Document XQVgdN6z98b2G4O4NpxMjwaB

FILE NAME: ALCOA (ALC) DATE: 1980 June 25 DOC#: ALC018 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Letter # J ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA ALCOA BUILDING.. PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 15219 1980 June 25 ALCOA Mr. C. Wayne Bickerstaff, Manager Industrial Hygiene & Safety Westinghouse Electric Corporation Research & Development Center Beulah Road Pittsburgh, PA 15235 Dear Wayne: My apologies for the very late response to you in regard to the Industrial Hygiene and Safety survey of R&D facilities that you are conducting'. As often happens with our R&D group, once they took a look at the nature of your survey, they declined to respond on an outside communication. That group constantly places a very high priority on confidentiality of all types. Also, there is some feeling that we may someday want to make an effort to market our Safety program in Alcoa to other industries. Nevertheless, let me make some comments that may be meaningful to you. Corporately, Safety and Industrial Hygiene are highly individual departments reporting to a Vice President of Health & Safety. That same distinction holds throughout most of Alcoa's locations; however, there are varying degrees of coordination that are obviously required. Over the past 3-4 years, Alcoa has developed an extremely high profile and consciousness around our safety efforts. It starts with an Executive Safety Committee, comprised of the top line operating officers. Primary responsibility works its way down to the first line supervisor... but all levels of management have fundamental areas of responsibility. All Company managers are currently involved in a comprehensive course of study of a safety program. The Industrial Hygiene effort does not enjoy the same level of visibility being a much more technically oriented science. While we have had an active Industrial Hygiene program since the 1940s, we really only started a significant push to strengthen this function about one year ago. We have made very meaningful strides in that process, and enjoy the full support of the top officers of the Company in this effort. Mr. C. Wayne Bickerstaff, Manager 1980 June 25 Page 2 Turning to Alcoa Laboratories, as with all other locations, we have a very active Safety and Industrial Hygiene program. The Safety Manager reports to the Associate Director of the Laboratories and, hence, is only one step removed from Director of Alcoa Labora tories. He has two Safety Engineers and an Industrial Hygienist reporting to him (this is unusual, as we generally do not have a reporting relationship between Industrial Hygiene and Safety; how ever, this reporting relationship at Alcoa Laboratories seems to be the best way to handle Industrial Hygiene at present). They also mimic the corporate program by having an Executive Health & Safety Committee at the Alcoa Technical Center comprised of the top management and Division Managers of the Laboratories. Throughout the Company, managers are deeply dedicated and committed to being a part of the Safety effort. There is a highly structured system of follow-through with Safety Committees established in every department, and their activities are constantly assisted and audited by the Safety Department. The Safety and Industrial Hygiene activities involve both protection of employees, as well as providing input to the development projects and processes before they become commercialized in our plants. There fore, we are very much involved in the development effort. At least this gives you some picture of the rather comprehensive setup we are using within Alcoa. If you would like additional information, we might best be able to do that on a personal basis over lunch or through a visit. Again, I apologize for the late response and, also, the fact that we chose not to respond formally to your survey. Very truly yours, E . E . Rumberger Manager Industrial Hygiene EER/eds ARCH 19679