Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee on Dr. Cralley's Progress Report (1964)

Four pages of minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene and Manufacturing Committee meeting of June 4, 1964, at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel in New York, signed by its chairman, L. C. Williams of Raybestos-Manhattan. Dr. Lewis J. Cralley of the U.S. Public Health Service reported on an asbestosis congress in France and on his survey, which had sampled six American plants, and showed charts of dust levels "from thirty years ago vs the current studies" that the committee found "very encouraging." The committee also reviewed British research papers, a Diseases of the Chest article on asbestosis, and Dr. Selikoff's paper "Asbestos Exposure and Neoplasia" on insulation workers, and agreed the Institute would not take an active part in the October conference on the biological effects of asbestos.

What it shows

The committee quoted the Diseases of the Chest article as saying the health hazard was "more serious in the asbestos textile industry" than in mining because most mine dust was "biologically relatively inert" serpentine rock, and that the membrane filter was the most practical way to count dust. It wrote that "both of these statements are questionable" and would likely change when the Public Health Service report came out. Cralley also reported a French paper finding lung cancer 7 to 10 times more common in asbestos workers than the general public before 1930, and less common after dust controls. Four months later the committee took a sharper view of the conference (Motley document 342).

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, 6/4/64 - Air Hygiene Committee. Dr. L. J. Cralley presents comparative charts showing death concentrations in 1934 versus 1964. The Committee notes that the results are very encouraging. The Committee decides that ATI should encourage all persons studying the effect of asbestos on health to forward their research papers. There is a discussion of a medical report which had been published in Diseases of the Chest, official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. The report observes that while "total dust exposure may be higher in the asbestos mining industry, the health hazard is more serious in the asbestos textile industry." The explanation for this is that in mining 80% to 95% of the dust may be serpentine rock dust, which is biologically relatively inert." It is noted that the New Jersey Department of Health will be presenting a conference on the biological effects of asbestos exposure between October 19 and 21, 1964, and that the ATI would not take an active part in the conference.

Related documents

• Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee on Rebutting the Biological Effects of Asbestos Conference (1964)

About this copy

This is document 343 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-001713 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001716.