Document QM3rV8gb28j0Y7pZxk8xdp3nv

DUST CONTROL THROUGH ORGANIZED RESEARCH " ' V * 4 MANY 4 small plant owner is in sympathy with the movement to reduce dust, but he does not have the financial resources to plunge into the prob- !em. What can he do about it? 1 should like to caJI to your attention the problem of the targe plant as contrasted with the little feU low in organising a dust control program. A con* crete illustration may give us the picture better than anything else. Let's make up, therefore, a composite of the best parts of several programs now being carried out by several good-sized companies. In point of fact, no bj W, G. HAZARD Owens-Plinofs Glass Co. Toledo, Ohio one company can be paraded as perfect, but e can imagine that such a faultless organization actually does exist, and we shall label it "Consolidated Cor* *** poration." In 1931, Consolidated Corporation was buying sand from a nearby sand plant The sand plant was small la size, having about 100 men on its pay* rolL All of a sudden, at the depths of the depres sion, the sand operators were faced with silicosis claims presented by former employees, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Alarmed at the catastrophe that had befallen its neighbor. Con* soiidated Corporation quite naturally wondered how clean its own badq-ard was, for although it had escaped the "ambulance chasers," the fact re* mained that it handled tons and tons of silica sand --a potential hazard. This urge for self-examination was born in the department of Consolidated Corporation, and this is the rtrst important fact to bear la mind. SfflcooSe Unknown Silicosis was Just as new to the large company as to the sand company, and everything had to be learned from scratch. First of all, a committee was made up of a member of the legal department, a member of the insurance department, and a mem ber of the executive department This board of strategy was appropriately labeled "Hygiene Com* mitten." The help of the engineering department was so licited in making a study to aee if a silica hazard actually did exist Generous sums were spent on laboratory apparatus and Public Health Reprint No. 1821 on the impinger was practically. mem. orized. The only man who had had microscope ex perience was drafted from another important engi neering survey and put on dust-counting in the company's plants from coast to coast. Dust samples showed that control equipment was needed at certain Jobs, and the Hygiene Committee had to hire an engineer to devote full time to these activities. Thus the Committee had a full-time lawyer and a full-time engineer marshalled against the dust men ace. It should be noted that the legal department not only saw the nt<4 of dust control, but took the Uitiatire in pushing it Importance oi Dust Counts Engineering work included the spotting of dust exposures through dust counts. Then os control A* kjnn Itiviltry ti U4r,fUU* l.'l, [,,'< C*. measures, bins were vented, hoppers were hooded. w* md conveyor transfer points were enclosed. Ex instituted pit-employment examinations. The task haust system# wtr* installed where needed. A sys of finding satisfactory X-ray machines in some of tem of monthly maintenance reports was set up. the smaller towns was in itself difficult, and some with copies going to the plant manager and the plants had to transport their men over 200 miles general offices. for the X-ray, thus adding to the expense. Pcnodt With no rule-of-thumb data available to give the check-up examinations on new employees were ear proper volumes and air velocities for the exhaust ned out. systems, field tests were msde with experimental "Ployinq with DravaUe" hoods and a portable exhaust fan. In some in Throughout this period, which we called the first stances, worthwhile information was obtained in phase, there was a feeling of tenseness, of playing this way, but in others, the field tests interfered so with dynamite, for every precaution had to be taken much with plant operation and took so much of the to stifle an}' outburst of false personal injur}' claims time of the already short-handed maintenance de such as had beset some other companies. The situa partments, that the tests were not practical. tion was paradoxical; on the one hand, each plant Hespirators had already been furnished years ago of Consolidated Corporation had to be instructed in --and these, incidentally, were as good as the mar the dangers of silica dust so u to be full}* aware of ket afforded at that time. what genuine hatari existed ; When the Bureau of Mines but on the other hand, mention issued its respirator schedule of the word "silicosis" was mado No. SI, Consolidated Corpora in hushed whispers for fear tion adopted approved devices. some less scrupulous person Every man was given two res might say "Here's where 1 can pirators, each marked with his cash in." This difficult situation number so that they could be existed because silicosis at that cleaned on alternate days. A time was not under the Compen man will really wear a respir sation Laws of' any State in ator conscientiously when he which Consolidated operated. knows he gets his oira back, The legal department worked cleaned ever?' day. You can see that these me with industrial organisations, la bor groups and insurance com chanics of dust control are not noveL To put them into pret panies, in bringing pressure to bear on State legislatures so that tier, however, was a story of one by one silicosis was brought another color. It was a story many authors of technical pa under (workmen's) compensa tion and taken away from the pers skip over hurriedly. Dust control work out in Consoli jury. As each state enacted a compensation law, with its at dated's plants was not' so much tendant aasarance of fair play, "engineering" as just plain "sell a huge sigh of relief was passed. ing." Everyone from the plant C--- H-f>^l rf hM, ItwkL manager down to the Janitor had M*S#I tf-tf t- N< *tf**if Dost Aherteanol Petwanenl to be -Mid" on the reasons for keeping down dust ' L'p until now, the position of the Hygiene Committee was quite irregular. Here FbatUae ef Attack was an cnpinnr attached to the l/gnl department With the expansion of business that followed the and assigned to work that had industrial kwlth as depression, industry blossomed out with new bins, its prime end. Thus, legal, engineering and medical new elevators, new drills, new machine tools, and activities were carried on in one room, but there even whole new plants, and Consolidated 'Corpora was no space to fit this room into the company's tion was no exception. A rare opportunity was house. From an organisation point of view, dust beve afforded to design this new equipment nnd abatement work was a "pain in the neck" when chese structures with the thought in mind of mak it came to tying it in logically with some depart ing them dust-free. The help of equipment nuinu- ment of the company. The remedy wax found, acturer# wa. enlisted, and the slight extra cost however, when the personnel department of tin entailed in the trimlblf designing of a dust-free toot company took over this work and incorporated i; 11 invested. No other approach to the prub- in health and safety, good housekeeping mcdicul cm n *o fundamental nor so productive a* this. seivic# and employe* relations program that i: was # :*.w * linc attack which should be followed bv already canring on. Dust control work wa# ro: r.i .dcr tor'u,'fc*hc;tuoinn.gbuain)dyjtnhtifn. g from a one-ineh merely "lodged" in the personnel department but was permanently built into it and today the com < medical side of the pietuie, Consolidated pany's safety program includes not only ;:ce;dc;i*. 1 # * prevention out occupational disease prevention. With the program no"- in its fifth year, the Uiini era of Consolidated'* experience it dawning. U'hat a* oorn a ''pain in the neck," haa now grown into a full-fledged interest in occupational disease in genera!, not merely silicosis. The trend is shown by pre-employment examinations for everyone, and the increasing use of voluntary periodic examina tions. it is reflected in a different type of plant doctor; he is no longer just a bone-setter, but an industrial physician on the lookout for both acci dental and hcttlf'i injuries. It is further reflected by a better understanding of the purpose of physical examinations. Their chief function is to aid the personnel director in placing the individual who has some disability in a job for which he is physi cally suited. Their function is not, of eourse. to weed out front industry every individual who has a physical disablement. Ut e-w-f : s-aei-e n, y,, c;-. While the actual amount of money that Consoli dated Corporation has spent on these three phases of its silicosis problem is unknown, it Is easy to see that salaries, equipment, consultant's fees, and ex penses of other kinds during the -rear period have amounted to a very considerable sunt. Suck a pro gram is too ryjKHtirr for a woIf plant. Although everyone is "in sympathy with the movement.'' the wherewithal is not always to be found. Halp for Sadi Rati There must be some agency that a small plant can turn to. some clearing house that will ted it what it's all about. Fortunately, today we can name such agencies. Many are still in swaddling clothes, but the infants are husky. First, recognition should be given to the oldtimers who were well established long before the depre?sion bred the silicosis "racket** The United States Pubiie Health Service, for one, has for years ben vitally concerned with industrial health condi tions. Dr. H. R. Siyer*' Division of Industrial Hy giene handles specific problems of industrial com panies with amazing skill and much patience. The Bureau of Mines, likewise, for years has studied dust conditions, especially in the mineral and allied industries. The Director is constantly tackling speciilc problems that are of general appli cation. * poiitan. Travelers and others, have as engineering and medical service that Is outstanding. Industrial trade associations, like the American Foundrymen's Association, have done yeoman serv ice in making available material on dust control to their members. The American Society of-Heating and Ventilating Engineers, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Stand ards Association, through committees, have crys tallised the thought of the authorities on partic ular engineering phases. ASA Code Z9 on factors invoked in the fundamental design of exhaust sys tems. is a bible for any engineer who delves into this phase of the work. With the bunt of interest of state legislatures in occupational disease, many states have set up bu reaus of occupational disease for the sen-ice of in dustry. la addition to these, there are at least two developments that are backed by industry itself. One is the Occupational Diseases Research Depart ment of Northwestern University. This unit began to function last November and has a dispensary clinic to which any case claiming occupational tiisease can be referred. An excellent aspect of the plan is that the staff spends half its time in the re search department and half out in the plants mak ing industrial surveys. Its first symposium was held last September. Two other leaders through seniority and accom plishment ate the Harvard School of Public Health and the Saranac Laborntoiy. Insurance Participation Ou o( the most fruitful sourcis of information for the smalt company is its insurance carrier. In surance companies like the Aetna. American MuluJ. Employer* Mutuals. Liberty Mutual. Metro- Air 8t9>ene Foundation The other development is the Air Hygiene Foun dation. of whleh Harry Meller is managing director, with offices in Pittsburgh. The Foundation is unicue because all phases of the hygiene problems considered--engineering, medical, and leual. It incorporated at the end of irSfi. after a year of I preparation, and its initial assignment, which has ;u: drawn to a close. was to gather together the rortj relating to silicons in all its phases, and to evaluate them. The results are three reports: engi neering, medical, and legal. They are of unusual merit, ar.d could only have been obtained by the pocn.ng ef resources and united action in the part of reoogr.ijed authorities who compose the three committees. This fact-finding survey showed many chinks in the structure of silicosis knowledge that needed to be Ailed in by further research. A research program has now been drawn up by the Foundation in the light of this A rat surrey, ar.d with the,sponsoring oi this, the Foundation has taken its second sup. Special Problems Handled Special problems of members are dealt with by the Foundation which is well equipped for this service because of the esihauslfrg library that has been assembled and because of the ability of the members of its technical committees. Membership in the Foundation is open to any in dustrial company for a fee that is scaled according to payroll. "Reprinted from SAFETY ENGINEERING MAGAZINE, November. 1937"