Retail Credit Company, Industry Report: Asbestos Mining and Manufacturing (1932)

The August 1932 issue of Industry Report, published by the Retail Credit Company of Atlanta ("Published to Assist Underwriters in Classifying Industrial Hazards"), devoted to asbestos mining and manufacturing. It describes the mines and mills of Quebec, several unnamed plants, and each job in the industry with its chief hazards, many listed as asbestos dust. Its section on health hazards quotes the International Labour Office: "The worker engaged in the extraction and manufacture of asbestos is constantly exposed to danger from dust."

What it shows

The issue also quotes a 1928 paper by two Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company officers urging that workers exposed to heavy dust in opening, picking, screening and carding be taken only with great care and at an extra premium. By 1932 the life insurance business was rating asbestos dust as a hazard to be priced into a worker's policy.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

The August 1932 edition of an insurance industry publication, "Industry Report," published to assist underwriters in classifying industrial hazards discusses asbestos mining and manufacturing including the potential health hazards. The publication notes that workers engaged in the "extraction and manufacture" of asbestos are constantly exposed to danger from dust, but especially in the spinning and weaving operations. The publication notes "the baneful influence of the dust in relation to the production of tuberculosis." "The lack of more accurate and detailed data in medical literature regarding this industry in its various branches, including the utilization of by-products, is to be deplored. . . ." A paper prepared on "Asbestos Mills" by the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1928 is cited. This paper states that in the carding process and to a lesser extent in all processes, a great deal of dust is generated. In up-to-date factories, all machines are equipped with dust removal equipment. "This dust is what will be of interest to those of us who have to do with occupational classification and ratings." The paper then goes on to state that present conditions in the U.S. under which the average employee works (with dust elimination systems) presents a decidedly more favorable picture than in former years. "We do, however, feel that until we have the benefit of our experience with this class of workers we should continue to look upon those who may be exposed to large quantities of dust, such as employees engaged in the opening, picking, screening and carding, as risks to be selected with great care and only at an extra premium that will provide for an estimated extra mortality of 50% disability, not to be granted."