Saranac Laboratory, Report of Industrial Hygiene Survey of the Owens-Illinois Kaylo Division Plant (1951)

A fourteen-page report dated May 29, 1951, on a Saranac Laboratory industrial hygiene survey made in January 1951 of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company's Kaylo Division plant at Sayreville, New Jersey, which made an asbestos-containing calcium silicate insulation. Of Kaylo's six raw materials (amosite, chrysotile, diatomaceous earth, quick lime, silica flour and tripoli), all but quick lime were considered potentially hazardous. The report's table of allowable limits gives 5 million particles per cubic foot for asbestos, under both the New Jersey code and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. The dust counts "were all below 10 million, and therefore relatively low," but "the rather high quartz or asbestos content of the air-suspended material tended to create in certain areas a condition which might be hazardous, or at least one which approached the maximum allowable limit established by code," especially in the batch weighing room and the asbestos unbagging room, and asbestos dust in boxcars "probably exceeded safe limits."

What it shows

The report recommended better exhaust ventilation and housekeeping, Bureau of Mines approved respirators for men loading boxcars, who were "probably exposed to a hazardous concentration of air-suspended asbestos fibers," and regular dust surveys. It warned that meeting health codes "should not be considered as a complete protection," and strongly recommended pre-employment and yearly chest X-rays so that disease would be found "before it became a serious health problem to the individual and a liability to the management." Saranac's animal work on Kaylo dust is in Vorwald's 1948 letter to Owens-Illinois and the final report of January 1952.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Report by Saranac Laboratory on the Kaylo Division Plant, Owen-Illinois Glass Company dated 5/29/51. Notes of the six raw materials used to make Kaylo, amosite; chrysotile; diatomaceous earth; quick lime; silica flour; and tripoli all but quick lime can be considered potentially hazardous. A dust survey of the Kaylo Division Plant showed the amount of dust suspended in the atmosphere was relatively low. However, the high quartz or asbestos content of the suspended material created potentially hazardous conditions in certain areas.

Related documents

• Arthur J. Vorwald to Owens-Illinois on Kaylo Causing Asbestosis in Animals (1948)
• W. G. Hazard of Owens-Illinois to the Industrial Hygiene Foundation on Studying Kaylo Dust (1948)