2006 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 24 Apr 2006 19:58:09 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Flame retardants on munition workers' clothing
 
We (CSWAB) are looking for resources that discuss historical flame retardants in or applied to clothing worn by munitions workers. We're interested in both potential exposures to workers and potential environmental pollution that may have resulted from application to laundering to disposal.

Please reply to Laura Olah (Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger) at info@cswab.org. (Replies will be treated as confidential.)

P.S. Following is a discussion of protective clothing at Wisconsin's Badger Army Ammunition Plant as provided by a local historian.

"The purpose of protective clothing in all cases was to provide sufficient protection to allow the wearer time to get out of the hazardous situation with minimum injury. There was not, and to my knowledge is not, clothing that was/is flame proof or acid proof that could be worn for eight hours and would allow a worker to perform his/her job.

WWII: Photographs from the Smokeless Production area during WWII show production workers with coveralls and a head covering. I do not know what kind of flame retardant was available for clothing at that time. I have not seen any photo's so far of WWII maintenance people so I do not know what kind of protective clothing they had. There were no hard hats in WWII. Head gear would very likely have been cap or hat or nothing. Production and maintenance workers in the Acid Production areas would have worn wool pants, shirt and hat year round. Wool will repel acid the same as water for a short time. Wool is not acid proof and in the summer time is not comfortable. I do not know what special foot wear or eye wear was available during this time.

Korea: Clothing for all production and maintenance workers was much the same as WWII. If they had hard hats they would have been metal and perhaps not suitable for many production areas.

Vietnam: At the beginning of the Vietnam Operation protective clothing was much the same as Korea and WWII. Flame retardant chemicals were likely improved and coverall styles might have changed some, but the basic intent was the same. During the Vietnam Operation protective clothing for workers in areas where acid was made or used in propellant production was changed from wool to a new man made acid resistant fiber called Dynel. Dynel was much lighter and slightly cooler than wool. Because of the need to protect the wearer from a hazardous liquid the Dynel weave was very tight and did not breath well, so these coveralls were still warm in the summer time but not as bad as wool. By the time Vietnam happened hard hats were made of a high impact plastic and all maintenance people, supervisors and some production workers where required to wear hard hats. The exceptions were areas where some other head gear was more appropriate such as wool hats (acid) or a head wrap that completely enclosed the hair, for women and men (Smokeless Area). Hard hats for the Acid area had a wide brim and those for the propellant areas had a narrow brim (standard construction hard hat). All employees working in production or maintenance were required to wear steel toed shoes. Plus in the acid area the shoes had to be acid resistant or propellant areas they had to have electrically conductive soles. Safety glasses were required in all production and maintenance areas and were provided by the company in a basic style. If you wanted some other safety glass style you had to pay the additional cost.

Because my job during the Vietnam operation took me into acid and propellant production areas I had a wool shirt, flame resistant coveralls and Dynel coveralls when they replaced the wool. Conductive and acid resistant shoes, hard hat and safety glasses.

All special clothing was provided by the company and stayed at the plant. Protective clothing was laundered at the plant laundry and any special chemicals such as flame retardant where applied there. When your shoes needed replacing you went to the plant clothing store and traded the shoes you had for a new pair. Safety glasses were the only safety equipment that belonged to the employee and could be worn off the plant."

END

--

Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
E12629 Weigand's Bay South
Merrimac, WI  53561
Phone: (608) 643-3124
Email: info@cswab.org
Website: www.cswab.org


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