Document B2bwwDwGGdBVm9j05J0NRq84

FILE NAME: General Electric (GE) DATE: 1934 Jan 30 DOC#: GE006 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Letter from Carl Obermaier to Dr. Hamilton ) <Eari J[. benttaicr 15 -Noril] Harlan ^ork, ^ a. January 30, 1934. Dr. Alice Hamilton, Harvard School of Public Health, 55 Van Dyke Street, Boston, Mass. Dear Doctor Hamilton, In response to your letter of January 29th, I am glad to advise you that the York Plant of the General Electric Company, which specializes in asbestos insulations, has never experienced harmful results to its employees through continuously working with this material. This is chiefly due to the fact that we are not dealing with raw asbestos, but rather with a prepared fibre of fine quality which oomes to us in a very clean condition. I am also glad to report that all of our machines that fiberize our asbestos material are hooded and connected with an exhaust system. In other words, the atmospheric conditions existing in our plant could not be considered harmful to anybody, even to those who are constantly operating with this material. On the floor where we apply felted asbestos we have per shift about ten to twelve operators and in the braiding department about three or four operators. Harmful conditions are found in asbestos mills where the raw asbestos is crushed and opened and where cheap mixeB are produoed. In such oases significant concentrations of asbestos dust can be found in the air and may result in the disease called asbestdsisy , provided preventive measures are not taken. This question of asbestos affecting the health of our operators has come up previously and Dr. G. H. Cowle has written a treatise entitled "The Hazard of Asbestos in the Schenectady Plant of the General Electric Company" . It may also be of interest to you, if you are not already acquainted, that the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has issued a pamphlet entitled "EffeotB of the Inhalations of Asbestos Dust upon the Lungs of Asbestos Workers". By writing to the Policyholders Service Bureau of this Company you, no dotiibt, can obtain a copy of this pamphlet. Since you are evidently interested in Industrial Toxicology, we have another problem confronting us whioh is due to the use of halowax. However, I would not like