Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee Minutes on Fiber Counts and French Reports (1954)

Three pages of minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene Committee meeting of March 10, 1954, signed by its chairman, H. M. Jackson of Johns-Manville. A dust survey of seven member plants, analyzed by the Travelers Insurance Company's laboratory, found that some dust levels acceptable under state standards "contained an unfavorable concentration of fiber," though most locations were below the tentative limit of one million fibers per cubic foot recommended at the 1952 Saranac symposium. The committee also reviewed letters from its French associate member, whose medical officers reported "no relationship of pulmonary cancer to asbestosis in the French experience" and a link between alcoholism and asbestosis.

What it shows

The minutes report that New Jersey's Standards and Code Committee had accepted the one-million-fiber limit, and that the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists wanted more data before changing its threshold limits. The French excerpts include an insurance group's advice that "Great caution should be used in the diagnosis of such occupational diseases as asbestosis," because a worker found disabled by it would receive compensation. The committee also agreed to draft an outline of health information for people asking about asbestos exposure.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

ATI Meeting Minutes, 3/10/54 - Air Hygiene Committee. States that the industrial hygiene survey program of 7 member plants has been completed. Discusses fiber standards and measurement. Reports that there is no relationship between lung cancer and asbestosis in the French experience.

About this copy

This is document 38 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000520 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000522.