Asbestos Information Association, Recommended Work Practices for Field Fabrication of Asbestos-Cement Sheet (1980)

A 29-page booklet of January 25, 1980, from the Asbestos Information Association/North America, the industry's trade group, on cutting, drilling and handling asbestos-cement (A/C) sheet on the job. It gives step-by-step practices for circular saws, handsaws, clippers, scoring knives, power drills, sabre saws and rasps, with vacuum dust collection, followed by vacuum cleaner specifications, a list of equipment suppliers, and appendices with tool operating instructions, the OSHA asbestos standard and EPA waste disposal rules. It replaced the association's 1975 recommendations.

What it shows

The booklet told workers that "Airborne asbestos fiber has been indentified as a possible health hazard" and that A/C sheet, 15 to 40 percent asbestos, held its fibers "'locked-in' the cement binder, like reinforcing rods in concrete." Fibers were released "in significant quantities from a health standpoint" only when cutting or drilling "literally 'tear' the fibers from the cement binder." It is an example of how the industry framed the hazard of a bound product for the trades that installed it.