What did NIOSH document at the Gouverneur Talc mine and mill in Balmat, New York?
A 1970s NIOSH industrial-hygiene study connects a New York mine and mill, bulk talc mineralogy, nearly 30 job categories and measured airborne-fiber conditions.
Answer
NIOSH studied worker exposures at the Gouverneur Talc Company Number One Mine and Mill in Balmat in November 1975. NIOSH reported that its analyses and analyses by two independent laboratories confirmed asbestiform tremolite and anthophyllite in bulk talc samples. The report also describes personal sampling across almost 30 job categories and concluded that excessive airborne-fiber exposures existed in both mine and mill operations.
What is directly documented
Bulk talc mineralogy
NIOSH reported asbestiform tremolite and anthophyllite in sampled bulk talc, with trace chrysotile reported in two of seven samples in an associated study.
Job-category sampling
Personal air sampling covered almost 30 job categories in mine and mill operations.
Measured fiber conditions
The report gives time-weighted fiber measurements and states that excessive airborne-fiber exposures existed in mine and mill operations.
Why this matters for reconstruction
Someone may remember only Balmat, the talc mine, a department, a dusty operation or a job title. This source can help transform those fragments into research questions about location, work operation, period, coworkers and records without requiring the person to remember a commercial asbestos product.
How to use this record
This NIOSH study is most useful when matched to a worker’s actual years, mine or mill location, job category, department and tasks. Those details can help identify which sampling results, dust-generating operations and additional employment or union records deserve closer review.
Next questions
Which years? Mine or mill? What job category and department? Which operations generated dust? Were work clothes brought home? Are employment, union, medical-surveillance, coworker or product-shipment records available?
Primary sources
NIOSH industrial hygiene study, Gouverneur Talc Company Number One Mine and Mill
From this workplace to the next useful question
This pathway separates what public sources document about Gouverneur Talc / Balmat Mine & Mill from what still must be established for a particular person.
Documented here
- EVD-NIOSH-BALMAT-01 — NIOSH reported asbestiform tremolite and anthophyllite in bulk talc samples from the Gouverneur Talc Company Number One Mine and Mill study in Balmat, New York.
- EVD-NIOSH-BALMAT-02 — NIOSH reported personal sampling across almost 30 job categories and concluded that excessive airborne-fiber exposures existed in both mine and mill operations.
- What exact years place the person at Gouverneur Talc / Balmat Mine & Mill?
- What job title, department, contractor, crew or work area can narrow the history?
- Which remembered detail best fits: mine or mill assignment, job category, dust-producing task or work area?
- What employment, union, coworker, maintenance, specification or other record can connect the person to the correct time and place?