View-Master factory supply well

The View-Master factory supply well in Beaverton, Oregon, was evaluated for public health effects by the Oregon Department of Human Services under a cooperative agreement with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry . Workers there were potentially exposed to the industrial solvent trichloroethylene , classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a probable human carcinogen. At the factory, which closed in 2001, it had been estimated by ODHS that up to 25,000 workers may have been exposed to TCE via the factory's drinking water, which was drawn from a well on-site. However, further investigation showed that the actual number of employees who can be identified from employment records for the site is approximately half that number. In addition, the number of employees identified as having worked at the site for more than five years is likely to be less than 1,000. The site is now considered safe.

The View-Master, a device for viewing 3-D images on a paper disk, was invented in 1939 by William Gruber, a Portland, Oregon, photographer. A business arrangement was made, and the devices came to be manufactured by Sawyer's, Inc. In 1951, Sawyer's opened a factory in Progress, Oregon , to manufacture the devices. The devices were manufactured at the factory in Beaverton until 2001, when production was shifted elsewhere and portions of the factory sold.

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