Document ByzEBYd1kMrend4nny3NQZ4Qo

FILE NAME: Todd Shipyards (TODD) DATE: 1945 Aug 29 DOC#: TODD002 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Memo 11/01/99 22:05 TX/BX . 4 6 7 5 11/01/99 22: Hov-ai-ea ai*sa F R O H 'f E X E R 6 <<*081.0 B 1D FAGB 3/4 August 29, 1945 Hr. J.A. McKay - New York ccx Mr. A.2, Kincaid - Toledo Mr- J.S. Irvine - Hew York TOLD SHIP y a r d ERZS BASIN Your thoroughgoing report of August 21 about the meeting with the group at Todd Ship Yard, srie Basin, la most interesting, and X agree heartily with, you that few things can so be advantageous to us in the long run as a meeting of this sort, x am mighty glad to know that you are going ahead With a program of this kind and that by the time this memo reaches you, a similar meeting probably will have been held at the Todd _____ Yard- Your report confirms my belief that our representatives can do .art increasingly effective job for the company by constant follow-up with the industrial hygienists, plant physicians, safety engineers, end production people involved. They are the ones who finally determined the acceptability of our materials from a handling point of view, and it Is as important to sail these as it is in tha first instance to get an order on the basis of engineering performance- SThm question raised by Dr. _______ concerning dust count end nclpitmtion is difficult to answer because so many factors are volved. The relatively course wool fibers will settle rapidly In open and unconfirmed spaces in enclosed or confined soacses with -Inadequate ventilation, it will, of course, settle more slowly. This question of settlement is, however, an academic one in view of the fact that Dr. Gardner's research, demonstrated that such fibers that do gloat in the air are not inhalabla. and that at worse the presence of such fibers would be only a _________ characteristic on the job. X recall e statement made in"the offie* of Kanfrad Bowditeb, Massachusetts Director of Industrial Hygiene, In November, 1941 by Dr. iis Schwartz of the U.S. Publics Health Service, when a similar questions es put to him by a group of a .h .U. representatives, Dr. Schwartz told these men that although he is not a lung pathologist, he could a*sure them that they had nothing whatsoever to worry about from fibers that could be seen, since such fibers"were too large to get into the respiratory tract, and that the range of fiber diameters ih Fiberglas materials was beyond the threshold at which such a hazard was encountered. From time to time, dust counts have been.made at the Newark plant and at the Huntingdon plant by state officials, and several years ago a dust count was made in Newark by a representative of the industrial Hygiene Foundation. As you probably know, a hazard, may be deemed to exist only it particles of certain sizes are found in certain quantities -- something like several million particles per cubic; foot. V 11/01/99 22:05 TX/RX NO.4675 P.004 % - r -v * m I 1\ U * t ^ b, # ! ft V. .1 il V t 1 m - . ^ E d w a r d e* A n e s # M9 i 9 f % 11/01/99 22:05 TX/RX NO.4675 P.005 ID> .a* ax.ei f r o m .p e t e r g a hbei-o s p a g e 4/4 In tto case was .dangerous conc*ntraticn developed, and as you 3a;ov, the only piece In our plants where workers are required to where respirators is in the branch house: because of e silicosis hazards resulting from exposure to tree silica in ths handling sand, once the sand is transformed into glass, however, the silicon changes into silicates, and the silicosis hazard disappears. It is >an entirely different story with asbestos. The asbestos fiber is th. only silicate that has been determined by lung pathologists to . involve a lung hazard. This i* because the asbestos fiber is crystalline in structure and microscopically it is snake-like in appearance with many overlapping, almost needle!ike, crystals. These crystals contain water of hydration. The asbestos fibers of certain particle size and in certain concentrations can penetrate into the respiratory passages and cause _____ when they reach the alveoli of the lungs where they set up a chemical reaction with body fluids, similar to 'that found in silicosis. `I understand 'that only a highly trained lumg-pathologist can differentiate asbestesis from silicosis. The symptoms are similar r dyspnea {shortaasa of breath), hacking, unproductive cough, slight elevation of temperature# etc. Thank goodness we don't* run into anything of that sort with Vlberglas. X think the snake barker met must have been v-try convincing. X am sending you separately e can. of Lan-O-r'Klaan -for relief .of such . further torture* as you ear to Inflict upon yourself. ."Best tegspeds. "