Dr. Paul Kotin's Review of Asbestos Fiber Division Tactical Plans and the Jeffrey Textile Plant (1977)

A memo of September 20, 1977, from Dr. Paul Kotin to J-M's president J. A. McKinney and 15 other executives, reviewing the Asbestos Fiber Division's tactical plan for the Health, Safety and Environment Department. Kotin backs the division's plan to teach customers how to use asbestos safely, and its view that the top priority at the Jeffrey textile operation in Asbestos, Quebec, was "to reduce fiber counts to meet standards." He goes further: if the division could not clean up the operation, "serious consideration should be given to shutting down the operation."

What it shows

Kotin calls the Jeffrey textile plant "an embarrassment as it does not meet J-M standards and has not met them for a good number of years," and sees no reason it could not become "the showplace that Manville currently is." A handwritten note of September 21, apparently from Pundsack, whose name is circled on the distribution sheet, asks that cleaning up the textile operation so it meets standards be set as an objective for 1978.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

A memorandum from Paul Kotin dated 9/20/77 entitled "Review of Tactical Plans - Asbestos Fiber Division." Therein, Kotin responds to a tactical plan of AFD, and in particular to a proposed commitment to reduce fiber levels in textiles to meet the relevant TLV with the suggestion that: "If the division cannot complete the environmental clean-up of this textile operation, then serious consideration should be given to shutting down the operation. The Jeffrey Textile Plant is an embarrassment as it does not meet J-M's standards and has not met them for a good number of years. . . . I really see no reason that Jeffrey cannot be made the showplace that Manville currently is."