Document 6BMBjL2Bb18VdmqpoxL7VqqNg

Industrial Hygiene Digest INDUSTRIAL HEALTH NEWS LITERATURE ABSTRACTS MEDICAL ENGINEERING CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGICAL LEGAL - - decUioa* and tread* MAY, 1949 (VoL 13, No. 5) i i \ \ X X iJu;. - I?; 9 INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE FOUNDATION 4400 FIFTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH 13, PA. FOUNDATION ` Ftowidation Pacts Is monthly news*lctter issued to industrial concerns holding membership in ,, .. Industrial^Hygiene Foundation. The Foundation FACTS . Is a non-profit association of industries for the advancement of healthful working conditions. May, 19U9 No. 5 Annual Meeting and Conferences--November 16-17-18 At the Spring (semi-annual) meeting of the Foundation's Board of Trustees in New York on May 12, the dates for the Fourteenth Annual Meeting and Conferences vere fixed for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, November 16-17-18., There was considerable discussion on the proposal to hold all of the pro fessional conferences on November 16 and, following the main meeting on the 17th, to devote the l8th to a conference on community air pollution. It vas finally decided to poll the membership on this point and a letter is being addressed to Members asking whether or not they are interested in an air pollution conference in connection with the annual meeting. Meanwhile, plans are progressing for the management meeting on the 17th as veil as for the conferences. Agenda for the Medical and legal Conferences are 7irtually complete. Dr. Selby Retiring Dr. Clarence D. Selby announces that he is retiring as Medical Consultant for General Motors Corporation on July 1 that, in his words, he is "going fishing-," In the fall Dr. Selby will "do some special work in occupational medicine and hygiene at the University of Michigan School of Public Health..." Dr. Selby is a trustee of Industrial Hygiene Foundation and a member of the Medical Committee. His leadership has broadened the horizons of industrial health. Theodore F, Hatch, Foundation Hesearch Director, has been named Professor of Industrial Health Engineering 'in the New Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh. He will continue on the Foundation's staff in charge of studies in toxicology and physiology. Dr- Robert A. Kehoe, Director of the Kettering Laboratory of Applied Physiology, was honored with the Knudsen Awar-i far 1948-49* Dr. Kehoe heads the Department of Preventive Medicine end Industrial Health of the College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati. He has also been medical director of Ethyl Corporation since 1925. Andrew Fletcher, President of the St. Joseph Lead Company, and Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, delivered the commencement address at the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, University of Missouri, on May 31. At the same time, Mr. Fletcher was awarded the Doctor of Engineering degree by the Univer sity, '3U*TWIAL hygiene FOUNDATION 4400 FIFTH AVENUE PITTSBURGH (l). PA. Industrial Hygiene Digest- go May,19^9 twenty acute cases had loss of consciousness. The symptomatology of the five cases of alleged chronic poisoning was varied,ranging from slight weakness to symptoms of cardiac failure. The author points out that the loading and unloading of tankers is relatively safe "but that the blowing out and cleaning of the tanka may be dangerous. He calls attention to the fact that the compositions of crude oils vary according to their source. The greater the content of sulphur compounds, cycloparaffins, and aromatic hydrocarbons the greater are the hazards involved in handling the oils. -- J. Ind. Hyg,. & Tox. 5^9 Research in Industrial Health Problems. E,E. Sayers Ind. Med* lB, 1^9-191 (May, 1949) The author cites the cases of the radium dial painters, the develop ment of tetraethyl lead, the construction of the Holland Tunnel, and the work on refrigerants as examples of the application of research to indus trial hygiene problems. In each case the research led to prevention of the hazards; in the case of radium, in the recent work on atomic energy the use of materials millions of times as radioactive as those previously existing was accomplished without injury, because research had been spent on the problem. In spite of the great development of industrial hygiene, there Is still a vast amount of research to he accomplished . 550 Mineralogical Aspects of Pneumoconiosis Research. G , Nagelschmidt. Research 2, 170-175(Apr, 19^9) A general review of the subject of pneumoconiosis and its relation to composition of the mineral dust inhaled. 551 The Significance of Maximum Allowable Concentrations. J.E, Silson. Monthly Rev. N.Y7State Dept, of Labor 28,5-3 (February, 19^9) The author concludes, there are a number of fields of application in industrial hygiene ror the tables of maximum allowable concentrations. They can be used as a yardstick in surveying industrial processes and elect ing organic solvents from the point of view of safety. They are useful in planning ventilation for many potentially hazardous operations. They will often be of value in determining blether a worker might have been poisoned. Care must be taken, however, to consider all the variables which might affect the application of an MAC to a particular situation, and to Insure that the air tests with which it is compered truly represents the concen tration of toxic substances to which the worker is exposed. Lastly, it must he remembered that the MACs are not unchangeable constants, but ra ther values which have been established on the basis of limited experience with animal experimentation and human observation, and therefore subject to revision as further information throws new light on their reliability. For this reason, it is in general preferable not to seek to have fixed values established by law or written into codes, but rather to use them as guides for purposes of control; so that due allowance can be made for special circumstances, developing concepts or new data.