Document MJ50KY806L7o70yvYpMzEg5bM

vY.y-; . 26 Metals Industry 1 will venture to say that the greatest eration has ceased. A spherical particle hav reduction in the incidence of occupational ing the same density as quartz will falj disease and of accidents in the foundry will 0.016 foot per minute or t foot per boor is be brought about by good housekeeping. It still air. This important fact has not been is almost a complete answer to the question: fully appreciated by the foundry industry. "What can 1 do about industrial hygiene?** and yet it is often so ignored. If a plant manager walked into the treasurer's office and found twcnty-dollar Hits lying on the floor, in the waste basket, on the window ledges, he*d he scandalized. Yet. in his own I have found high dust concentrations in foundries with very good ventilating sys tems because the floors and rafters were sel dom if ever cleaned. For this reason, I have been strongly in favor of central bmlt-m vacuum cleaning systems mpable of main- plant, equipment and material--all of which taining a vacuum of 12 inches of mercury leprescnt dollar?--are strewn about in the at six outlets simultaneously. Such systems same careless manner. are not expensive. In fact, I believe a A certain foundry decided to put a new built-in vacuum cleaning system is as im concrete floor in the core room. When the portant as a good ventilating installation if' contractor arrived to set the forms, he found we are to have good industrial hygiene in a perfectly good concrete floor about a foot the foundry. below the dirt. That is a true story! 3. The third important control factor is It has been shown by Hatch that occu education. 1 have found unsafe conditions pational disease is directly proportional to in the foundry because the supervision was crowding. ignorant of the toxic effects of the materials A study of 43 foundries m New York they used or of the hazards involved in a State revealed the following startling rela given process. tionships between housekeeping and the inci For example, one foundry was blissfully dence of silicosis. engaged in the production of beryllium Ktxoabcx of Sflicctfr Inridroce (Petcent) copper, totally unaware of the reported ex Homhpnjt FUsts Mediae Maaeaem Mininrun* treme toxicity of beryllium; and the mate Fair ... Poor . .... 18 1.9 4.4 2.8 15.4 1.0 rial was handled and processed with the U0 same indifference as phosphor-copper. Bad ... 5.4 1S 0.8 Another plant making copper castings Note that do foundries were classified as having good housekeeping; only 5 were fair, 18 poor, but most of them bad. Note also the sharp reduction in the incidence of silicosis betweai plants with bad housekeep ing and those with fair. What would the difference be if the comparison were made was surprised when the workmen contracted lead poisoning because the copper contained Jess than 2 per cent lead. They forgot about the vapor pressure of lead at the melting temperature of copper and. as a result, there was a high concentration of lead-in-air around the unexhausted furnaces. between plants having ted and very good A third plant did not know that fumes housekeeping? from welding and burning steel and gray In one of our own brass foundries we bad iron castings is principally iron oxide. In approximately 14 cases of lead poisoning a the concentrations produced by those opera month. With little change in the ventilating tions, iron oxide will cause a lung condition system but by* reason of an excellent regi known as riderosis. Siderosis consists of men of good housekeeping alone, we have a pigmentation of the lungs doe to deposits not had a single case in over five years. of iron throughout the lung fields. It is I know of a foundry that removed 60 tons of dust from the superstructures. Such material finally exceeds the angle of repose, and dost from the superstructures is con stantly set air-borne by building vibration. noadisabling and is harmless much as a tatoo mark an the skin is termless though undesirable. However, the iron deposits are radio-opaque and their shadows seat on a roentgenogram are very similar in appear Particles of physiologically significant sue ance to those caused by fibrosis doe to free wiC remain suspended in stUI air for very silica. As a result, a diagnosis of silicosis long periods thus contaminating the at is frequently made and compensation for a mosphere long after the dust-producing op non-existent disability results. Presentation of Awards 27 Now foundrymen arc not toxicologists or industrial hygienists and, therefore, cannot be expected to know the hazards involved in founding. But the United States Depart ment of Health, branches of which are set up in each state, is at their service at no charge. This is a fact-finding organization without coercive or police powers; and, therefore, no plant should fear to call on them for assistance if the plant really wants technical advice. The foregoing three factors then: (1) Conviction on the part of top managematt that good industrial hygiene is good busi ness ; (2) Good housekeeping; and (3) Education, are prerequisites in any foundry hygiene program. Without them, it is fool ish to discuss safe practices or to expensive ventilating systems. Presentation of Awards By GROVER C. BROWN Secretary, Industrial Relations Committee, American Iron and Steel New York. N. Y. The metals industry was one of the first to be recognized as a separate and distinct section of the National Safety rvnyfl. Metals, together with nine other industries was organized as a separate section in 1915. The first safety contest for this section was held 14 years later in 1929. Today we are celebrating its 22nd consecutive safety con test. Only 34 units were entered in that first contest, all under one general classification but divided into groups A and B according to size. Through the years this section has grown until it now encompasses nine sepa rate classifications, each divided into three groups, A. B, and C according to size. As you know, these nine classifications are: steel mills, iron and steel rolling mills, non-ferrous metals and products, foundries, machine shops with foundries, heavy fabricating, light fabricating, heavy machinery and light ma chinery. Included within these nine classifica tions are 2J15 separate operating units scat tered geographically from Canada to the Golf of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. All arc eligible to compete in this Metals Section's Safety Contest. A "Unit" may be a single plant or de partment or a group of plants or depart ments, a part or the whole of a company. These 2^15 operating units have combined payrolls of more than a million employees, all potential players on the many scores of safety teams eligible to compete m this contest. This year 706 units have satisfied all re quirements and completed the contest This is equivalent approximately to one out of every three units eligible to compete. (A few additional units participated through part or all of the contest period but for some reason have failed to fulfill all requirements to the end and are not now included in this total.) To build up this total of 706 com peting units, the heavy fabricating and light fabricating divisions each supplied 128. Light machinery supplied 103 units, foundries--96, and heavy* machinery--90. Sixty-nine units came from steel mills and 32 from nonferrous metals and products. Iron a*wj steel rolling mills and machine shops with foun dries contributed the remainder with 30 r^rh One hundred and sixty-six of these units are in Group A, 239 in Group B, and 301 in Group C. Xratey-six of these units have emerged from this contest as 1st place winners. Tliis is equivalent to an average of approximately one for every seven units which satisfac torily completed the contest (A winner is a unit with a perfect score or with the lowest score in its respective group.) Group A, of largest units, is credited with 9 win ners; Group B, of medium sized units, has 13 winners; and Group C, of ymatfest has come through with 74 winners. The ratios of number of 1st place winners to number of contestants is therefore -- For Group A--1 for every 18.4 units For Group B--l for every 18.4 units For Group C--1 for every 4.1 units