J. B. Skinner of American Mutual on a Dust Survey at Badham Insulation Company (1952)

A two-page memo of December 29, 1952, from J. B. Skinner, an industrial hygienist in the home office engineering department of the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company, to Mr. Brown of its Birmingham office, on the insured Badham Insulation Company of Birmingham, Alabama, with a one-page table of dust counts. Skinner had taken two samples on December 15 to test a newly installed ventilation system on the saws that split and cut pipe covering, and dust could be seen escaping at both. On a total dust count "both samples showed an excessive amount of dust in the work room atmosphere" (20 and 5.8 million particles per cubic foot against a limit of 5), and he proposed ways to improve the hoods.

What it shows

Skinner explained that the usual standard of 5 million particles per cubic foot counted all particles, but that "Recently studies by Vorwald and his associates have indicated that it is only the asbestos fibers longer than 10 microns that are responsible for asbestosis," with a proposed limit of 1 such fiber count. On that basis one sample showed hazardous conditions and the other was at the limit. The memo shows an insurer measuring dust at a pipe-covering fabricator in 1952 and finding it above the accepted limit even after new controls were added.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

J. B. Skinner (Industrial Hygienist) memo to Brown (Engineering Department, American Mutual), 12/29/52, regarding insured Badham Insulation Company, Birmingham, Alabama. Skinner reports on an industrial hygiene survey he conducted at the Badham Insulation Company on December 15th. The purpose of the survey was to evaluate the dust control efficiency of the newly installed ventilation system. The new system included an enclosure around the splitting saw and "two local exhaust hoods surrounding the saws cutting the pipe covering to length." The dust counts taken with the new ventilation system in place showed a hazardous condition. Skinner proposes remedies. Skinner encloses the results of the dust counts taken.

About this copy

This is document 880 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-004625 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-004628.