Asbestos Textile Institute General Meeting Minutes at Thetford Mines, with Dr. Kenneth Smith's Remarks (1965)

The first three pages of the minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's general meeting of June 4, 1965, held at Thetford Mines, Quebec, with the Canadian mining companies as hosts. Those present included J-M's Dr. Kenneth W. Smith and C. L. Sheckler, Raybestos-Manhattan and other textile makers, the Quebec mines, and Dr. Lewis J. Cralley of the U.S. Public Health Service. Smith "stressed the desirability, indeed the necessity, of the asbestos industry telling the truth about the health of its employees," said that some "of the more prolific writers on so-called 'asbestosis'" had little background of actual cases compared with the companies' own, and urged companies to open their records and cooperate fully with the Public Health Service study.

What it shows

Smith also told the meeting that the health of J-M's long-time employees compared favorably with industry in general, pointing to the growing membership of the company's 25-year club as evidence. His call for openness came as the Public Health Service was surveying asbestos textile plants, a study the Institute had debated joining since 1961 (Institute minutes on the Public Health Service proposal, 1961). The minutes break off as Ivan Sabourin, attorney for the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, is introduced to speak on the miners' health work.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

ATI meeting held on 6/4/65 and attended by medical directors of ATI and QAMA members. K. Smith advocates sharing of member data with outside medical researchers who have relatively little background of actual "cases" on which to base their theories and conclusions as compared with asbestos companies.