Minimum Requirements For Safety And Industrial Health In Contract Shipyards

Our plain-English summary of Minimum Requirements For Safety And Industrial Health In Contract Shipyards, by Marad (1943).

The study

• Author: Marad
• Published: U.S. Navy And U.S. Maritime Commission, Pp. 1-35 (1943)
• Type of article: Government report
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001963.

In plain English

This 1943 document is not a research study. It is a set of minimum safety and industrial health standards for shipyards building ships under contract with the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Maritime Commission. The standards were agreed at a national conference in Chicago in December 1942 and approved by both agencies in early 1943. They cover medical departments, examinations, respirators, ventilation, safety staff, committees, accident reporting, goggles, welding and cranes. The list of jobs requiring respiratory protective equipment includes asbestos work, as in covering pipes. Asbestosis is one of eight common shipyard diseases described, with its source given as any job in which asbestos dust is breathed, such as handling, cutting or sawing asbestos and asbestos mixtures. Nearby control measures include segregating dusty work, hoods enclosing the work, special respirators and periodic medical examination. Scanning scrambled this part of the text, so it is not fully clear which measures belong to asbestosis and which to silicosis. The document also stated that breathing Fiberglas causes no lung damage. The two agencies said they expected full compliance.

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: Government safety and industrial health standards document issued by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Maritime Commission (not a research study)
• Who was studied: Shipyards holding contracts with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Maritime Commission, and their workers, described as soon to number about one million; standards agreed at a conference in Chicago, December 7 and 8, 1942, and approved January 20 and February 9, 1943
• Exposure: Shipyard health hazards including asbestos dust (any job in which asbestos dust is breathed, such as handling, cutting and sawing asbestos and asbestos mixtures, and covering pipes), as well as lead, solvent vapors, zinc fume, Fiberglas, free silica (sand) and skin irritants
• Main results:
  • Asbestos work, as in covering pipes, is listed among shipyard jobs requiring respiratory protective equipment. The specific respirator type assigned to it cannot be read in the scanned table.
  • Asbestosis is included among eight common types of shipyard disease for which prevention methods are given
  • The asbestosis section lists handling, cutting and sawing of asbestos and asbestos mixtures as example jobs
  • Control measures printed in the scrambled asbestosis and silicosis section include segregating dusty work, special ventilation hoods enclosing the working process, special respirators and periodic medical examination. The scanning makes the exact assignment of measures to each disease uncertain.
  • The Navy and Maritime Commission would require the use of approved respiratory equipment (tested by the U.S. Bureau of Mines) throughout all yards
  • The document stated that inhalation of Fiberglas causes no lung damage
  • A supervisor's report form was to be filled out for every disabling injury or case of occupational disease, whether or not compensable
• The authors' conclusion: The issuing agencies stated that they would expect full and complete compliance with the minimum standards from each contractor

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: U.S. Maritime Commission, Respirator, Silicosis.

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