says 34-year-old Mr Bailey and In deed he has thus far developed no outward symptoms But a few months ago he and 18 other workers from the refinery went to Mount Sinai for an examination and every one of them proved to have scarred lungs--a sign of asbestoals a nonmallgnant lung disease (Mobil has refused to release his medical rec ords to the New York doctors Mr Bailey says The company declines to comment on the mat ter ) SCF-FA-6660 Perilous Particles Tiny Fibers Of Asbestos Pose a Health Threat Continued Prom first Page When working in closed quarters he says his depending on how Ite added to the products men use drop cloths and fans but they don't asbestos can pose a threat to workers In the wear respirators because they re too hot and factories where the products are made they don t work Until six months ago for instance asbestos Nevertheless the federal Environmental was being used as an antileak Ingredient In Protection Agency Is preparing regulations ex Prestons anUtreese made by Union Carbide peeled to he announced othlx summer that Corp At a Carteret N J plant run lor Union would attempt to impose controls -on air pollu Carbide by Oeneral American Transportation tlon from demolition operations These could the asbestos would arrive in paper sacks Include requirements for wetting down the Workers would cut the bags open with knives work areas or the removal of all asbestos be and feed the powdery white asbestos into tanks fore a building la toppled Hie technical prob of antifreeze says James Irving a tire and lem ol measuring dust levels however could safety engineer who has worked in the plant toes out the demolition regulation entirely tor 22 years ays James Krowder an engineer with the Theyd wear face masks but no protective cioKting Mr Irving says and the blowers In the room where they worked would send Che dust out to where others were working Then they d pile up the bags outside the building and a crew would pick them up and throw them onto the truck railing a big cloud of dust EPAs hazardous pollutants branch f, Setting a standard for asbestos concentre Uons at work sites has been similarly difficult for the fledgling Occupation Safety and Health Administration a year old Department ol Labor unit The reason Nobody knows how much aabestos i dangerous The esbestos in dustry led by Johns-Manvllle Oorp the larg Asbestos was removed from the Prestone est in the field has fought for a standard allow formula late last year Mr Irring says the Ing five asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of change took place after the OU Chemical and air in the factories But the doctors at Mount Atomic workers made an issue of It Union Sinai and elsewhere argue that the only true Carbide denies that The decision says Herbert safe level of asbestos pollution would be zero.

The recotanendations of the subcommittee are to Include methods of determining levels of exposure which would lead to socially acceptable risks from carcinogens.

We hope these will lead to larger studies with funding from other sources within the next year.

U Environmental health fni)nrtiwi Vcl. n. pp. *. 1U1 German Investigations on Morbidity and Mortality of Workers Exposed to Vinyl Chloride by H.

Rl~ '"'CQ P.J.JC- 'MS ^/ f,' /:W$ ^xUm^ /?

However, animals on its widespread finding of these environment from pesticide use seem taken from the Ohio River and Lake compounds in combustion products, to be much less hazardous than lab Michigan, where contamination that just about anything that will oratory tests would lead ode to be comes from used PCB's, show higher burn can serve as a precursor.

The Vd employees from the Tevas facility were comprised of reactor and Mill operators, foremen, and lead burners.

Reactions with alkaline materials may lead to the formation of dangerous explosive mixtures of chloroacetylenes.

The following fcweatyfeur araaa wore aevarad fron a ganaral laduatrlal hyglaaa standpointt Main Office - Chauleal Pleat Ugh Pressure Laboratory Chauleal Store toon Met Chealeel laboratory Beach Boole laboratory Beach Seele laboratory Be* 1 Distillation Laboratory Aaalyticel Chenletry laboratory Chaago Been Methyl Chloride Chit BTO Colt Bernal lhraffia* - Selveat Chita Bran Leading BelIdlag 100 Control Building 300 Control Inlldlng <400 Control Building

' FDA-ers hope that the pilot test will lead to conclusions about random sampling of plants and products, and about the kinds of attention needed by specific segments of Industry

Lead..............................................

INTERNAL CORRESPONDENCE ~jnr,, // METALS DIVISION To (Name) Division Location Messrs.

I MEMORANDUM DEPARTMENT Ol HEALTH, EDUCATION, a\D wr.Ll Akl V PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE FOOD AND drug admlsis i ration j to ?