Environmental and Medical In-Plant Occupational Health Study of the Asbestos Products Industry (1963)

This January 15, 1963 draft from the Division of Occupational Health of the U.S. Public Health Service was a study plan. It reported no results. It described a planned study of workers in the United States asbestos products industry. The questions included how common pneumoconiosis was among active workers, whether malignancies were an occupational risk, and what exposure levels were safe. The plan called for environmental studies in each plant selected for the study. These would measure asbestos dust and fiber exposure and other exposures such as fumes, gases and mineral dusts, and set time-weighted exposure values for each job classification. Workers were to be examined in mobile units at the plants. The examinations would include occupational and medical histories with smoking history, sputum tests for asbestos bodies, chest X-rays read by a panel of radiologists, and lung function tests. The authors said that, because of the long latent period, any abnormality relating to pneumoconiotic or anaplastic changes would likely reflect past exposures and not necessarily current exposure levels. They said the clinical procedures were primarily screening procedures, not intended on their own for specific diagnosis.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.