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Previous by Date: Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Common industrial lab safety practices 1906-1930? Date: Friday, June 9, 2017 at 6:13:11 PM Author: Samuella B. Sigmann <sigmannsb**At_Symbol_Here**APPSTATE.EDU> |
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I would remember the wide use of basic solvents such as acetone, benzene and the like in cleaning lab equipment as well as the actual chemistry. And I just got part way through an article about Alice Hamilton that dealt with her contact with the rayon industry in this period. Carbon disulfide was essential for rayon, and apparently very poorly controlled in some plants.
As the chemicst in question was in the textile industry, and if the New England taxtile industry got into rayon, that might be something to consider. Take a look at https://undark.org/article/viscose-rayon-occupational-health/ It makes harrowing reading.
As noted, factory workers were probably at greater risk, but chemists in support of or adjacent to factory use would have had their own exposures.
Peter Zavon, CIH
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---- Zack Mansdorf
> Azo dyes and other chemicals used for various purposes in the textile
> industries have long been linked to excesses in cancer (although liver
> cancer is not predominate). There is a study from IARC
> (http://www.inchem.org/documents/iarc/vol48/48-13.html) from 1990 that
> provides a bit of information. My suspicion is that it was more than just
> lab safety that may have had an effect on your relative. I would guess (but
> do not know) that the factory workers were at greater risk than the lab
> workers.
>
>
>
> I am sure some others can share their understanding.
>
>
>
> Zack
>
> S.Z. Mansdorf, PhD, CIH, CSP, QEP
>
> Consultant in EHS and Sustainability
>
> 7184 Via Palomar
>
> Boca Raton, FL 33433
>
> 561-212-7288
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
> [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU] On Behalf Of Reinhardt, Peter
> Sent: Friday, June 9, 2017 3:15 PM
> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
> Subject: [DCHAS-L] Common industrial lab safety practices 1906-1930?
>
>
>
> Colleagues,
>
>
>
> With the wisdom of this listserve, I bet a few of you may provide some
> information on this topic.
>
>
>
> A family member is writing a history of a relative who was a
> Harvard-educated dye chemist at a New England textile firm from 1906 until
> about 1930. At that time his health began to deteriorate and he "retired"
> from chemistry. He died in 1936 of liver cancer at 51 years of age.
>
>
>
> Both she and I know it is highly speculative to associate his work and poor
> health, but she wonders what laboratory safety precautions might have been
> in common industrial use during that time. Do you know?
>
>
>
> When I worked at the University of Wisconsin, a retired chemistry professor
> there told me that his first "gas mask" was purchased from army surplus
> prior to WW II. In my career, I've helped remodel labs with functional fume
> hoods dating from the 1920s. Were masks, gloves, hoods, etc. in common use
> in industrial labs between 1906 and 1930?
>
>
>
> Perhaps there is a book that traces this safety history. If so, I'd
> appreciate hearing about it
>
>
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>
> Pete
>
>
>
> Peter A. Reinhardt
>
> Director, Office of Environmental Health & Safety
>
> Yale University
>
> 135 College St., Suite 100
>
> New Haven, CT 06510-2411
>
> (203) 737-2123
>
> peter.reinhardt**At_Symbol_Here**yale.edu
>
>
>
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