Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Asbestosis, Special Bulletin No. 42 (1935)

A 35-page printed bulletin, "Asbestosis," issued September 20, 1935, by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, by Dr. William B. Fulton, its chief of industrial hygiene, and three chemists. Part II measured dust in four Pennsylvania asbestos fabricating plants; Part III reported complete physical examinations of 64 textile workers (48 men, 16 women), seven of them unexposed controls. "Asbestosis was found in fourteen persons (12 men, 2 women), or 25 per cent of the exposed group," all slight or moderate, and forty per cent of the exposed group had asbestos warts. The study had been agreed with employers and employees on the terms that neither would learn any worker's findings and that workers would be recorded by case number only.

What it shows

This was one of the first American field studies to examine a group of asbestos textile workers and measure the dust they breathed. Raybestos-Manhattan, which had a textile plant at Manheim, Pennsylvania, kept this copy in Sumner Simpson's files, and in December 1935 Simpson wrote to the Bureau of Industrial Standards for more copies (December 18 and December 23). The bulletin cites the Metropolitan Life study by Lanza, McConnell and Fehnel published earlier that year.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

"Asbestosis" Examines the concentrations of dust in asbestos fabricating plants. States that dust concentrations should be reduced. States dust levels in plants depends on the grade of asbestos fibers used. Asbestos dust tested showed no free silica content. 56 asbestos textile workers were examined. 25% of workers examined had slight or moderate asbestosis; 40% of workers examined had asbestos warts.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to John Campbell Ordering Four Copies of Special Bulletin No. 42 (1935)
• Sumner Simpson to John Campbell Ordering Three More Copies of Special Bulletin No. 42 (1935)

About this copy

This is document 02555-02625 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.