Document EdMB2N1bX3XB4296mZkBMoLrN

FILE NAME: US Steel (USS) DATE: 0000 DOC#: USS025 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Barry Castleman History - US Steel U. S. STEEL US Steel was a member of the National Safety Council at least as far back as 1932 and therefore would have had access to NSC publications on dusts, including asbestos, as well as annual National Safety Congress proceedings where asbestos and asbestosis were regularly discussed in the 1930s. IHF was at the founding meeting of what later became the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, in 1935, where representatives of major industrial firms of all kinds came together to address the problem of industrial dusts including silicosis and asbestosis. US Steel was a founding member of IHF and continued to be a member for over 30 years, 1936-1977. IHF published the Industrial Hygiene Digest starting 1937 monthly to member firms; the Digest had scores of abstracts of articles about asbestos and the diseases it caused between 1937-1970. US Steel membership in other industry and professional associations during this period could have contributed to additional awareness about asbestos hazards (American Industrial Hygiene Association, American Petroleum Institute, Chemical Manufacturers' Association). Representatives o f US Steel subsidiaries attended a meeting convened by the US Navy and Maritime Commission in 1942, preparatory to the development of the publication Minimum Requirementsfo r Safety and Industrial Health in Contract Shipyards (1943). Subsequent to the publication o f these requirements, which included provisions to limit worker exposure to asbestos dust, a US Steel subsidiary, Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., was inspected by federal officials and found to require additional safeguards on the saw where asbestos insulation materials were cut by a contractor (Aug.-Sept. 1944). US Steel owned 10 or more railroads, and the annual meetings o f the company doctors of the railroad industry reflect concerns about asbestosis and asbestos-caused lung cancer in the period 1935-1958. In the 1960s, the company had 49 fulltime physicians at 56 industrial facilities, according to former Medical Director Bundy. US Steel also owned American Steel and Wire, which made insulated wire and cable using asbestos. Company and Massachusetts government industrial hygiene surveys for asbestos were done at US Steel's Worcester wire and cable subsidiary in 1965-66. US Steel employed qualified industrial medicine and hygiene professionals. Medical Director Merle Bundy was aware of Dr. SelikofFs work on asbestos, and they were on a first-name basis by the time of letters exchanged in 1970. US Steel industrial hygienist Kenneth Morse was hired in the early 1950s and, in a Mar. 9, 1966 memo on asbestos hazards, referred to the international conference on asbestos held in New York.