A. Pocius to D. B. Wingerter on Silica Caution Labels for Insulating Products (1967)

A one-page memo of October 16, 1967, from A. Pocius at Johns-Manville's division headquarters to D. B. Wingerter on labeling insulating products made with calcined diatomaceous earth, among them C-22 Brick, C-3 Aggregate and Marinite. Pocius passes on a label C. L. Sheckler had recommended ("CAUTION - This product contains silica," with advice to avoid breathing dust and to use approved respirators) and asks Wingerter to have it put into finished product specifications "the same way we did the asbestos dust label." He adds that "from our past experience" such labels "should not be put on products that go to the Canadian and International Division."

What it shows

By late 1967 J-M was adding caution labels across its insulation line; Pocius writes that with these "almost all our products will have labels on them." The memo also shows that leaving labels off exports to Canada and abroad was by then treated as settled practice, carried over from the asbestos labels (see the 1965 exchange on unlabeled products for Canada). The proposed label speaks only of silica, although Marinite also contained asbestos; Sheckler's May 1968 memo gave Marinite an asbestos label instead.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

A. Pocius memorandum to D.B. Wingerter, 10/16/67, discusses the consideration of labeling products containing diatomaceous earth, namely G-22 Brick, G-3 Aggregate and Marinite. Pocius requests Wingerter to follow the same procedure as used when labeling products containing asbestos and to check to see if the labels should not be included on products going to Canada.