Document nkB2Y8p9yV10p8rZer4DvLr6G

FILE NAME: Longview Fibre (LF) DATE: 1972 Mar 6 DOC#: LF001 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Unpublished Internal Report 3/6/7 ASBESTOS? EXPOSURE AT LONGVIEW FIBRE COMPANY i-.'e have two groups of employees who have the. majority of the exposure to asbestos dust. These two groups are a small percentage of the Paper Mill employees and the Masons. The Paper Mill employees who encounter the exposure to asbestos dust are those whose work is associated with our Repulpers, Stock Chests and Beaters, We add asbestos to these pieces of equipment for pitch control purposes. The employees handling asbestos do so by throwing the entire bag into the process equipment so that bags are not. opened at all. Examination of pallet loads of asbestos indicates that there is some loose dust on the outside of most bags. This loose dust and for that matter the contents of the bags of asbestos themselves are usually quite damp due to the hydro scopic nature of the material so that the dust is more like a "paste" than like powdery dust. The only direct, exposure employees encounter would be clean up where a bag was spilled in the work areas. When this type of clean up occurs, our Paper Mill Departmental Safety Rules call for the use of approved type dust respirators to be worn. Twenty men per day could he involved in the feeding of bagged asbestos to our process equipment v/ith exposure time in the order of 10 minutes per day. The material that we are presently using is obtained from Coalinger Asbestos Company in Coalinger, California. The bags have the following caution label - "This bag contains chrysolite asbestos fiber. Persons exposed to this material should use adequate protective devices as inhalation of this material over long periods may be harmful" - The Masons as a group are also exposed to asbestos dust in their handling and installing of asbestos pipe insulation. The greatest exposure these employees encounter is when they cut this pipe insulation with power saws. When this occurs there is considerable asbestos dust in the immediate vicinity. Here again their Departmental Safety Rules require them to wear approved type dust masks. There are 7 rnen in our Masons group and their exposure to asbestos dust is in the order of 1 hour per day per man. The material we use for most of our pipe insulation work is obtained from Johns Manvilie and is called Thermobestos Black Insulation. These boxes that this insulation comes in has the following caution label - "This product contains asbestos fiber. Avoid breathing the dust. Inhalation of asbestos in excessive quantities over long periods of time may be harmful. If dust is created when this product is handled, use proper protection. If proper dust control cannot be provided, respirators ap proved by the U. S. Bureau of Mines for protection against pneumoconioses producing dusts- should be worn." LF3 005919 There are some other instances of employees exposure to asbestos but these are mostly indirect. These employees would be those involved in unloading the materials from trucks or railcars, our clean up crews, and our pipefitters who occasionally remove pipe insulation for repair work. The respirator we use for work with asbestos is the M-S-A Dustfoe 66. To our knowledge we have had no instances of illness or symptoms of exposure over the many years we have used both types of .asbestos. /lc \ LF3 005920 FILE NAME: Longview Fibre (LF) DATE: 1972 June 28 DOC#: LF003 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Dept of Labor Inspection Report * DANIEL J. EVANS G o ve rn o r DIVISION OF SAFETY DEPARTMENT STATE OF WASHINGTON OF LABOR AND P. O. Box 207 OLYMPIA 98504 INDUSTRIES June 28, 1972 VIILIAM C. JA C O B Director JOHN E. HILLIER, SUPERVISO* Longview Fibre Company P. 0. Box 636 Longview, Washington 98632 Attention: Mr. John Klein, Technical Director Gentlemen: On May 25, 1972 a survey of your areas of asbestos use was performed by . S. G.. Cothrin, Industrial Hygienist. Types of asbestos work performed are installation of asbestos containing pre formed pipe covering, sawing of preformed pipe covering with hand and portable saber saws, mixing and spraying of wetted asbestos fiber, removal of old asbestos covering for repair purposes and addition of sacks of asbestos floats to the beaters and repulpers for the paper machines. All of the above work with the exception of asbestos float addition is performed by masons who in clude asbestos work as a portion of their regular job. A brief description of the asbestos work practices follows: Sawing of Preformed Pipe Covering Sawing on both metal covered and uncovered preformed pipe covering is done with hand saws and portable saber saws. The sawing observed was performed in the cement shack, however it is possible that some of this work is done at the job site. No ventilation controls are provided for this job. The employee performing the sawing wears an approved reusable dust respirator. The pipe covering used was Johns-Manville Thermobestos which is primarily calcium silicate with an asbestos binder. No drop clothes were used and cleanup is apparently done by dry sweeping. T C l IW U M A Longview f i b r e (Jumpany Rage 2 June 3, 1972 Installation o Preformed Pipe Covering This work was not observed but it is assumed that some rasping and sawing of the material takes place at the job site and air samples ' obtained at other plants performing this type of work have shown excessive exposures. Mixing and Spraying of Wetted Asbestos Fiber This work is performed with a "Limpet" machine which is operated by two men. One man dumps dry fiber out of sacks into the machine hopper where it is fluffed and metered into a blower unit and then conveyed dry through a rubber hose and exits out the nozzle, still in a dry state. Mater jets around the nozzle wet the fiber in mid-air causing it to cling to the surface being coated. The other man operates the nozzle at a distance of about 14 inches from the surface being coated. Some of the dust created during spraying is caused by the water jets kicking up dry previously applied asbestos. The Limpet mixer operator not only is exposed to dust from the dumping of sacks but also from the spraying operation. Both men wore approved reusable dust respirators. Removal of Old Asbestos Insulation Work observed was removal of corners on a furnace cascade which consisted of using a small hand pick to dig out the areas of old insulation in need of repair. This work appeared to be done quite carefully but easily visible dust generation could still be observed. The employee performing demolition wore an approved reusable dust respirator. No drop cloths were used and it is understood that cleanup is done by shoveling and sweeping. Addition of Asbestos Floats to Beaters and Repulpers The beatermen and broke beatermen add 40 pound sacks of asbestos floats to the beaters and repulpers in the paper mill. This material comes in paper sacks and is dumped with the sack intact into the units. Occasionally a sack is handled which has been torn in transit and most of the sacks observed had a light dust coating on them which may have been due to broken sacks in' the shipment. The number of sacks dumped in the above areas varies quite a bit but probably averages 'about two sacks per hour per man. Longview Page 3 .June 2 3 , Fibre L9 72 Company Air Sampling Air samples for asbestos dust'were obtained by attaching portable sampling pumps with membrane filters to employees performing the different tasks. The samples were evaluated by the U. S. Public Health Service Method which gives the dust concentration in terms of fibers per milliliter of air (see attached data sheet). The TLV^ for asbestos dust is five fibers per milliliter greater than five microns in length. This TLV will be changed to two fibers per milliliter in the near future. The results of the air samples are shown in Table 1, page 4. As shown in Table 1, samples obtained on the Limpet sprayer operator and dur ing demolition work showed asbestos dust exposure well in excess of the TLV. Samples obtained during hand and saber sawing of pipe covering and operation of the Limpet mixer showed significant asbestos dust exposure although below the TLV of five fibers per milliliter. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Substitute relatively non-toxic insulation material for asbestos wherever possible. 2. Provide local exhaust ventilation for hand and portable saber saw ing whether performed in the shop or field. 3. Require the use of approved dust respirators, either reusable or disposable types for installation of pipe covering. 4. Require the use of approved respiratory protection for spraying and operation of Limpet mixer. Refer to attached lists on air supplied respirators, reusable respirators and disposable respirators. (1) TLV - Threshold limit values refer to airborne concentrations of sub stances and represent conditions under which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed day after day with out adverse effect. Longview Cage 4 June 23, b' L b r e 1972 Company Sample No. 1024. 1020 1023 1010 109 1025 1019 TABLE 1 Asbestos Dust Concentrations - Employee's Breathing Zone Sample Description Sample Time Minutes Dust Concentration fibers/milliliter Removing asbestos insulation with hand pick from corners of No. 13 furnace cascade. Spraying white Limpet (amosite) asbestos on corners of No. 18 furnace cascade, first 10 min. of sample did not include any spraying because of machine problems. Operating Limpet spray mixer in area of No. 18 furnace cascade, first 10 min. of sample did not include any spraying because of machine problem. Cutting metal covered Thermobestos pipe covering with saber saw in cement shack. Cutting Thermobestos pipe cover. ing with hand saw in cement shack. Beaterman adding asbestos floats to No. 2 paper machine beaters, dumps one sack per beater every 45 minutes. N o . 4 and 5 Broke Beaterman adding 2 bags per hour of asbestos floats to No. 5 repulper. 14 25 25 9 15 232 210 42.0 18.0 2.2 2.1 3.3 0.6 0.2 TLV 5 Longview .' a g e r) June 2 8 , Fibre 1972 Company 8. Require the use of approved respiratory protection for ail asbestos insulation demolition work. 6. Require the use of drop cloths wherever possible to reduce the escapement of pieces of asbestos to other areas in the plant. 7. Use an industrial vacuum cleaner to remove all insulation spillage. Do not sweep up asbestos waste. 8. Broken sacks of asbestos floats should be discarded upon receiving of shipment. Settled asbestos dust on sacks should be removed with a vacuum prior to handling. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and please contact the Industrial Hygiene Section concerning your plans to comply with the recommendations within thirty (30) days of receipt of this report. Very truly yours S . ------ Industrial Hygienist SGC:grn Enclosures cc: L. A. Hansen L. A. Hansen, Ph.D. Chief Industrial Hygiene Section