Document jgr2LKjBL6Nm7EK7kK25aevVN

FILE NAME Owens Corning OC DATE 1937 Mar 9 DOC OC257 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Letter from Corning Glass Works RE Health Hazards of Fiber Glass CORNING GLASS WORKS CORNING NEW YORK OFFICE OF W.C.TEMPLER W.C.TEMPLER M. D. MEDICAL DIRECTOR MARMAR 11 11 1937 FIBRE PRODUCTS DIVISION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ALANSON HOUGHTON ALEXANDER GEORGEGEORGEGEORGEALEXANDER ALEXANDER HOLISTERHOLLISTER HOLISTER FALCK HOLISTER HOLLISTER March 9th 1937 Mr. Lester W. W. Morrow Corning Glass Works Corning New York Dear Mr. Morrow In answer to your inquiry concerning any possible health hazard of fiber glass or its products I would like to relate what work on that subject has been done and the conclusion arrived at + Very early in the manufacture of glass wool we considered the possibility of its having deleterious effects upon those working with it or using it An investigation was made and it soon developed that there was a scarcity of pertinent experimental work published in the literature It therefore appeared wise to conduct our own experiments which procedure had the advantage that the results would apply specifically to our own commercial grades of glass wool made from our own batch what if comes in dictated Several groups of experiments were undertaken to determine any untoward physiological effect glass wool might have when it contact with the human body The reasoning behind this work which the choice of experiments was briefly as follows It was assumed that glass wool might enter the body by three routes by inhalation by swallowing and by penetration of the skin If glass wool dust is breathed assuming the particles are small enough to enter the small air spaces of the lungs answers to these questions were sought Will inhaled lung tissue similar to that produced reaction be at all harmful If not glass wool dust cause a reaction in the by silice dust in silicosis Will the what will become of the glass wool dust If glass wool fibers are swallowed will they produce any serious or permanent injury to the digestive tract If glass wool fibers penetrate as @ tissue poison What will become of the might be injected in the skin the skin - will the glass act particles of glass wool that ' - Dr. Leroy U. Gardner of Saranac Laboratory Saranac Lake New York undertook two groups of animal experiments and Mr. Philip Drinker of the Harvard School of Public Health together with ... Titus under- , took a third group of experiments 01 505 0011 Mr. Morrow 1 2 Animal Injection Experiments In determining whether inhaled glass wool dust would act in any way comparable to free silica dust it is essential that the exposure be prolonged over a period of many years in order to show up chronic effects No group of workmen in this country have used glass wool long enough to show positively whether or not chronic injury to the lungs might result ray and clinical examinations on our workmen with the longest periods of service however revealed no unhealthy lung condition at all The effects of inhaled dust can be accelerated in the case of animal experiments and it was for this reason - to check our inconclusive ray findings - that Dr. Gardner's help was solicited Animal experiments to determine the effect of inhaled dust can be performed in two ways First the animals can be place in dustladen atmospheres and made to breathe dusty air for long periods of time Second the dust in question can be injected into the animals bodies and it is generally recognized that the type of inflammation or reaction that results indicates to a trained pathologist whether the harmful effects are at all comparable to those produced by free silica dust Fecause the dusting method requires two or more years to get results the injection or second type of experiment was selected Animals were injected with glass wool dust both plain and olled 011 is applied to some commercial grades of glass wool to reduce fracturing of the fibers and to prevent dust being given off during handling Animals were examined at intervals of several days or weeks for a total period of 285 days Dr. Gardner states Experience in this laboratory and elsewhere has shown that these methods are adequate to demonstrate the capacity of a mineral dust to produce fibrosis Injection of over 20 different types of dust has indicated that if no reaction occurs in organs other than the lungs none will occur in respiratory tract and that conversely dusts like silica esbestos are known to produce fibrosis of the lungs the and also cause fibrosis in other tissues when injected in sufficient quantities Dr. Gardner summarizes this series of experiments as follows Heither plain nor oiled glass wools have caused fibrosis or any chronic progressive reaction by injection and therefore _ it is a reasonable assumption that their inhalation would like- vise fail to produce such effects Eating Glass Tool & considerable number of references exist in the literature to cases where circus performers and individuals with ulterior motives have either eaten glass or caused others to eat it Usually in these reports the glass was or to in chunpk iecs es large enough see with the naked eye In no instance that has come to our attention did the reports show that any serious injury ma dome to the individual by the glass There remained the possibility however that continued allowing of mall amounts of extremely fine partiales of glass might 01 505 0012 would be removed by the normal action of the scavenger cells of the lymphatic system and in view of Mr. Drinker's work , that the papratrtiicclleses eventually pass off in solution vivill ll The evidence revealed by a search of the literature supplemented by Dr. Gardner's experiments shows that no permanent damage is done to the digestive tract if glass wool is swallowed either in single large doses or in small doses taken regularly over a long period of time While it is likely that large pieces of glass would cut the digestive tract animal experiments reported in the literature show that this injury heals completely in three or four days and produces practically no discomfort From Dr. Gardner's work it is evident that the actual process of going into solution that is the process of solid glass being carried off by liquid does not give rise to any tissue poison This indicates that glass in the body will be dissolved and eliminated slowly and continuously without any injurious or poisonous effects on the individual Of course the fine particles of of skin irritation in some people This is of hours worked under observation there has reaction due to such mechanical irritation glass wool do produce a form a minor nature and in been no lost time or serious s Dr. R. R. Sayers of the United States Public Health Service in discussing the health hazard of this product states that he does not think there is any chance of any untoward effects However at the present time he is doing experimental work for us which will I believe confirm the work done by Dr. Gardner This work will probably be over a period of six to twelve months and on the completion of it I will forward his results to you Theoretically there may be a hazard due to oil on the glass as there are certain people who are susceptible to dermatitis when exposed to any product which has even a mall percentage of oil in it These people we will have to ignore as the reaction is so unusual that patch tests to determine the degree of susceptibility would be more trouble than the value received A bath preferably in a shower with plenty of force and plenty of soap suda essential the wrists seems to relieve all cases of the skin irritation It is however that the workers wear loose clothing particularly at and neck Female workers can be protected by the use of rubber aprons or other devices as they seem necessary Trusting this satisfactorily answers your inquiry I am N.L. Hemple W. C. Templer M. D. Medical Director WCT'L 01 505 001