Asbestos Textile Institute, Recommended Health Safety Practices for Handling and Fabricating Asbestos Textile Products (1971)

A four-page leaflet of the Asbestos Textile Institute, form ATI-1-71, prepared by its Asbestos Advisory Committee and edited by its Environmental Health Committee. It says that "the Asbestos Textile Institute recognizes that extensive exposure to the inhalation of asbestos dust over a long period of time may be injurious," and gives six practices for handling and fabricating asbestos textiles: housekeeping with vacuum cleaning, dust collection at the source, Bureau of Mines approved respirators where collection is impractical, wetting the material, damp-process textiles, and disposal of waste in closed containers. A fifth page is the cover of the National Insulation Manufacturers Association leaflet "Recommended Health Safety Practices For Handling And Applying Thermal Insulation Products Containing Asbestos."

What it shows

The leaflet notes "numerous articles in the scientific press, as well as other news media, concerning the potential health risk for workers," and says manufacturers had "for years" been protecting their own workers. Its advice for customers who cut and sewed asbestos cloth was general, and it says the recommendations "cannot be considered adequate to cover all possible situations." The NIMA brochure whose cover is attached is discussed in J. A. Grimmer on Dust Control at J-M Warehouses and Job Sites, with the NIMA Safety Brochure (1971).