A. R. Fisher to Vandiver Brown and J. P. Woodard Enclosing Dr. Smith's Survey of 708 Men in Dusty Areas (1949)

A confidential note of February 3, 1949, from A. R. Fisher of Johns-Manville to Vandiver Brown and J. P. Woodard, sending a report Dr. Kenneth W. Smith at Asbestos, Quebec, had prepared for George K. Foster to help "justify some capital expenditures" to improve dust in and around the mills. Smith's five-page report reviewed the X-rays of 708 men in the mill and the bag sorting and cleaning departments of Canadian Johns-Manville: 4 had negative films, 7 showed early asbestosis, and 52 showed advanced fibrosis that he treated as a "Pre-Asbestotic Group." He concluded that fibrosis of the lung increased in direct proportion to years of exposure to the dust, and that all 59 were probable compensation claims.

What it shows

Smith wrote that the seven men with asbestosis "have not been told of this diagnosis": as long as a man felt well and was happy at home and at work, "nothing should be said," so that he could "live and work in peace and the Company can benefit by his many years of experience." Only when a man became disabled was the diagnosis to be made and the claim submitted. The survey's stated purposes included telling the company "the possible number of compensation claim cases which could be submitted in the future," and Smith recommended dust control and early transfers to protect the men's health and prevent claims. Later that year Woodard sent the report to L. C. Hart (August 8 memo) and used it to win approval of more than $5.5 million for dust control at Asbestos (August 18 note).

About this copy

The enclosed survey also appears, in a different copy, on its own page: Dr. Smith's survey of 708 mill workers.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

A letter from A.R. Fisher to V. Brown and J.P. Woodard, 2/3/49, refers to an attached report which Dr. Smith prepared for Mr. Foster in order to justify capital expenditures being made to improve the dust situation at the mills.