Home Office, Report on Conferences between Employers and Inspectors on Suppressing Dust in Asbestos Textile Factories (1931)

The Home Office report, printed by H.M. Stationery Office, of a committee of three asbestos textile manufacturers (from the Cape Asbestos Co., British Belting & Asbestos and Turner Bros. Asbestos Co.) and two engineering inspectors of factories, set up after the 1930 Merewether and Price report to agree how dust should be suppressed in each process. The committee's report is dated January 8, 1931, and Gerald Bellhouse, Chief Inspector of Factories, sent it to the Home Secretary on April 10, 1931. It sets out "Agreements" for each process, from crushing and mixing to carding, spinning, weaving and mattress making, with drawings and photographs of exhaust equipment.

What it shows

The manufacturers agreed that "everything practically possible should be done to suppress dust," and Bellhouse wrote that the agreements would be given legal force by regulations under the Factory and Workshop Act. The committee left some processes without special measures because the dust they gave off seemed too small to matter, measured against a provisional "dust datum" from flyer spinning. Bellhouse cautioned that this limit was "clearly provisional" and "subject to alteration in the light of further medical experience." The trade members also asked for time before the rules were enforced, worried about "unfair competition" from countries without such rules. It follows the Merewether and Price report, and its members included the Cape Asbestos Company.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

"Report on Conferences between Employers and Inspectors Concerning Methods for Suppressing Dust in Asbestos Textile Factories." Report was submitted by a joint committee of Home Office Representatives and asbestos textile manufacturers. The report details different dust suppressing systems and equipment which can be used for particular manufacturing processes. Contains details and diagrams re: dust control equipment.

Related documents

• E. R. A. Merewether and C. W. Price, Report on Effects of Asbestos Dust on the Lungs (1930)
• Home Office, The Asbestos Industry (Asbestosis) Scheme (1931)

About this copy

This is document 01652-01697 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.