Document 3d55xXZnQewV9O55xQan8rwO

FILE NAME: General Electric (GE) DATE: 1932 Feb 9 DOC#: GE123 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Letter to Dr. Greenburg from L.W. Olson Objecting to Sandblast Research Committee's Findings & Recommendations U rJ .e r ilhe air use previ^iCOPt Q Liw o tht United States (17 U S C 1C7), this single copy v as prodnnceued itnor r-, reren'. from m aiem ! m M.mujlcripis and Archives, Yale University Library, P O RBox 2082400,, 128 W aj lIl S u v a , New Haven C T 'h^2Z-H:AZ Unless permission is/ranted, neither this copy nor the w q ^ ^ jp iy jyp ^ y Ij^ or placed in the coll/ctions of anv iienrstt"iituisccionp yornonrcuchveid; uva*i W 6 v any form: used by an unauthouaed pe w im vw i f 'Mr. Lsoaard Gr.anta-g 310 Cedar Street Hew Haven, Connecticut F,brv" 'y 9' 1332 My d r D o cto r G reenb urg: . * TMas i^ e e d sorry not to have been able to attend the meeting of tide Sandblast Research Committee held in Hew Jtork C ity on Jan ary 11th. As I w ill also be away and unable to attend the meeting scheduled for February 23rd, I am w riting you to give my reactions to the report. I was appointed to th is committee as a representa tiv e of the American Foundrymen' s Association and perhaps also be cause the company I represent, as well as ay s e l f , have had a good many years o f contact with sandblasting operations. We have had three cases of s ilic o s is develop in th is plant during the course of the la s t 27 years. We were among the f i r s t founders to use sand b lastin g for cleaning castings and n atu rally did not r e a liz e the occupational hazard involved in the e a rlie r operations. We have now fo r a number o f years followed a plan of lim itin g employment in sandblast operations for any one in dividu al to a period of one year, e give the individual a very thorough physical examination before he is put on th is work, and follow th is up with monthly ex aminations during h is period o f employment, and th is plan seems to quite e ffe c tiv e ly remove any health hazard that there may be with our apparatus . We have during the course of time improved the ven t ila t in g conditions in our sandblast operations, but we have not even now gone as fa r as your report would indicate to be necessary. The report from a p ractical standpoint seems to demand more than should be necessary, nor is i t necessary that conditions should be so arranged th a t constant and continuous performance over a l i f e time need be arranged fo r . The committee would probably find in industry many occupations that are made interim .ttent in order to re lie v e the severity o f the influence surrounding the work. I object to the basing of this committee' s fin d in gs upon the data that has been secured from foreign sources and without making a more detailed study on i t s own account under conditions e x is t ing in our own country. I object to the recommendation implying that m e ta llic abrasives should be used to the exclusion, i f p ossib le, o f s i l i c a . My company has repeatedly trie d to use m e ta llic abra sives exclu sively but many considerations a lter which make i t in expedient to do so. At a meeting held in Chicago nearly a year ago I indicated that i t would be a pleasure to have one o f your in v e sti gators v i s i t the plant of The Ohio Brass Company and ta lk over some of these matters with me and perhaps even make some te s ts hers. This has not been done and while perhaps i t is not necessary for the committee' s in vestigators to v i s i t each establishment that might extend an in v ita tio n , yet I ce rtain ly expected to get sane acknowledgement of my suggestion. I t strik es me that probably not much additional research work has been done since the Chicago meeting. I think s u ffic ie n t time should be given to permit more people contacting with the p ra ctica l side o f th is problem to give th eir views and experience. LWO-c ec-S . C. Vessy, C. E . Hoyt Yours very tr u ly , L . W. Olson or placed m the collections of any institution or individual