Health in power stations

Our plain-English summary of Health in power stations, by R.C. Browne (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1971).

The study

• Author: R.C. Browne
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Published: 1971;64(10):1075-7
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002437).

In plain English

This article is the text of a presidential address to the Section of Occupational Medicine about health in the power stations of the Central Electricity Generating Board, which employed about 73,000 men in 193 stations. It was a descriptive account, not a study with measured health outcomes. The author discussed asbestos handling, boiler cleaning and noise. Insulating lagging on power station machinery had been asbestos. The author wrote that the old way of removing it, with hammer, chisel and wire brush and without damping, produced very high asbestos fibre counts that might persist for as long as a week. The counts themselves were in a figure not reproduced in the text. The author reported that practices had since changed: lagging was damped and bagged, work areas were sheeted off, laggers were given respirators, and fibre counts were made regularly. Insulation manufacturers had developed at least two non-asbestos ceramic substitutes. The author also described reversible clouding of the cornea after chemical boiler cleaning, and noise above 90 dB in some places on the newest stations. No data on asbestos-related disease were given.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Presidential address: a descriptive account of the occupational health service and hygiene problems in an industry, with no formal study design or health outcome data
• Who was studied: The Central Electricity Generating Board (the generating side of the electricity industry), employing about 73,000 men in 193 power stations grouped into five regions
• Exposure: Asbestos used as insulating material (lagging) on power station machinery, handled and removed during repairs; also chemical inhibitors used in boiler cleaning (the acid inhibitor probably a complicated amine) and machinery noise
• Main results:
  • The old method of removing lagging, with hammer, chisel and wire brush and without damping, produced very high asbestos fibre counts in a power station that might persist for as long as a week. The counts were shown in a figure that is not reproduced in the text.
  • Under changed practices, lagging was damped before work and removed lagging was put in plastic sacks. Laggers wore positive pressure clean air respirators, and fibre counts were carried out regularly during work.
  • Firms making insulating materials had developed at least two types of non-asbestos ceramic material to replace asbestos, even at the highest temperatures used.
  • There were several incidents of clouding of the cornea in men after boiler cleaning work, which were reversible. A case in another industry went on to ulceration.
  • On the newest stations there were a number of places where the noise level was above 90 dB. The author stated that the number of men at risk was small.
• The authors' conclusion: The author stated that the asbestos situation had been dramatically improved, through a mixture of fear and propaganda reinforced by a change in the law, together with joint lecture demonstrations to station staff on the dangers of asbestos.

Related studies

• Industrial hygiene and occupational health studies in Australian (New South Wales) shipyards — A. Bell (1976)
• Asbestos risk among full-time workers in an electricity-generating power station — A. Hirsch, L. Di Menza, et al. (1979)
• Comparison of U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards and German Berufsgenossenschaften Guidelines for Preventive Occupational Health Examinations — K. Straif, M. Silverstein (1997)
• Occupational health in Australia — W.O. Phoon (1998)
• A labor-management occupational health service in a construction industry — I.R. Tabershaw, W.C. Cooper, et al. (1970)
• Effects of electrostatic charge on the pathogenicity of chrysotile asbestos — J.M. Davis, R.E. Bolton, et al. (1988)

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