Document ypYNgoBoM77ZvnjZabRo7MBnX

Excerpt from the PROCEEDINGS Of the Rhode Island Industrial Health Institute TRANSCRIPT OF REMARKS ON HEALTH ASPECTS OF FIBERGLAS MATERIALS By W. G. HAZARD ' Fw4. Industrial Hygiene CkfMW (X), VJSPJiS. PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, MAY 19, IMS Additional capias / this leaflet rr avdlaUt without charge \ (upon request fie the Division af Industrie Hygiene, Abode J Island Dcpmwnent of Health, Slau Ofict Building, Prwddene*. ) 'JtCERPT FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE RHODE ISLAND INDUSTRIAL HEALTH INSTITUTE PROVIDENCE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 19. 1943 ' (AFTERNOON SESSION) ' -* W.lZrBlZXRD----------------------------------------------------- P. A. InAutlriat BygUn* Engineer (K), v.s. r- n. s. t. As Dr. Deery* stated In his announcement of this meeting, "The manufacture and processing of Fiber- glas is a new industry in Rhode Island. The finished product is handled by multitudes of workers in many plants throughout the state and nation. Its war time use is of national importance, and it is destined to become a common substance in the lives of all of us." .` When any such new material is launched, it falls on the manufacturer, the consumer and the state to ascertain what, if any, are the health hazards asso- * ted with its use, and how it can be manufactured , applied in safety. Fortunately, such an investi- -ation of Fiberglas has been underway since the .arly days of its commercial distribution. The feet* are now at hand; what's needed is their widespread dissemination. Dr. Walter J. Siebert of St Louis reported in Industrial Medicine for January, 1942, that he bad looked at the wrists, arms, ankles and other aueh areas of 200 employees of the plant which was manufacturing Fiberglas. He examined aerial micro scopic sections. He concluded: "ConUet with fltu wool mar eaoae ephemeral discomfort emonf workers inexperienced In handling the material. The skin irritation, however, eannot he regarded as a progressive dermatitis for H ia non taxie and osuaJlj disappears in a few days*" Dr. Louis Schwartz reporting in Industrial Medicine tor March, 1943. on "Skin Hazards in the Manufac ture of Glass Wool and Thread" said: 'Workers handling glass fibre In textile manufac turing may develop dermatitis from the neehamea! cutting odtion of the fibers oo the akin... Some new employee^ experience sensitiyity to handling the gtass fitera for a few days, bat as immunity seems to develop quickly, so that the great majority of ex perienced workers prefer to work without gloves or special clothing." ' This afternoon Dr. Sulzberger* has reported on hematic, controlled experiments--not only on ani* Is, but on men and women, where the exposure, f Kmkt-k. OaafT. MS, Mliul Pimm ml USmmfU . n<--. a. L .m.*-- a e<. (wci o.s.nj. %m a. MX. >, I!*4*U L. MS. bk W mk,il ml Cb*. MS.. a s.. "Tk tfm* ml *md K.m* wtf). e*. m-mrn. W**Ma,im** b MfVl. SL Rk N (biibf, that is, the opportunity, for acquiring a skin ailment was greater even than among workers in the plant where the product is fabricated. Dr. Sulzberger found: ' "All of the reactions observed were of a transitory and superficial nature. . . The pieces of material which were seen sticking into the akin after rubbing with Fiberglas in its wool-like form appeared to be very superficially imbedded. Ordinary washing with water easily removed a large part of them." Mr. Durkan* has reported on animal experiments conducted by him and Dr. Gardner4 in which animals lived in a dust room for several hours a day over a period of months exposed to as high a concentration of air-borne glass wool dust as could be obtained. No hazard to the lungs was found. These experi ments carry conviction, for the technic was one which has been developed by Dr. Gardner, Mr. Dur kan and their associates through recent years to a point of great reliability in predicting lung damage, or absence of it, in humans. * Knowing these/act*, the job for the plant phy sician and personnel director is to satisfy the pos sible anxieties of workers who handle this material. This is often no small task. Indeed, It is sometimes resisted because today a few people are eager to imagine a health injury which can be used as a prod for getting some gain of a totally unrelated nature. People have a horror of being injured by glass. It seems deep rooted. When we cut ourselves with a penknife, we think only of the bleeding wound, but when we run afoul of a broken window pane, we think first of the injury and then of the fact that glass caused it. In the last war some of you may re call that enemy spies were said to be sabotaging the home front by mixing peanut. butter with ground glass. So serious was this that some able experimenters in Richmond fed animals, and then them selves, ground glass diets to see what would happen. Nothing happened, except in -the ease of the dogs where there was a alight reddening of the intestinal tract. The men lived--and the speaker heard first hand their interesting story years later. No authen ticated case of poisoning from eating glass among TWM M. N*Im> owr OmM, n, Ifitm Ulwwwi. *lmtmr II. Cw4m*. Pimtw, Tk, Samw III mini _Va>s performers, babies, or anyone else--was found at that time. The best and most recent evidence that there ia othing inherently poisonous about glass to.human tissue comes from surgeons who are today using glass fiber sutures. One of their advantages as given by Dr. Scholz and Dr. Mountjoy9 la that the glass threads are inert and nonreacting. People still feel, nevertheless, that the irritation a sew worker sometimes experiences from glass fibers is worse because it is caused by gbm. Actually, this afternoon's papers show it is no more injurious than the hair clippings that get stuck inside a per son's _shirt~eollar~when---he- -has- a -haircut.- These.-- points should be clarified to the worker by the personnel director on hiring, and by the private, physician when asked by the employee for a doctor's certificate of disability due to fibrous glass dust. Plant people who have read of silicosis may be come alarmed at breathing air that has glass par ticles floating in it. They know sand goes into the making of glass, and they know sand dust may cause silicosis. Glass, however, is not the free silica which causes silicosis, but a combined silicate--and no silicate aside from asbestos, which has an entirely different composition, has been definitely proved to mi *--*>}*. n.O- * MuarUT la iinia *4 */ Vat LVL Na. 1 Um l*0>, ft- !* *>. cause any specific disabling disease of the lungs. Furthermore, glass fibers large enough to be seen floating in the air will be too big to enter the small regions of the lungs. Today manpower is all-important. The job of the industrial hygienist is to show' manufacturers how they can use all manner of materials ,tojely without injury to any worker. If there is a real danger, it must be explained; and if the danger is imaginary, this, too, must be emphasized. In the case of Fiber- glas, in view of today's papers, the danger is not real but imaginary. The following points might well ' be discussed with employees when they are hired, and periodically afterwards: .. . . 1. Breathing glass fiber dusTjs~n5t harm------- --- ful to the lungs. 2. Irritation of the skin is temporary, su perficial, and not progressive. % 3. No special personal protective devices or clothing need be worn, except that in overhead application of glass fiber, goggles are often desirable to protect against fall ing bodies. 4. Frequent washing and a daily shower with soap and warm water will readily re move most of the small fibers clinging to the skin and will reduce any "itching." . .. y fc-