| Response to February 2008 Talc Article
Editor's Note: It has come to our attention that Jeff Zamek, author of "Talc and Asbestos: What we Know and What We Don't", published in our February 2008 issue, was a paid consultant to R.T. Vanderbilt Co., Inc., during the litigation referred to in the article.
We intended to present a balanced report about potential health effects of New York talc and we believe we accomplished that. However, the writer's
relationship with the company, which has mined New York talc, should have been disclosed with the article. We regret that omission.
As always, we feel that it is in our readers' best interests to hear all possible perspectives on any topic involving health and safety. To that end, we present here a response to the talc article by a paid expert witness who testified on the opposite side of the lawsuit mentioned in the story.
Please send responses and feedback to shall@ceramicsmonthly.org.
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I'm an industrial hygienist, former potter, and one of the experts who
testified for the plaintiff in the 2006 trial Jeff Zamek mentioned in
his article on talc in the February 2008 issue of Ceramics Monthly. In
this case, a potter died of mesothelioma at age 53. Mesothelioma is a
rare cancer except in people exposed to asbestos. The potter was
briefly exposed to an asbestos-containing joint compound during
renovation of one of his studios, but he used Vanderbilt's NYTAL 100HR
for seven years when he was a young potter (mesothelioma has a 20 to 40
year latency period). The jury concluded that NYTAL 100HR causes
mesothelioma and awarded the widow $3.35M in compensatory damages plus
an undisclosed amount of punitive damages.
I wish every potter
could have been at that trial to feel the sadness of a life cut short
and to listen to the arguments about the many different studies of talc
that were entered into evidence. I relied on over 20 studies for my
testimony. Four studies said the fibers in the talc are not really
asbestos and do not cause cancer in R.T. Vanderbilt workers. However,
Plaintiff's Attorney Moshe Maimon demonstrated to the jury that all
four of these studies were financially supported by R.T. Vanderbilt.
The
other studies essentially all concluded the talc contains asbestos
and/or harmed the workers. But if we only used three of these studies,
we still could make a case against R.T. Vanderbilt. These three were
done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health
(NIOSH) which has no financial axe to grind. The first study in 1967
found lung cancer in Vanderbilt workers at 4 times the expected rate
(1)*. The second was a 1980 NIOSH Technical Report which also found a
higher risk of lung cancer and other asbestos effects among the talc
workers and noted a case of mesothelioma (2)*. The NIOSH update and
review in 1990 concluded the same (3)*.
As for mesothelioma,
smoking does not induce this cancer and its occurrence is rare—in the
range of one in a million—except in people exposed to asbestos. Until
trial, R.T. Vanderbilt only acknowledged 8 cases among their workers,
which is already significant in a worker population of about 800. But
a 2002 study (4)* identified 5 more cases and attorney Maimon had these
five added by stipulation bringing the total to 13 cases of
mesothelioma in R.T. Vanderbilt workers.
So before they chose
Zamek to write a talc article, CM should have looked at the facts and
read Zamek's Safety in the Ceramic Studio (2002). In his talc chapter,
Zamek says "the animal and human medical studies do not reveal any
relationship between R.T. Vanderbilt talc and cancer." CM should have
seen that the man hasn't read the studies and doesn't know what he's
talking about.
Worse, in his CM article, Zamek deliberately
misleads readers into thinking he is fairly presenting both sides of
the controversy. For R.T. Vanderbilt's side, Zamek quotes one of
their defense experts who says the fibers are not asbestos and the
workers are not "at risk for developing asbestos-related
pneumoconiosis." This is doubly misleading because "asbestos-related
pneumoconiosis" is a fancy term for "asbestosis." This is not cancer.
It is a lung-scarring disease requiring very high exposures and is not
at issue in this case. Lung cancer and mesothelioma are the issues and
they occur with far less exposure.
Then Zamek claims to present the opposing view with the opinion of Dr.
Woodhall Stopford from Duke University. Dr. Stopford has just recently
| stopped certifying products containing NYTAL 100HR as safe for use by
children for ACMI (Arts & Creative Materials Institute). ACMI's
stated position is that they are only ceasing to certify the NYTAL
products due to public perception, not due to any risk. Stopford also
doesn't say the talc contains asbestos, only that the fibers may cause
asbestos-type diseases at high doses.
Stopford's opinion is not the opposing view. It is only one hairsbreadth away from Vanderbilt's opinion.
If
Zamek really wanted a fair presentation of the opposing side, he could
have used the opinion of one of Dr. Stopford's fellow professors at
Duke University, Dr. John M. Dement, head of Duke's epidemiology
department. Dement was a major contributor to the 1980 NIOSH Technical
Report and he has consistently maintained for almost 30 years that this
talc contains asbestos and causes lung cancer and mesothelioma in R.T.
Vanderbilt workers.
Zamek's and CM's failure to fairly present
the talc issue in the past and present will encourage potters to
continue to use this talc. And while Zamek mentioned that the
Connecticut Health Department sent a warning about the talc to their
teachers, many other schools in the US probably still use
NYTAL-containing clays. Two NIOSH studies of high school potteries in
1997 and 2001 both showed there can be significant exposure to clay
dust in schools (5,6)* . So if NYTAL-containing clays are used,
vulnerable young students could also be exposed to asbestos.
In
my opinion, Zamek's and CM's continuing failure to deal fairly with
this issue makes them both indirectly, and in part, responsible for the
next mesothelioma death in a talc-exposed potter or student. And there
will be one. The potter in the 2006 case mentioned here was the second
ceramicist I know who died of mesothelioma.
If this sounds
harsh, remember that for 30 years I have watched the numbers of
mesotheliomas rise in workers and in the general population in the
county where the mines are located, knowing that each meso-death
represents many more cases of lung and other cancers that were caused
by this talc. And now the second ceramicist has died. If CM cares
about it's readers, it will warn them.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety
footnotes:
1.
Kleinfeld M, Messite J, Kooyman O, et. al. "Mortality among talc
miners and millers in New York State," Arch Environ Health 1967;
14:663-7 (these authors were working for NIOSH at the time.)
2.
NIOSH Technical Report: Occupational Exposure to Talc Containing
Asbestos (Morbidity, Mortality, and Environmentall Studies of Miners
and Millers), John M. Dement, et. al., NIOSH, 1980
3. NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Report (HETA) 90-300-2065, R.T. Vanderbilt Company, Gouverneur, NY September 1990.
4. Mindy J. Hull, Jerrold L. Abraham, & Bruce W. Case, Ann. Occup. Hyg., Supplement 1, pp. 132-135, 2002
5. NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Report (HETA) 97-0189-2668, Valley High School,West Des Moines, IA
6. NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Report (HETA) 99-0084-2807, Haverhill High School, Haverhill, MA.
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