Asbestos Textile Institute Minutes on Dr. Vestal's Health Program (1946)

Minutes of two meetings of the Asbestos Textile Institute (ATI), the trade group of asbestos textile makers, held on June 19, 1946, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, with Johns-Manville, Raybestos-Manhattan, Keasbey & Mattison and others attending. At both, George S. Fabel of Southern Asbestos presented a "tentative plan" by Dr. Vestal for an ATI health program, described in the general minutes as "an A.T.I. central medical department." The members sent it to their Dust Control Committee for study and a report, and agreed to pay Dr. Vestal's expenses if the committee wanted to meet him.

What it shows

The general meeting also heard a Dust Control Committee report with "numerous findings and recommendations," including damp weaving to hold down dust, which the members discussed without deciding, after hearing the sales view. Most of the meeting was about trade business: publicity, a space advertising program describing the ATI as formed "to render service to buyers and users of asbestos textiles," and a $15,000-a-year fellowship at Rutgers. The Vestal plan itself and the committee reports are not in this file. The ATI's dust work led to the 1947 Industrial Hygiene Foundation dust study.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

On 6/19/46, Vestal recommended to ATI (Air Hygiene Committee) for annual X-rays and other measures.

Editor's note: J-M's description says Vestal recommended annual X-rays to the Air Hygiene Committee. The minutes record only a "tentative plan" for an ATI health program, referred to the Dust Control Committee; the plan itself is not in this file and the minutes do not mention X-rays.