Quebec Ministry of Health Dust Survey of the Canadian Johns-Manville Textile Plant (1944)

A two-page report by Sarto R. Plamondon, industrial hygiene engineer with the Quebec Ministry of Health, on dust sampling at the Canadian Johns-Manville textile plant at Asbestos, Quebec, on October 27, 1944. The survey was made at the invitation of Ivan Sabourin, secretary of the Asbestos Producers Association, alongside William Fehnel of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Of six usable samples, five were above the "5,000,000 particles per cu.ft." taken as the maximum allowable, ranging up to 36,300,000 at break-band weaving.

What it shows

The engineer found that the machines had hoods "but it was apparent that the exhausts were operating efficiently" only in part (the sentence is garbled on the page), that spinning operators swept their floors "with ordinary brooms," and recommended vacuum cleaning, more exhaust capacity and hoods on machines without them. Plant manager H. K. Sherry said a new exhaust system was being installed. The report was made the same autumn Gardner had reported asbestosis to be rare among workers at Asbestos, and it shows dust levels in the textile plant several times the accepted limit. See Threshold Limit Value (TLV).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Ministry of Health, Province of Quebec, Report on survey made at Canadian Johns-Manville textile plant, 10/27/44. Seven samples were taken; only one was below 5 mppcf. The Ministry of Health recommends that certain improvements be made.

Editor's note: J-M's description says seven samples were taken and only one was below 5 mppcf. The report says seven were taken but one broke in transit; of the six results, one was below the limit.