A study of dust control methods in an asbestos fabricating plant (1937)

This 1937 report by U.S. Public Health Service engineers, supplementing a larger Service study of asbestos workers' health, described dust control methods in one asbestos textile plant. The plant employed about 300 people, 180 in departments with a potential asbestos dust hazard. The authors took 82 dust samples at workers' breathing level: 69 under normal working conditions and 13 with exhaust ventilation turned off. They also calculated air drawn through the exhaust systems, mostly from velocity measurements in the ducts. Results were in M.P.P.C.F., the article's dust-count unit. With exhaust running, dry looms averaged 0.7 and carding averaged 1.7. With exhaust fans off for 1 hour in preparation, while pneumatic conveyors kept running, dust rose to about 50. The authors called this only a partial measure of uncontrolled conditions. In a special carding run with exhaust off and windows closed, dust reached 62.4 after 1 hour. Twisting, mostly without exhaust, averaged 11.0. Noting the program was only partly complete, the authors concluded that, while threshold limits for asbestosis had not been established, conditions reached by practical dust control could serve as temporary industry standards.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 002925. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 4, "Thresholds and Standards" and chapter 10, "Historical Research on Toxic Substances", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.