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FILE NAME: Insurance Industry (INS) DATE: 1933 Nov DOC#: INS066 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Proceedings of the Home Office Life Underwriters Assoc. Meeting, Presentation by Dr. Lanza RE Study of Asbestos Mines t ! PROCEEDINGS OF THE Home Office Life 'Underwriters1' Association AND THE , Occupational Committee NOVEMBER. 1933, MEETING PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. < I VOLUME VU \ p*iss or GEORGE S. FERGUSON CO. PHILADELPHIA. PA. V>. . at4 '*4. 00156 \ -*'0 t a~ u r r l M xf fHrtylfi ^ * -t- r i ~j r `\ i tfwu^ 296 tfomc 0Jfice Lifc i H[Uru.r i t e n , A ,, orrifioii * %> know whether Dr. Lanza lias a paper or whctln.r 1,. - 3 to speak eptemponinoouslv but that moke, vtrv I t\ip'<Hn'cr" % one, booause >vl,,,, Dr. Luma ,,,, .,,,,1. 1^. ` 4 lot of information, >n a verv ni^wsiint *tl * i r t s - , - : a - = ,r ,- ~ - wkeu I hve . ,, e d euel, , ,, ` "p l i tLn o, . 3 k^r" - f Ill! pr' v't,',s Ml if I mav S1V orougb-gomg analysis of an industry such as .Mr Edwinl hs prepared H tl,e Sor, of thing- ,,W ,, ,, c.td man} mdustnes. Now. I chose that title-- Comments oh* \s wh l p T Ke tha! * exaetl-v uhat thl* i- going to bo and sMa?idd jJoouoPaPrre'Cnioatte go1i6ngVCtro-' pr,ei<t'.^It'!>min?a5frtahidfl,t tthhee CfinhaalirmwoarndLoar' S . a M h i f S ? ^ ^ ^ " thi* * "* ' " * In the latter part of 1930 and the earlv part of 1931 ,, " , Th*e,trd-,,"f ' "' ' i r ? ' * " " * " " > * 2 1 m tt - / i t d 3 1,1 Ql,ebec a**d fabricating plants in the Lmted States and through the courtesy of the various asbestos corporations, I have been ?ivVn permission to give a summon- f that stud\ First of all. we studied four mines in Thetford large properties. Asbestos is mined on the open pit or quarr: method holes are dug. blasted, and then a rood part of y iinitteon8crabrTts 0STT]heiarnesdt Pg1oCeskeidn'tno ?thhet tmheilrlse aonndthise cjrubshaeDdj, lsoiaedue-dd ana digged. Now, I am going to make this a little bit do-malic. So far as we could ascertain, there is no dust Imrird or asbestos hazard m connection with the actual mining or unam-in operations. There is now. I understand, in operation an underground asbestos mine in Canada and that 1 know noth A ing about but in the open pit and quarry work there was no apparent pulmonary hazard. The crusher houses or mills are. some of them, old wooden buildings and one or two of them are brand new. But in either event they are surrounded by clouds of dust and evervbodv J i J t J r . i l ! l a - . ." . w . i - u . - j_ jj___ i-jl o .'Ii1: '^ i I m~nif, 'rVu 1 -1 ~**-~* -Tii.-tm *' i 1 $ A Occupational Committee 2D7 A i who has ever been in Thetford can boar witness to the wav in i which the dust permeates the landscape. Much to our surprise - i * we found little evidence of pulmonary disease in eonnection 5 with this occupation. The dust in the crusher house i.s about 5 per cent asbestos and 'Jo per cent composed of the country rock. The country rock is of the same chemical nature as the asbestos, that is^to say it is largely magnesium silicate but. I f whereas the asbestos has a crystalline structure,* the country a U rock has an amorphous structure.' Now, whether that has anything to do with the presence or C* s# .4 absence of pulmonary disease. 1 don t know. feuffiee it to say is that we did not find any marked evidence of pulmonary disease { among the men working in the mills, and there were men "work* ing there who had been there for fifteen and twenty years. I was impressed with the fact that Thetlord docs not present that typical unmistakable-picture lhat you see in a hard rock mining community and which you can't possibly cover up. and that is di-ability associated with tuberculosis. The death rate in Thetford for tuberculosis is high, but it is no higher 3 than it is in the Province of Quebec us a whole. We made 156 X-ray examination's in Thetford and these were all men working on the job. Xow. jnt let me say a word in explanation : X-ray teelmi'iue in connection with these dust diseases of the lungs has got to be very precise and you've got to have absolutely first-class films to interpret them. The pic tures that we were able to get in Thetford were not first class, t s bv any means, they were just fair hut. as wed as we could tell, we found 19 who had what you might call an early or begin ning evidence of dust fibrosis of the lungs and 3 were a more moderate or a little bit more advanced; some 22. that is out . of the 156, showed some evidence of dust disease of the lungs and these were people working there for a long time. ^ $ Now, if you ask me to explain that. I 'll tell yon that I can't explain it. None of these men seemed to be obviously short- winded, certainly not tb the point of di. ability. I could find, by talking to the doctors in the community, no evidence that there wa- any appreciable amount of tuberculosis among die asbestos workers. The majority of these men were over thirty years old, and nearly all of them had worked more than ten years, some of them as high as twenty years. jfrtifijiiriW-r "lMiv-Tiiiii"Vi,r-~r`--- - ~J ~~ ` ...... r>n tnr*iri-~itrTjarSrii' Home Office Life Underwriters' Association "What the effect of inhalation and lodgment of asbestos dust in the lungs might be upon other respirator} diseases, such as influenza and pneumonia, we have no information ps vet. The conclusion with respect to this I will give you iu connection with the conclusions of the study as a whole. Now, in the-'Vnited States, we examined most of the larger properties. The method was the standard method that we al ways use in making industrial hygiene studies--environmental study of the conditions in the mill or plant, physical examina tions of the men and the attempt-to correlate those two and draw, on the one hand, conclusions and on the other, recom mendations for the improvement of the industry. "We made a great many dust counts in these mills and, in the main, the amount of duM in the air did not seem excessive as judged by the standards or what we had been accustomed to find in making dust counts for silica dust. Briefly, the process in these mills is th is: the asbestos comes down in bags from Canada and is run through pug mills fer about five minutes. It is then shoveled into openers, similar o those used in textile mills. From the openers the asbestos *s put on vibrating tables or screens, and in this process, the long fibres are separated front the short fibres. The short fibres are taken out and are sold as such and go into the mak ing of asbestos cement and other preparations in connection with the building industry. The long fibres are retained and those are mixed with cotton, and the process is exactly the same as it is in a cotton mill, that is to say, the cotton is also put into openers and the cotton and the asbestos are then passed through mixing pickers, and from there they are carded, span and woven. After going into" the mixing pickers, the material is sprin kled with mineral oil. for the purpose of holding the cotton and the asbestos fibres together and. undoubtedly, that help very considerably to cut down the amount of dust floating in the air. Now, the dust varied ns between the plants; in come plants they used more oil and there was less dust in the air: while in other places, oilinjj didn't seem to be as efficiently *V done and there was more dust in the air. As you know, to rrv "i to apply dust suction, or dust control apparatus, to textile machinery is difficult and vexatious, and while there has been \4 SI --VT -U I ..y-L -- --- -----l. JMLAUAk Occupational Committee 299 some success with if . . i I f fk " , " ',W ta " , 0 >; ior c o i S r S ie ,"!" ' rial mi f the Plants, as in cotton mill, TMntrolhn? the dust. j n so_ . tJoinn spinning and weaving ' USed artif>cial humidifica- < thc story wasl'jJtTe d X r c m ,,ei r en " the ffibricatin:r plants ean not only physical e v a n n W ^ by m ination I amon^t iho.se e m p ir e s of f ?" bUt an - W ^ n d p]ent-r * evidence of puimn, V ^ "e found y-e were hampered by the difficuhv"TM Vem-ent` Here- fain, fortunately, near one plant ,, r * =etiln? cood films but' c*ass roent"cnn|0?)\ t aJ d ^ thi/ " " d 8 town that had a first- f Te^>' fine films. We too]. ne pIace did *et a series Plant and pretty ncarlv all o f t h ! ^ ! ? ** JaiKlom from that of pulmonary fibrosis. 1a * in *ii " sb?Wed definite evidence we made 126 .T-ray film. 1 thjs of the plant's Aow of those 226. 63 i Z ,7 showed definite earlv f i b r o s i ^ T ^ ^ ^ ' one'half of them rem,;nin" 53 ere all men working dailv nn ,* bi> " re ^ f u l or negative. There <y Of fl,en ,, ,, ,, V r w i , " " *": the m Tor !"* ,h' " ' > v m ,-,,j ^ hi!, ! ? `J i "1 , M r ottposnre i Snot apparent amon? these nenr.i' a fifti>eD<Vear!5- There V ess. so f ar as I c o u ld s e e TM T l - ' ' Ur- en( ^ort-winded! x showed evidence of healed nih>. d','abll,t.r - Ten of these 1G i f course, that if you i f r , X"` *>u undem,,d ofSeniun" y The m ^ *'*picaI oId h e a l e l ' r r r " , h . r ; hm s j t e ran true to form. " that resPe^ the asbestos worker! ^ ree had n o ^ d 'e n ^ o f anr'dn tubercular scars found one case of active tuhe T c vemeut of the hm. s' had no evidence of a,,v dust d ! ^ !S,'S' but this individual H. e. Xe' famt wetalekedWto ^theb i ^ & 'hi r o-c"cuP,ha"tio?n.TM. .3 tubere,l;Dd- 0Ut ,hat * < * w rkers 1 ' ^ COmmTM>'ties tubereulosrs to any unusual degree d not have g 0nc comumty was very' - H I n\ vr.W.fr^frfcrf Tirili 4. * s\i Borne Office Life Underwriters' Association I X * 1 favorable fur study because it was rather isolated, had a < homogeneous population, there was little migratimi in or out 3 of the community, and the mill had been there for a pood many yean,. I inquired particularly of the local physicians -I 3 whether they saw any appreciable amount of tuberculosis in the community and they said. " No. we have not." Inasmuch as the British authorities had reported several cases of asbestos! with tuberculosis, and one or two of them i had made the statement in their publications that asbestosis predisposed to tuberculosis, the same as silica does, we were anxious to verify that as far as possible, and I turned then to the claims under our group insurance experience to see if * that would throw any light. Of course, you realize that the -3, exposure wasn't large enough to make any dogmatic state i i \ ments; the total exposure amounted to slightly over 7,000 life 1 years. ' I There were 36 death clutinfand 10 total and permanent dis i ability claims. Altogether, of the 36 death claims, 6 had died ! of tuberculosis. Of the 10 total and permanent disability claims, 8 had died, according to the death certificates, of tuber culosis. But when I came to look into those-- and I ran down every one of them, with one or two exceptions--the apparent ii deduction, namely, that there was 8 high percentage of tubercu,osis causing death and disability, was proved erroneous. Or analyzing the 6 death claims, I found that one was a stenographer and typist in the office, and another was an official, while a third was a watchman, none of whom ever k k came into contact with dust or just coincidentally. $ When I came to the eight total and permanent disability i claims that were alleged to be due to tuberculosis. 1 found out that when these men had been examined.`the doctor had taken i% X-rav films, be had seen markings in the chest, and not being J familiar with asbestosis or other forms of pneumoconiosis, he Ai J said, " Vou've got tuberculosis." and that happens, you will understand, not infrequently. Just the other day, in Indian 5 apolis, a doctor in charge of a sanatorium in North Carolina i read a paper on asbestosis and I asked him how he came into \ contact with it. " W ell." he said, " the local doctors saw mark * ings in X-ray films of the chest and thought they had tuber- i i I MJ&mMA* tVi'itarJriw*lt<u^ J Occupational Committee 301 culosis and sent then; to the County sanatorium; but th e y huven't got tuberculosis." * Of these 8 who were certified .for total and permanent dis ability purposes as being tuberculous, I think only 2 possibly had tuberculosis and. of course, you would expect in any group of industrial workers to find some eases of tuberculosis. These findings coincide with the experimental laboratory findings at `Saranac, in dealing with experimental animals, namely, that exposure to asbestos dust does not influence a tuberculosis one way or another--it neither predisposes to nor aggravates tuberculous as does sijica. It is, of course, possible that further study may prove other wise but as far as we could ascertain, there did uot seen; to be any connection between asbestos exposure and tuberculosis. As all of you know, where you have a community with a major silica hazard, you cannoTytfncea! the numerous cases of tuber culosis that you see around. Hut 1 pot an entirely different clinical picture in the asbestos communities. I f you now ask me-- what does asbestos do. I am not certain that I can tell you because, after all. a couple hundred films, some of them of rather dubious quality, is not a great dea* to go on. But we do know this, that occasionally, asbestos cases die. There are five or six. I think, on record now, and they die, apparently, because of heart failure. One thing that im pressed tis in our films was that a number of these asbestos workers, even when they did not have any symptoms, did have big hearts. What the conclusion from that is. I don't know. Let me give you a summary of our conclusions: That exposure to asbe*tos dust may produce a pulmonary fibrosis which is detectable by the X-rav and which can be distinguished from silicosis; ' That it does, apparently, sometimes cause a heart enlarge ment ; - That it does not carry with it increased susceptibility to tuberculosis; ' That, so far as this study was concerned, there was no marked evidence of disability; That there fc no information as to the effect of asbestos on Other respirator;.' diseases and that we don't knew nearly { . m L * .* * * * * > ^ a *1" ^ '- l ^ ' T n ' i - r D ^ r i T r t v - l / t t ml - j :.n -Qfr- 1* Li 1i' / OCCUPATIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION . November 15, 1933 ' ' ' St , fter?00n session oi the Occupational Committee . !' Mr` IIarol`I Davits. P ^ itlin g , at two : Gentlemen, I think we tad better get down to business, because the afternoon schedule includes at least one general discussion, which may or may not take up considerable tim e; so, without further ado, we will start our program. The next paper to be heard is on the Operation of Mercury Boilers. I am sure that most of us will welcome anv information we can get as to the hazards which mav be asso'ciated with the use of mercury. We have another old friend of ours to give us the story on mercury boilers and to discuss the potential hazards. Mr. Stratton has had a better oppor tunity to observe this new phase of industry than any of the rest of us and. as usual, he: has been willing to do the neces sary work. Mr. Stratton. (Applause.) } \ tM oi. ^ EUEL,F' STIiATTON (Travelers Insurance C o.): A Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen: Instead of complimenting me. I think I should thank the Committee, particularly the propo nent of this investigation, for giving me such an easv job first M because the number of men exposed in the United States is + iL x t lm r A ^ W l P ^ I, I # 1 i ii i