Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee Minutes on Fiber Counts and Dr. Kenneth Smith's Talk (March 1953)

Two pages of minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene Committee meeting of March 11, 1953, chaired by Hugh M. Jackson of Johns-Manville, with Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, as guest. Smith spoke on the medical side of asbestosis, and the minutes record points "established": that "asbestos dust per se is relatively innocuous; it is the long fibre (10 to 50 microns) that are the fibrosis producing elements," that amosite fiber damages the lungs "more rapidly than the chrysotile," and that a medical program is essential besides engineering control. The committee noted that its surveys "to date were recorded in terms of dust particles rather than fibres," although Saranac research showed fiber concentrations to be "the critical factor."

What it shows

The committee recommended research into which sampling equipment best measured airborne fibers, appointed two subcommittees, and proposed that company doctors join the next meeting to begin "the accumulation and exchange of disease experience" among member companies. That meeting took place in June, when the committee and the doctors agreed that past particle-count surveys were "practically without value."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

ATI meeting minutes, 3/11/53. It is proposed that a program providing for the accumulation and exchange of disease experience of the member companies be developed. A discussion of air sampling techniques brings to light criticism of currently accepted methods and the realization that surveys to date are recorded in terms of dust particles rather than fibers. Saranac research results indicate that fiber concentrations are the critical factor. Dust particles, per se, are of a nuisance value only. It is recommended that research be done to determine which of the several available types of air sampling equipment is most efficient in collecting and evaluating airborne fiber concentrations.