Document bBVvzRymao56g9JYx33mbEw51

What the ACGIH has done forindustrial hygiene* Some ofthe old-timersamong us can probably Conkrenee of State and Rmrindral Health Author- remember thatACQIH meeting in 1948,whichwas ities of North America, inaugurateda program de- heldin ~ ~ . A t t h e ~ m i n u t t : s o m e o n e g o t t h esigned toestablishactive induatrlalhygiene work idea that it k u l d be a good thing to have a in State and local health departments. banquet, and as 1recall,we did hamoneatthe Old Omof the most pressing problems presenting oyrster HouseofthefamousseafoodOfcourse,no itself at that time in the development ofindustrial banquet is complete without some formal enter- h m e sexvices in State and local governments tainment, but since ourtreasuxy, asusual in those was the lack of trained personnel to evaluate and days0was very low, I was persuaded tofurnish the control the then lncvltable hazards assodated entertainment in the form of an account of my with industrial work. The burden fell primarily arhnnhnts in South America, where I had spent upon the PublicHealth Service,becauseofitslong nearly all of the previous year as a consultant for experience in industrial hygiene wrk and I t s the Institute of Inter-American Affairs.As I recall administration of soda1 security h d s for this thateventourtreasuxywassolowthatIeven had topayformyowndinner. Utiledld anyonethink at the time that we were actuallyten years of age. Purpose. fkalidng the urgency of the problem, and belicving that some standard method of procedure Wlth the exception of a fewofthe old guard who should be set up for the ggdance of industrial are here tonight I don't suppose that wxy many h)@eneworkers,thePublkHealthSenAcedddtd people remember howtheACaIH gotstarted,and to give a short course of instruction to personnel h o w i t g n w t o i t s p r e s e n t ~ ~ , a n d , ~ e \ F e m es. ekctedby the various State health depamtenb itdocsbstature. Ishallgssumetheprerogath for work in this fleld. Accordingly, a four-week ofananniversaryspeakerand turnthe pagesback seminar was held durlng the summer of 1936, for a fewminutes toghe you a lime history of our which consisted oflectures on indusMal hygkne organization and why it created in the flrst administratfon,health hazards, control methods. . P- and SmI m subjects, as unll as laboratory dtm- nN:ACQIH was really born of necessity. Prior to onstrations ofinstrumcnts uscd tbr imestlgatlve 1936,industrial hygiene actfvIUc3 In the United andcontrolwork. In thesummerof1937,aBccond Stattswereconinedtorestarchwork,bothinthe seminar was held, since the number of persons lraboratolyandin thefkld,bythe U.S.PublicHealth engegedinindustrialhygienchadlncrtasedhrom Sexvice, the United Sbtes Bureau of Mlnes and approxhaklyfortytornorethanahundred.Since one or two universities. V u y little application of these seminars could do no more than introduce t h e s e f l n d l n g s w a s i n p r a c t i u : i n t h t ~ , ~ ~the pubUc health worker to industrial hyglene. atthattime therewereonly fheStatesandone city addlUonal trainingfiadlftluwcre furnishedby the engaged in d d a l industrial hygiene work. In all PublicHeal* Service.Thistraining tookthe form probability,this limited work in indusMal hygiene o f ~ ~ ~ d i n v e s i l g a t h s i n m d also accounted for the paucity of instruction in For example, studies =re wnducttd in West that branch of public health. Mrgtnia, 4 t h the indusMal hygiene personnel of Now,as most of you know, the actual responsibility for d'eguadng the health of our labor force rests chiefly upon State and local governments. In 1936,when funds =re made available bythe Social3ecurilyActforthe developmentand extension ofall phase3 of public health work, the U.S. Public Health Service,in woperatlon with the Resentedatthe banquetoftheACQIH on theoccasbnof the 20th Annhmsary meeting of thls organization at w.Athntlc aty,NJ, April 20-22.1958.Publldred in the Am. md. h m c . J. 1933&344 (1958).Rtprinbcdby permlsdon dthe American Industrial WeneAswdation. Thirty-five Years of TLVs that Sate, on the healthof workers in the ceramic industry. Abeatosis was studied in North carollna and South Carolina.Thehazards in the hatters' fur carrotingand felthatindustrywere investigatedln C o n n d c u t and, in 1939,three studies were conducted in cooperation with the Utah State Board of Health, on theproblems in the metal and coal-miningindustries,and in metal smeltingand refining.Such studies served a dual purpose. The United States Public Health Service was ruWlling its function of conducting basic mearch, since t h e studiesyielded information which could be appliedon a national scale,and,atthesametime, the State personnel had an opportunltytorecdve traininginthepracticeofindustrialhygleneandto make a good startin the evaluation and control of health hazards in the industries of the State in question. During the last week of the second seminar in 1937,we came to the conclusion thatwe should continue theseannual seminars but perhaps hold them under the auspices of a nonoffldal organi- zation, similar to the annual conftrenceof State Sanitary Engineers, which meets yearly 4th the Division of Sanitary Engineering of the United States Public Health Service.As a matter of fact in writingtheconstitution fortheAcOlH, we usedthe constitution of the Conference of State Sanitary Engineers asa guide. An organization of this sort can very oftenaccomplish things which an organization of more officialcharacter is unable to do, because of certain limitations imposed upon official organizations.'Ikorganizations which tllustrate this point are the Conference of State & Territorial Health Officers, which is an Owdal organization meeting with the Surgeon Qeneralof the Public Health Service every year by an act of Congress as in contrast to the nonofidal State and R d n d a l Health Authoritiesof North America. The latter vew often makes statements and takes action on matterswhich theformerwuld notdare to do, even though the same people are talking. The firstannual meeting ofour Conferencewas held in WashingtonJune 27-29,1938B.ythattime, believe it or notiue had been able to organlze Wenwight industrial hygiene units throughout the various States and at the first meeting these units were represented by forty-three members, one associate, and six guests. The ExecCommittee held its firstmeeting in my home, and thatprthecustombeganofmakingthebecutk Committeemeetinsa dinnermeeting,exceptthat in this first year the dinner was held after the meeting at a well-known suburban restaurant know as "Mrs.Wafs Toll House Tavern."We had several drinks at my home following the meetlng and thosemust havestimulated all of us togo"all out" on what we ordered, which as I remember, consisted mostly of what all good Americans like; beefsteak, baked potatoes,apple pie, and so on, washed d m with sparkling Burgundy. When the bill appeared, it was passed on to me, since I had done all the arranging and was the secretmytreasurer. Much to my constemtion, the blli was more than I could pay and then and there 1 instituted the custom, which I see Mil holds, of making the Conference pay for the dinner of the Executive Committee. In this particular instance, in order to pay tfie bill, I began collecting dues from the Executive Committee members and was Just barely able to make out with what 1 collected and with the money I personallyhad in my pocket book. In those earlydays our treasury was always bare. As a matter of fact,even tun0 years later, in 1940,the balance at the end of theyear was only $19.05,and soitwentalongfora goodmanyyears, until our Industrial Ventilation Committee put us in the "black.'' In reviewingthe 1957'kansactions, 1noted that the membership last year reachedan all-time high of 374; (today it is more than 400) and that the Conference had a fat balance of six thousand three hundred and eight-two dollars and seventy cents. Of course, the dollar is not woxth today what it was twentyyears ago, but even so.six thousand and somedollarsisnot 'gusthay." With this much of a background on the early beginnings of our Conference, UR might very well ask ourselves whether we, as an organization, have followed the road carved out for us by the founding fathersand what we have done with the heritage left us by the organizers of our associadon. The obJectives of the Conferenceas set forth in the Constitution in 1938and reafRrmed in the revised Constitutionin 1951,tell =-to goforthand, "promoteindustrial hygiene in all f t s aspects andphases; tocoordinate fndusbialhMcne actiultfes . . . bg ofjtlal federal, State, local and territorfalLndusMal hwiene agencies:to encourage the interchange of cxpcdence among industrtal hmiene personnel f nsuch omcfal organzatiom: to collect and make Bloomfield: whpt ACGfff has &ne for Iff aaxsslble to aU gournmental fndusbW hy- industrial hygienethan formanyotheractlvks. It gienfstssuchlnfonnatlonanddataas-be seems-almost axiomatic that national d8eS in- ..of of athsseifsrtdauntclecstoth.e"m In thepmperfuiflUmcnt wlvtng social and individual hardships and sacrificesoften result in progress whSch wuld not Now,just how did the Conference proceed to achieve the above objedves?And how well hue we succeeded? h m occuntd othenvise, or at least would have been delayed. I n d m h@ene got its real heginnings in thiscountryat the time ofWorld War I and got off to a good start at the time of the At the time the Conferencewas created h n t y depression which began in 1929 and which re- yearsago,therehadalreadybeenamassedacon- sulted in many soda1security bene&, induding siderable backlog of valuable information con- those for industrial hygiene and public health. cemlng the health hazards associated wfth ex- World War 11 gave us the opportunity to demon- posure to some of the classical occupational strate that our pmkssion is hcre to stay. ?he hazards and the means of controlling them. The obviousneedforhealthymanpowr,andsafeand spectacularradiumdialpalnthgcaseshadalnsdy hcalthyworkingconditionsuwsourcupoftea,as been studied and rtgulatlons drawn up for the theysayinUterarycirdts. safe use of radium paint in industry. The classic studiesofLeonardQeenburgonbenzoipdsonlng in industry focussed our attention on this ex- In looking back over the pasttwodecadesofthe activities olf our Organization, we can really be tremely useful but wry dangerous solvent Then, too,by that time we had behind us the investigations of the Division of Industrial Hygiene of the United States Public Health Senrice concerning the dusty trades and the Silicosis Conference which did so much to publicize the notoriously bad workingcondltionson someof our industries ~rer%licaanditscompounds~reenco u n proud of many ofour accomplishments. Starting with p r a d d l y n o trained professional personnel we were able in a relathrelybrief period to muster several hundred persons who with a limited amount of training and experience could cope with the manyproblems inherent to ourwar effort The war also gave us an opporh~nttytoorganize ~an. d develop industrial hygiene units where they The first reports on the result of the National hadnewr before existed,so that by theend of the Health Inventory were being issued about that time and theseincluded the Occupational Morbidity and Mortality studies which the Industrial Hygiene DMsion of the Public Health Service had warwehadinthiscountryanetwwkofsuchun~ establishedthroughout the Union, in nearlyevery State, in large industrial Cities and in several countries. worked 011. Now, I feel that we were able to accomplish all The Conference had no more than begun to learn how to walk when, in 1940,itwas obliged to concern itself with the trememdous problems brought about by the defense effort which our country was making at that time. World War I1 taxed the energies of every organization and of evexy able bodied man and woman. Ewen before these things because from our vey beginning we realized that our real strength as offidal agencies lay not in large numbers but in our abllityto work uniformly and as a team,that Mhad to operate among fortyeight States. Each perhaps with different legal requirements asto industrialhygiene practices. the "Day of Infamy," those of us in public health actMties related to defense measures realfied thatthe militaryhad priorityon manpowerand for that reason it was up to the Public Health Service tojump intothe breach with lease-lend equipment and personnel. At the height of the war, we had as many as seventy professional individualson loan to the various Statesto help them carry on industrial hygiene work in the war effort From the very beginning of our organization we realized that one of the mqjor functions of our group was the development of standard practices among the various units. For that reason, even duringthe firstyearweorganizedvariousstanding committees to deal wfth problems of administration, such asthose concerning prof-kmal qual- ifications of industrial hygiene personnel. which were very useful in gMng our people statuswithin The old maxim "It is an ill wind that does not theMeritSstemswhichwerethenbeing~oped blow some good" perhaps holds more truth for in the Stab. I t was in those days too that the Thirty-fiveYears of TLVs Committeeon Threshold Limitsbegan to function function to perform,but essentially they work as and, as all ofyou know today, this very important a team, each contributing his skill to the study of work has resulted in the annual review and pub- the hazard and its eventual control. This team lication of limits of several hundred toxic sub- approach hasbeen one of themqjor contributions stanceswith which the industrial hygienist has to of the United Statesto the advancement ofindus- deal in his dailywork. The work of this committee trial hygiene as we know it today. has been recognized by the publication of its finding annually and their use throughout the world. The general industrial hygiene code developed by the Committee on Uniform Codes aswell as those coveringspedal exposures, or indusMal proasses, have also achieved national status. Other accomplishments of this character deal 4th such subJeds as standard methods of analysis, instumentation, the uniform reporting of industrial hygiene activities and the uniform cob lection of occupatlonal disease reports. Perhaps the most outstanding accomplishment of the Conference resulted from its Committee on Industrial Ventilation, which won the first award of the Conference for its outstanding work. To say -nothingofthefactthatthefruitsofthecommi#ee's work the Nanual of lndustrfal Venfflatlon-has put our group on a sound financial basis. Other accomplishmentsof theConference have resulted in the development of standard labelling procedures and uniform administrative practices, such as the promotion of small plant health services,uniform records and reports in industry and workers' health information. Today our standing committees are concerned with such additional problems as agricultural health, air pollution, the epidemiology of occupational diseases, and ionizing radiation. So much for the credit side. If I were to list anything at all on the debit side, it would be perhaps to mention thatthe Stateand local industrial hygiene units do not appear to be as strong and as vigorous as they were a t the end of the war. Undoubtedly, this is due to two facts. we have lost many persons from the Statesto industry. and the various branches of the Defense Department, such as the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, have now developed their own indusMal hygiene services. Many of the industrial hygienists among the latter originallycame from the civilian agencies. The Atomic Energy commission also has drawn heavily upon Conference members. The emphasis on air pollution control wlth the creation of special commissions or authoritiesto handle thisproblem hasalsobeen a drain on the State and local industrial hygiene units. This is all to the good for the industrial hygiene movement, but has considerably weakened the Stateand local hygiene work. I think this Conference with the cooperation of the United States Public Health Service should accept the responsibility for strengthening the various State and local units in Industrial hygiene and should develop a program so that we can once again have strong and dynamicagencies ghring services to industry. . In thismanner, I think we did a pretty goodJob ofachievingthe objectivesofthe Conference with respect to the coordination of industrial hygiene activities, with the collection and dissemination ofinformation,and through our annual meetings we were able to encourage the interchange of our experiences. Our various committees and the resultsoftheirwork filled avacuum,sincetheACQlH was the first to gather the mass of data needed. I alsoseem to sensea trend to devlatea bit from the original charter laid down for us by the founding fathers in the nature of our annual programs. Quite early in -the life of our association, we realized that in order to keep the Conference meetings from becomingjust another reunion of a professional society and also to keep it within the organizational obJectives of an official organization meeting to discuss m u t u a proMems with I alsobelievethat our Conference,made up asit the Unlted States Public Health Service, I t was is ofa variety of public health workers, has dem- necessary to set aside time for a conference with mstated that industrial hygiene is not the ex- the staff of the DMsion of industrhl Hygiene of clusive monopoly of any one profession but re- the Public Health Service. in this manner the quires, for its successful appplication, the collab- Sundaypreconference program developed,which oration ofvarious public health specialists,such consists in concurrent sessions of physicians, as physicians, engineers, chemists, nurses, phys nurses, chemists, and engineers who meet to idsts,and others. Each ofthese has a spedallzed discuss technical problems in their respecthre BloomAeld: What ACGIH has done for M fields, and then the night session at which administrative discussions are held to iron out problems oflegislation,salaries,relationship with other governmental agencies, and so on. In this waywe could sortof let our hair down (thoseof us who had hair) or, to put it in another way, we couid wash our dirty linen in private. I am very pleased toseethat thesepre-conferencesessions on Sunday are still a useful and highly successful item on our annual agenda. Howlever, there is still the tendency to devote anywhere from one to oneanda-half days of our limited annual meeting time to the presentation of strictlyscientltlcpapers,which I think would be betkrrecei\FedattheAIHAorInduslzial Physicians' sessions. thus giving our Conference more time for the discussion of solutions to some pressing administrathe problems. From this brief review of the history, early strugglesand accomplishments ofthe Conference over the past twodecades,it isevident that we, as an association, although small in numbers by comparison with other organizations of thistype, have made an important impact on the industrial hygiene of our country. We may very well ask ourselves at this point what should be our role todayand in the immediate future in theserapidly changing times? And they are changing, pa&ularly in attitudes and concepts on the part of our clientele, that is management and labor. Twenty years is such a short time, that it iseasy forme to recall theaffltudeofmanagement toward industrial hygiene and toward us as protagonists ofthis discipline.I can verywell remember that as a member of the United States Public Health Sewiceand without legal authorityto enter industrial plants, I had a hard time convincing industrialiststocooperate in our investigationsof health hazards. I still remember a veryamusing incident that happened to me during the time when we were studying the hazards assodated 4th sandblasting. I called on onefactoryin Connecticutand tried to persuade the owner to let me come there and study certain sandblast operations which I was anxious to add to the data we were collecting. H e wasvery dubiousaboutlettingme comein and take some samples of air, saying that he was suspiciousof anysdentificstudiesand of socalled scientists. PInally, after a considerable sales talk on my part, he said: "Wll,all r2ght. young man. Youcan come here and do thcse stud-: but, gou must come yourself. I donY want ang of these college boys coming amund here!" The same difficultiesbut from a different viewpoint were experienced with labor. Organized labor had had its troubles with management in that from time to time a worker was fired,or not hired, on supposedlyhealth grounds,when sometimesitwasduetothefactthataparticularworker was considered undesirable because of his union adivities. Obvioudy,wlth managementtaking such an affltude,laborfoughtthephysicel examlnation, since tt felt that at times It was not used for the purpose intended, that is to assess a man's physical condition and to place him in thejob he was physically and mentally qualified to perform. _I canrecall the timewhen laborcontracts spedfically stated that the physical examination wodd not be pre-requisite to employment As result of such a labor attltude, management was at times forced to employdisabled persons who could not beproperlyplaccdbecausedaladcofinformation on their health status.Therewere casesof epileptics working on ship construction in placeswhere they were a danger to their fellow workers and to themselves. Many of our early investigationswere made difficultfor usbecauseof the timewastedin trying to convince labor to submitvoluntarilyto a physical examination, which we needed in our studies of the relationship between health and working conditions. I should like to relate one tittle incident to illustrate the suspicious feeling which prevailed between managementand laborin theseearlytimes. One day 1was inspecting a metal mine in the Far West in connection with one of our siliwsis investigations. My guide, the superintendent of the mine, and myself had stopped in one of the lewis in the mine to rest a bit and to smoke a cigaret The level below us was very near; soclose that WE could hear a couple of miners talking.As near as I recall the conversation between the two miners, it went something like this: "Say, Bill, what do you think of this notice the company put up, that every man that has worked for ayear will receiveten silverdollars as a bonus for Christmas?" Thirty-fiveYearsof TLYs Thestcond miner replied,'Well, I'll tell you, in anyway.Tobeginwith, I think we shouldbear in Red.I'm a bitsuspiciousof allthis.Ijust ccan't mind that although management has assumed picture the company gMng anything awayfor greakr respnsibillty than ever before in occupa- nothing. And you mark my words, we are tionalhealth,and although labornowrealizesthat going to pay for this one way or another!" it has much to gain in cooperating more fully in Well, those times have changed for the better and we as a group certainly played a part in bringing about the changes. To understand the new viewpoint of management, one only has to pick up the annual Transactions ofthe Industrial HypPene Foundation. In 1935,twenty companies met forthefirsttime toorganizean assodartionto combat silicosis.Today,this ormization of in- dustrialists can count oyer four hundred in its memberships, and its annual meetings are a bright star in the industrial hygiene constellation. Although this organization still continues to give servicesto members on some of the older problems in our field. such asthe classicoccupational diseases,in late p r s it also hasconcerned itself with such important problems as noise, atmospheric pollution, radiant energy, sickness insurance, mental health, social security, the older worker in industry, the impact of automation on health, and the general field of labor and man- agement relationships. Management realizesonly occupational health programs, the role of the government indudtrial hygienists has far from lessened but hasactually increased, and will continue to grow. It is truethat many ofthe large industries have developed their own industrial hygieneprograms, but we Still haw with us the smaller plants whtre the bulk of the labor force is employed. "haw -smaller plants and some of them are not so -small stilllooktousforguidancein thesolution of their health problems. And even the larger industries need our help in assuming their newer responsibilities, such as in the fields of total coterage medical care plans, retirement provisions,the problem of the older worker and rehabilitation. Also, some of the older occupational disease problems are still with us and to these we may add the new ones, such as air pollution and the insectiddes. Then therearethe problems posed by the ever increasing use of radioacttve substances in industry. too well that ff ft does not show as much concern In order to make use of the availableresources for the men who operate machines as it does for to the utmost, we should begin to consider ser- those very machines, it will not realize the full iously a plan to integrate adminstratively the potential of the new technology. means at our disposalwhich existwithin our local Labor also, has come of age and is showing a greater concern for social security for its workers and now considers this as but an extension of its traditional preoccupation With wges and hours and worklng conditions.Thatiswhy we find today many health and welfare programs written into collective bargaining cuntracts. Recent studies made by the United States Public Health Service show that practically every mqjor union in the countryhad negotiated to some extent pensions, or health and elfare provisions, for their members. Labor too,has now endorsed the physical examination as a prerequisite to employment and job placement recognizing that in the long health departments, the small plants, and c e d n governmental agencies with a stake in the industrial hygiene claim. lnstead of Just sMving for a peaceful coedstance 4 t h local health departments and our sister governmental agencies, we should study ways and means to inkgrate our work in such a manner that we can present a united front aod in this way render beUer and more adequateservices,and perhapsreallybegin to make a dent in the perennial problem of the small plant 1 am confident that with the right approachyou wlll r e d v ea real welcomeand awlll to work in a caoperathe manner on the part of these groups. rur I: isa benefltto the worker and not something I t should be quite obviousfrom thisbriefiook at to be feared. the futurethat our Conference has a tremendous In view of these changing concepts in O C C U ~ B tional health on the part of both managementand labor, we mightverywell ask ourselves whether or not our role as government offtdals has changed job ahead of it and we must prepare ouschRs to meet the demands which industry will be making for our services. I suppose too,that we must be prepared to continue losing some of our best i Bloomfield:mt ACGIH hcs done/lorIH personnel to industry unless we make an earnest beyond the United States, since, as you know, drhe to make government .jobs really atimdive, several of your colleagues are now working in and I do not mean just form the view point of htlnArmrh.Wenowhaveabouttwe)vecountries take-home pay atone. I know that many of the south of the No Qande which boast ofmodem State jobs pay very poorly and, to make things industrial hygiene programs, comparable to any ~nwwse,have~inadequa~retIrementplans.ofthose in our own country."here is much to be Oneofthereasons thatUnited statesPublicHealth accomplished in those countries,since they are Service has been able to hold on to many of its onlynow beginning to industrlalizeand toexpcrl- officershas been the provision ofa career service ence the problems which faad us some h m t y with fairly adequate salarles and excellent sodal years ago when this conference got its start- security benefits, including retirement pay and Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I find my medical care for dependents. I am ail for having work in latin America so satrsfylng,for I can truly the Conference appoint a standing committee say,'"Thisiswhere I came in." with some dynamic individuals on it who will developa plan ofaction to solve this problem ofa career service for our State and local industrial hygiene personnel. John J. Btoomfkld, more familiarlyknown to industrial As you know,I have come some fourthousand miles to be with you all and to take a ba&mrd hygknlsts as "Jack,"was a pioneer in the d d o p m e n t of induslrla) hygiene in the United Sates, and has been a leader and "sparkplug" in the &w S l n c t t h O Q c ~ d g n . look at our Conference to see what w have ac- He hastransfend his plomertng rmd "6parkpiugging"to complished and what the future holds for us.It is not all so backward either, since M were only striplingswhen World War I1 sneaked up on usand put ustothe test.You arejust nowgrowinga good SouthAmerkabutcontlnuestobealtadcrcvmhen.Thls year. "'ackw'' as me ndplent of the Cummings Ppunorll Award at the ALHA annual dinner. On the preceding evening, he w s the honored guest and speaker at the TwmtkthAnnhersaryBanquctoftheAmerlcan~ beard and haveacquiredtheresponsibilitleswhich of Oavanmcntal1ndUsMalHygienists. go with that adornment Your influence has gone Annals of the American Conference of Govemmen~ Jndustrial Hygienists Volume 9 -Threshold Cimit Values Discussion and Thirtyfive Year Index with Recommendations AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF QOVERNMENT' INDUSTRIAL HYQIENISTS amrum OHIO lolw i t t i I