Dr. Kenneth W. Smith's "Health Projects" Talk at the Johns-Manville Industrial Relations Conference (1966)

Excerpts from the proceedings of J-M's Industrial Relations Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, January 10–14, 1966: the cover, participant list, discussion groups, contents, Dr. Kenneth W. Smith's talk "Health Projects," and the group leaders' reports on working conditions. Smith, J-M's medical director, told the plant and industrial relations managers that "internally in Johns-Manville we have numerous potential health hazards," but that his office was only advisory and had "absolutely no responsibility for policing any standards." He described the publicity of fall 1964 linking asbestos to cancer as inaccurate, and closed by telling the managers that nowhere in Johns-Manville had he seen any concrete evidence that the association existed.

What it shows

Smith said that in 1961, "anticipating trouble," he had helped the U.S. Public Health Service plan its survey of the asbestos industry, and he assured the managers the government teams would not "disrupt your production schedules or upset your employee relations." He also described J-M's part in a planned health research institute of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association and his appointment to the International Union Against Cancer. In the same session the discussion groups reported that their plants had and were creating adverse working conditions (the conference leaders' reports). The managers heard, from J-M's own doctor, that the cancer link was unproven.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In Industrial Relations Managers Minutes dated 1/14/66, K. Smith states he has seen no concrete evidence at J-M to substantiate an asbestos-cancer link.