Dr. Leonard J. Bristol to H. M. Jackson on the Billerica Plant Chest X-Rays (1968)

A one-page letter of September 19, 1968, from Dr. Leonard J. Bristol, director of the Silicosis Control Unit of the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, New York, to H. M. Jackson, Johns-Manville's director of industrial relations. Bristol had finished reading a series of chest X-rays from J-M's Billerica Plant in Massachusetts and sent 59 reports and 12 forms using the new classification of the Cincinnati and International Union Against Cancer (UICC) committee. The work took "considerably longer than I had anticipated," he writes, and "Perhaps one reason for this was the unforeseen relatively large number of abnormalities."

What it shows

J-M was sending its plant workers' X-rays to an outside specialist for reading, and Bristol was next waiting for films from the Manville, New Jersey plant. His letter tells the company that the Billerica films showed more abnormal findings than he had expected. The individual reports are not attached.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter dated 9/19/68 from Dr. Bristol to Jackson re review of chest roentgenograms from the Billerica plant. Bristol comments on the unforeseen relatively large number of abnormalities.