American Mutual Liability Insurance Company Notes on Asbestosis Claims Against Pipe Covering Contractors (1956)

Two sheets headed "Asbestosis Claims Against Pipe Covering Contractors," on American Mutual Liability Insurance Company stationery and dated June 14, 1956, describing three insured pipe covering contractors in the Middle Atlantic states. A magnesia company with seven men in 1956 had no occupational disease claims. An insulation company with 40 to 45 men had been joined with five other companies in defending a claim by survivors of a worker with 30 or more years in the trade, and its owner knew of "less than 10 claims" in his experience. A third contractor, with 65 to 75 men, had one claim in five years, from a 42-year-old asbestos worker. A third page reproduces an April 1957 abstract of a study of lung tumors in mice exposed to asbestos dust.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

American Mutual Liability Insurance Company internal document dated 6/14/56 summarizes asbestosis claims against pipe covering contractors. This memorandum describes what appear to be three separate insureds, one listed as a "magnesia company" with seven employees as of 1956; another as an "insulation company" with 40-45 employees as of 1955; and the third, as a "private individual" employing 65-75 workers. The first of these insureds had no occupational disease claims. The second was involved in one pending action in which five other companies were also involved. The memorandum reports that this insured had "less than ten claims" in its experience. The third insured was described as having had one occupational disease claim based on alleged asbestosis during the last five-year period.