Metropolitan Life, Dust Survey of Raybestos-Manhattan's Bridgeport and Stratford Plants (1935)

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's report on a dust survey made in June 1935 at the Bridgeport and Stratford, Connecticut, plants of Raybestos-Manhattan's Raybestos Division, as a supplement to its survey of February and March 1930. At Bridgeport every count was under ten million particles per cubic foot of air: "While these counts are not considered as dangerous concentrations, they are much higher than on the previous survey made in 1930." At Stratford the fibre opener showed a high count, because fibre was dumped on the floor and shoveled in by hand, and the report recommended storing bags of asbestos fibre in a room of their own. It also found lead in the air in several departments and discussed the hazards of asbestos, mica, lead, benzol, formaldehyde resins, linseed oil and chrome.

What it shows

Like the Manheim survey of the same year, this report shows Metropolitan Life measuring higher dust levels in 1935 than in 1930 and recommending exhaust equipment and better handling of raw fibre. Its section on asbestos dust repeats that it "gives rise to a pneumoconiosis or fibrosis of the lungs" and that new findings would go into the "general composite report of the asbestos plants survey which is to be brought out later."

In Johns-Manville's index

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

"The Raybestos Division of Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., Bridgeport, Connecticut." Supplement to 1930 survey. All dust counts at Bridgeport below 10 mppcf but, most are higher than 1930 results. Some dust counts at Stratford plant are high. Recommends new equipment designed to cut dust levels. Section of survey devoted to health hazards including: asbestos dust; lead poisoning; skin disease; and chrome poisoning. Accompanying booklet deals with hazards associated with chrome compounds.

Related documents

• W. J. McConnell of Metropolitan Life to Sumner Simpson Enclosing the Bridgeport and Stratford Dust Survey (1935)
• Sumner Simpson's Secretary to W. J. McConnell Acknowledging the Bridgeport and Stratford Reports (1935)

About this copy

This is document 02627-02658 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.