Deposition of Dr. Gerrit W. H. Schepers in the Tennessee Asbestosis Cases, Volume I (1980)

The first volume (87 pages) of the deposition of Dr. Gerrit W. H. Schepers, taken for the plaintiffs in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 19, 1980, in consolidated asbestosis cases. Schepers, director of the Saranac Laboratory from 1954, testified that in 1950 he and Dr. Anthony Lanza told Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville what he had seen of asbestos disease in American plants, and that Brown said he did not have the company's permission to reveal it. He also testified that he came to know Hugh Jackson in 1954, and that from 1954 he discussed caution labels with Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director: first for Celite, then "whether it wouldn't be advisable, also, to warn the public of hazardous nature of asbestos."

What it shows

This is testimony given a quarter century after the events, by a witness called for the plaintiffs, and it should be read that way. Schepers described the October 1954 Asbestos Textile Institute meeting (its minutes) as the start of an arrangement under which Saranac would examine tissue from disputed cases and send its reports to Jackson. On labels, he said the talks with Smith began with Celite, J-M's diatomaceous earth (see Jackson's 1952 memo on Celite caution labels), and widened to asbestos because he thought its harm "could be more insidious." He said Smith thought a warning desirable, but "What happened to it, I'm not sure."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Gerritt Schepers (then director of Saranac) claims to have discussed third party risks, labeling and the need for cancer research with K.W. Smith and H.M. Jackson.

Editor's note: J-M's description says Schepers testified to discussing third-party risks, labeling and the need for cancer research with K. W. Smith and H. M. Jackson. This first volume covers his talks with Dr. Smith about caution labels; it does not discuss third-party risks or cancer research, which may be in a later volume.