Lois Gaul's Manville Memo on Patty's Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology (1984)

A three-page Manville memo of September 27, 1984, from Lois Gaul to D. H. Markusson, R. Batson, H. Marsh and B. Diemer, comparing what the first (1948–1949) and second (1958–1959) editions of Frank A. Patty's textbook Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology said about asbestos. In the first edition, Edward E. Dart wrote that "most observers feel that the incidence of asbestosis in American asbestos workers is quite low," and Patty and Francis R. Holden wrote that "dustiness around asbestos workers is frequently above the proposed standard of five million particles per cubic foot." The second edition added that "lung cancer is under suspicion as occurring more frequently with asbestosis, especially in England."

What it shows

Gaul set out one change word for word. The first edition said it "has been neither practical nor possible" to keep asbestos dust counts to five million particles per cubic foot in all cases, and asked "whether in the light of experience, especially in the mining industry, such rigid control is justified or necessary." The second edition replaced this with "It is desirable in asbestos exposures to keep the dust count down to 5 million particles, or less, per cubic foot of air." She also noted that the second edition's chapter by O. A. Sander said the 1938 dust limit had been set counting only short fibers, and that limits for long fibers had not been set.