OSHA: The 1984 Supplemental Proposed Rules for Asbestos

In its supplemental proposed rules, OSHA said it was considering a revision of its definition of asbestos to conform to the practice of other federal agencies (the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Education) which regulated only mineralogically correct "asbestos."

The definition under consideration would include only the asbestiform varieties of the six covered minerals. However, OSHA noted that health evidence existed implicating non-asbestiform minerals in the production of asbestos - related disease; that morphology may be a significant causative factor; and that the Agency would examine all relevant evidence before its final decision on coverage.

Several parties addressed the issue in written comments and in oral testimony during the rulemaking. A primary proponent of including only a "mineralogically correct" definition of asbestos was the R.T. Vanderbilt Company, a miner and producer of tremolitic talc.

Vanderbilt claimed that health studies at its mine and mill do not show the presence of asbestos - related disease; and that therefore its products should not be regulated with the same stringency as asbestos. Other participants also supported limiting coverage to "mineralogically" defined asbestos.

Other commentors opposed excluding non-asbestiform tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite from the scope of the standard. Public Citizen Health Research Group and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America contended that a revised asbestos standard should include these minerals because of their asbestos - like health effects.

Their comments in part were based on findings of the NIOSH studies of upstate New York talc miners and millers, working at Vanderbilt which found an excess of respiratory disease.

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