Dr. Vincent C. Sarley and Dr. T. H. Davison on Flagging Waukegan Workers with Pleural Calcification (1971)

Two one-page memos. On June 28, 1971, Dr. Vincent C. Sarley at the Waukegan, Illinois, plant told Dr. T. H. Davison, J-M's corporate medical director, that the plant's files held cases with calcification of the pleura or diaphragm whose records had no restricted "flagging" ("not designated as red cases"). "In view of the changing climate in relation to pulmonary disease related to asbestos," he asked whether they should be made red cases or given an intermediate class so that their dust exposure would be restricted. On July 13 Davison agreed they justified a "no dust restriction" and told him to use the existing "Blue Slip Flagging" for them.

What it shows

Davison kept "Red Cases" for definite pneumoconiosis. In counseling the blue slip workers, he wrote, Sarley should stress "that they are not being diagnosed as pneumoconiosis cases, but that sufficient pathological findings are present and that we are taking this precautionary step in their protection." A handwritten note of July 1 on Sarley's memo says Sarley was asked to get a list of the "plaque" cases at Waukegan. The exchange shows that workers with X-ray signs of asbestos exposure (pleural calcification) had been in the files without any work restriction, and that the restriction J-M then adopted came with careful wording about what the workers would be told. For the red slip system, see C. L. Hite's memo of April 1971.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Sarley (Waukegan) writes to Dr. Davison, 6/28/71, that in reviewing records at Waukegan, he found cases of calcification of either the pleura or diaphragm or both "without any restricted 'flagging' of their records (i.e.: not designated as red cases)." Dr. Sarley asks that in view of the changing climate regarding asbestos disease, if these cases shouldn't be "red flagged" or given some intermediate classification so that they would be restricted from dust exposure.

Dr. Davison writes back on 7/13/71 that we should use the existing "blue slip flagging" for these cases. When counseling these cases, it should be emphasized that "they are not being diagnosed as pneumoconiosis cases, but that sufficient pathological findings are present and that we are taking this precautionary step in their protection."