Dust Survey of the Raybestos Division's Bridgeport and Stratford Plants (1936)

A 14-page file headed "Dust Survey of the Raybestos Division, Bridgeport & Stratford Plants, March 1936." It opens with three pages of comments, addressed to Morton Judd, on the conclusions of Metropolitan Life's 1935 survey of the two plants, then gives the report of a new survey made on March 24, 25 and 26, 1936, with tables of dust counts and lead results and comparisons with June 1935. At Bridgeport the weave rooms had improved with "the change from the dry binder to wet binder," and warp machine operators had been given respirators. At Stratford most locations had improved, but tapping rings to inspect them for cracks gave a count of 82.1 million particles per cubic foot, and the report called for that work to be enclosed and for "positive pressure respirators supplied with clean air."

What it shows

The comments on the 1935 survey were written by someone at the plants who had trained the first aid attendants to report workers exposed to hazards. They suggest the men at the fibre opener "could be equipped with gas masks of some form" against "some form of pneumonokoniosis," propose a clinical laboratory to check blood smears for early lead poisoning, and name skin rashes from coal-tar products as the biggest problem. The 1936 report does not name who made it. It came two weeks after Vandiver Brown told Judd that Otto Binder was free to check "the efficiency of equipment installed since the date of the earlier reports" (March 11, 1936). It compares its counts with those of Metropolitan Life's 1935 survey.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

"Dust Survey of the Raybestos Division, Bridgeport and Stratford Plants." Survey updates and supplements surveys of 1930 and 1935. Bridgeport and Stratford plants both show improvement in dust control since 1935 survey. Recommendations for further reductions of dust are given. Report also includes additional comments and proposals relating to the 1935 survey.

Related documents

• Metropolitan Life, Dust Survey of Raybestos-Manhattan's Bridgeport and Stratford Plants (1935)
• Vandiver Brown to M. F. Judd on Otto Binder's Availability After the Metropolitan Survey (1936)
• James E. Gale of B. D. Pierce, Jr. to M. F. Judd on American Surety Dust Counts (1936)
• W. J. McConnell of Metropolitan Life to Sumner Simpson Enclosing the Bridgeport and Stratford Dust Survey (1935)

About this copy

This is document 02828-02842 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.