[iaq] PRESS RELEASE: New Warning Made About Asbestos (fwd)

[Guest guest]

Especially those do it yourselfers...

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 13:48:36 EDT

Reply-iaqegroups

iaqegroups

Subject: [iaq] PRESS RELEASE: New Warning Made About Asbestos

IAQ List Subscribers -

This press release today indicates that apparently the exposure risk from

even brief contact or " casual handling " of asbestos is more significant than

previously thought.

Regards -

Flanders

IAQ List Manager & Moderator

E-Mail: <A HREF= " mailto:iaq-owneronelist " >iaq-owneronelist </A>

Fax # 781-394-8288

Personal E-Mail: <A HREF= " mailto:rkfabf@... " >RKFABF@...</A>

<A HREF= " iaq " >IAQ List - Home</A>

iaq

<A HREF= " http://www.leadwicks.com/ " >Candle Soot & Lead Wicks</A>

http://www.leadwicks.com/

<A HREF= " http://candlesoot.com/ " >CANDLESOOT & INDOOR AIR QUALITY</A>

http://candlesoot.com/

................................................................................

.............................................

<i><b>New Warning Made About Asbestos</b>

..c The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) - Anyone working for any length of time with vermiculite

insulation from a W.R. Grace & Co. mine in Montana faces a substantial health

risk from asbestos contamination, a federal health official warns.

The insulation was used in millions of homes and businesses nationwide.

Testing of Zonolite brand insulation, along with Grace internal documents,

``reveals that even minimal handling by workers or residents'' exposes them

to danger from asbestos, Dr. Hugh Sloan, an assistant U.S. surgeon general,

wrote in a memo last week.

His memo was a request for help from other federal health experts, the

Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

Only two officials of Grace, based in Columbia, Md., could comment on the

memorandum and both were out of town Monday, company receptionists said.

Recent studies show even casual handling of the insulation can expose workers

or homeowners to 150 times the asbestos level considered safe under federal

regulations, Sloan wrote in a memo to Rosenstock, director of the

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Vermiculite from Grace's mine at Libby, Mont., was sold for use in garden

products, fireproofing, cement mixtures and more than a dozen other consumer

products. The bulk of the ore was heated until it expanded like popcorn, then

marketed as Zonolite insulation.

Asbestos, linked to lung cancer and other diseases, is a natural contaminant

of vermiculite ore. The Post-Intelligencer report involved vermiculite

specifically from the Libby mine, which Grace operated from 1963 to 1990.

Estimates of homes containing Zonolite insulation range from 2.5 million to

16 million nationwide, the newspaper said.

The New York Times reported last month that the Environmental Protection

Agency was investigating why officials ignored for 18 years a study that

showed Grace was using ore laden with asbestos in insulation and other

building products.

The Post-Intelligencer said it had obtained internal documents showing Grace

officials were aware of health risks from asbestos in insulation in the 1970s.

``We believe that a decision to affix asbestos warning labels to our products

would result in substantial sales losses,'' executive vice president E.S.

Wood wrote on May 24, 1977, the newspaper reported. ``The risk of liability

to customers is heightened by the decision not to label our products.''

Federal investigators are conducting medical tests in the Libby area

following reports that hundreds of vermiculite miners and their relatives

have died or are dying from asbestos-related diseases. Several lawsuits have

been filed on behalf of workers and their families.

On Friday, Grace issued a statement acknowledging that some products made in

the 1970s and '80s contained ``minute quantities of naturally occurring

asbestos.'' The statement did not mention insulation.

On the Net:

Grace: <A HREF= " http://www.grace.com/welcome-stat.html " >http://www.grace.com/w

elcome-stat.html</A>

EPA: <A HREF= " http://search.epa.gov/opptintr/asbestos/index.htm " >http://search

..epa.gov/opptintr/asbestos/index.htm</A>

OSHA: <A HREF= " http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/asbestos/index.html " >http://www.os

ha-slc.gov/SLTC/asbestos/index.html</A></i>

AP-NY-08-14-00 1145EDT