June Thompson to Francine Schacter on Extending the CPSC Asbestos Ban to Other Consumer Products (1976)

A 26-page staff memo of April 2, 1976, from June Thompson of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Bureau of Biomedical Science, through Robert M. Hehir and Marilyn C. Bracken, to Francine Schacter, with background papers on a proposed amendment to the Commission's rules to extend its asbestos ban to other classes of consumer products. It began with a November 1975 complaint about loose asbestos sold as artificial "ashes" for gas-burning fireplaces; the Commission found at least three firms making the product and thought "additional firms" were involved. The tabs cover other complaints about asbestos products, the earlier ban on asbestos in general-use garments, definitions and properties of asbestos, the agency's authority, occupational and non-occupational hazards, which consumer products release free fiber, and a Canadian proposal to ban such products.

What it shows

The hazards section reviews the medical record from the 1930s on and the proposed OSHA standard, and a table lists "nonlocked-in" asbestos products with their asbestos content, from dry spray acoustical products (10 to 15 percent) and insulating cements (20 to 100 percent) to asbestos textiles (75 to 100 percent). The file includes the Commission's 1973 letter to the Federal Trade Commission on its jurisdiction over asbestos consumer products, which followed Hehir's November 1973 staff memo.

About this copy

The memo lists twelve tabs; Tab 12, "Recommended action," is not in this copy, which ends with the Canadian proposal.