1955: Caterpillar Industrial Hygienist On Top of Brake Band Line’s Need for Asbestos Dust Controls
By the way, I have all the respect in the world for Caterpillar. In my opinion they are an amazing company and the world is better off because of their products and services. Now, on to the below asbestos blog.
During October, 1955, Industrial Hygienist William Retzer, employed by Caterpillar Tractor Company in Illinois, investigated employee complaints arising from asbestos dust released during the operation of the Brake Band Line. My Retzer not only verified the complaints, but he noted that the dust totals violated the “Illinois Health and Safety Act and Rules.” I have to be honest here — I didn’t know that Illinois had such specific rules at the time. Mr. Retzer also made very specific recommendations for the Plant Engineering Division to install an exhaust system to remove the asbestos dust.
Hats off to Mr. Retzer as, for 1955, he was likely ahead of the safety curve.
Four years later, plant housekeeping failures kept the ventilators from working. This time, in his April 6, 1959 memo, Mr. Retzer wasn’t so kind to management. He stated “This is considered a toxic dust and needs an efficient type of collector.” It seems that the asbestos released during the operation of the Brake Band Line was still problematic inspite of the added dust collectors, all because housekeeping wasn’t a priority.
This situation is a great learning experience. No mater how good your industrial hygiene department, management needs to buy into asbestos dust protection, both in terms of equipment and the indirect labor time to keep it operational.
Let me know what you think, either in the comments or by sending me an email at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com. Thanks. Marty
2 Responses
I have been an industrial hygienist working in the asbestos industry for 30 years and it is not surprising to me that the company did not listen to the professional trained to protect the health of employees as well as complying with laws and regulations. The limits set at that time breaking it down to cubic centimeters is 176.574 f/cc which is 17,657.4 times the current clearance level for asbestos abatement projects of 0.01f/cc. Those levels would still kill most people exposed to it for even relatively short periods of time. Since the average lung capacity for an adult male is 6000 cc an average breath would deposit many of the 1,059,444 fibers into the lungs. Scary statistic isn’t it.
Kimberly, very much so. Thanks for the math and comments. Marty
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