Benjamin Feiner, Industrial Air Analysis, New York State Department of Labor Monthly Review (1955)

Eight pages from the April and May 1955 issues (Vol. 34, Nos. 4 and 5) of the Monthly Review of the New York State Department of Labor's Division of Industrial Hygiene, carrying a two-part article, "Industrial Air Analysis," by Benjamin Feiner of its Engineering Unit. Feiner explains why plant air is sampled, how samples are placed and timed, the common errors, and the instruments for gases, vapors, dusts and fumes. He notes that "the effect of certain mineral dusts, such as rock, free silica (quartz, flint), talc, asbestos, clay, etc., on health when inhaled has been studied in conjunction with the number of dust particles," and that in the United States the allowable limits for lung-damaging dusts rest on dust counts made with the impinger.

What it shows

The article is a plain guide to the methods of the day, including the Greenburg-Smith and midget impinger, the konimeter and filter samplers, written for engineers and plant hygienists. It warns that a sample taken only at a machine, rather than where the worker actually spends his day, can misstate his exposure. The April issue also ends a report on the Labor Department's work on air pollution control.