Textile mill workers

A generation of millwrights and textile workers trained under Slater was the catalyst for the rapid proliferation of textile mills in the early nineteenth century. From Slater s first mill, the industry spread across New England to places like North Uxbridge, Massachusetts. For two decades, before Lowell mills and those modeled after them offered (30) competition, the Rhode Island System of small, rural spinning mills set the tone for early industrialization. 

OTTON DUST IN THE WORKPLACE is a major problem facing the cotton and textile industry. Workers breathing cotton dust may develop byssino-sis, a disease that resembles chronic bronchitis and, in its later stages, emphysema. The agent believed to cause the disease is not actually cotton but microscopic foreign matter in the cotton that is released when bales are processed in the mills. 

North Carolina. In North Carolina the survey was conducted on the population of 22 textile mills, which Included a number of cotton workers, the exposed group, compared to workers from departments processing synthetic-wool material, used as a control. (It Is regretted that the published data do not present a precise estimate of the numbers of workers eventually analyzed since the tabulation totals are inconsistent and/or conflicting.)... 

There is therefore a need to investigate atopy, particularly as that variable may interact with dust exposure, in cotton textile mills." The reader is left with the thought that perhaps "reactors" who exhibit symptoms of acute byssinosis in a cotton mill might be in some sense people who are not obvious asthmatics but who, however, have some minimal or borderline type of asthma or other mildly increased bronchial sensitivity. Merchant et al. (51) tested workshift declines in FEVi workers exposed to cotton dust. In their summary they state "The patterns of FEVi response over a week suggest that there are distinct individual patterns of response not dependent upon previous cotton dust exposure."... 

In a cross-sectional study of workers exposed to 1,1,1-trichloroethane in two textile mills (for 149/151, duration of exposure more than 12 months, for 135/151, estimated current exposure level (50-250 ppm [273-1365 mg/m ])), no differences in the reported symptoms, electrocardiograms or laboratory examinations pertaining to liver function were observed (Kramer et al., 1978). Case reports describing hepatic damage after exposure to 1,1,1-trichloroethane have been published (Cohen Frank, 1994). 

Hazard Toxic by inhalation. TLV (dust) 0.2 mg/m3. Moderately flammable in the form of dust or linters fiber ignites readily. In the form of dust or linters, exposure of workers in textile mills may cause brown lung. ... 

However, the actual customizing to your own operations is what will drive the level of detail needed in the plan. A large chemical processing plant will produce a fairly large documents), whereas a small textile mill may only have one small manual. Sections can be just a paragraph long if the operations are not overly complex or risky. But both will be complete and will cover safety for workers and consumers. 

Slater s mill of a generation of millwrights a id textile workers (line 2 5) provided the catalyst for the spread of cotton mills in New England. 

A survey of 486 textile workers, from three cotton mills and one man-made fibers plant, was completed by investigators of Tulane Medical School (32). Measurements of dust, ° respiratory symptoms by the Schilling questionnaire and of ventilatory function were analyzed for correlation. The results indicated... 

Certain Investigators, however, have expressed interest in the matter recently. The possibility that a history of asthma may increase the probability of an acute byssinotic reaction to cotton dust is suggested by a paper by Hamilton et al. ( ). The senior author of this paper had had asthma as a child. Promptly after exposure to the air in a dusty part of a cotton mill he exhibited pronounced shortness of breath with tightness in the chest and accompanying major temporary decreases in FEVi and arterial oxygen tension. The episode is described as "byssinosis". The authors remark It is unlikely that many textile workers with an initial response to cotton dust such as the one described here would remain working in dusty areas." Although the authors state that "It is not possible from the present study to conclude that a prior history of atopy confers sensitivity to cotton dust", the present writers were left with the impression that the authors suspect that such may be the case. 

The difficulties of adequate and reproducible diagnosis have interfered with determination of the incidence of mesothelioma. McDonald studied 11,000 Canadian chrysotile miners and, in 1980, reported that of the 4547 deaths in this group between 1910 and 1975, only 11 were recorded as resulting from mesothelioma (McDonald et al. 1980). At other sites, especially shipyards, mills, and manufacturing plants, other authors had reported higher incidences among individuals exposed to asbestos (e.g., Elmes et al., 1965 Newhouse and Thompson, 1965). Selikoff reported 15 mesotheliomas out of 199 deaths in 689 asbestos production and textile workers exposed between 1959 to 1971, although only 4 such deaths had been recorded before 1966 (Selikoff et al., 1972). 

The National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES), conducted from 1981 to 1983, indicated that 1,329,332 workers employed in various professions were potentially exposed to formaldehyde in the United States (NIOSH 1995b). The NOES database does not contain information on the frequency, concentration, or duration of exposure the survey provides only estimates of workers potentially exposed to the chemical in the workplace. OSHA has estimated that in the late 1980s over 2 million workers in over 112,000 firms were exposed to formaldehyde about 45% of these workers are estimated to be in the garment industry. About 1.9 million were exposed to levels of formaldehyde between 0.1 ppm and 0.5 ppm (mainly in apparel, furniture, paper mills, and plastic molding) approximately 123,000 were exposed to levels of formaldehyde between 0.5 and 0.75 ppm (mainly in apparel, textile finishing, furniture, laboratories, and foundries) and about 84,000 were exposed to between 0.75 and 1 ppm (mainly in apparel, furniture, and foundries) (OSHA 1996). 

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