G. L. Swallow, Report of the Environmental Control Subcommittee Meeting of May 19, 1969 (1969)

A five-page report dated June 4, 1969, by G. L. Swallow, acting secretary of J-M's Environmental Control Subcommittee, on its meeting of May 19, 1969, sent to president C. B. Burnett and other senior managers. The first membrane filter survey of the Manville asbestos textile plant found that "only 10 of 89 stations were below the J-M TLV of 6.0 fibers per cc," and 33 stations were over the 12 fibers per cc limit of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), mainly in spinning and twisting. The new data agreed with U.S. Public Health Service results and "showed conditions to be worse" than the old impinger counts had suggested.

What it shows

The subcommittee agreed that H. M. Jackson and Swallow would work out a recommendation calling for approved respirators at stations over 12 fibers per cc. Comparing two ways of opening fiber bags, the glove box (4.4 fibers per cc) and the cheaper hooded shelf (1.7), the report notes that in answer to customer inquiries the Environmental Control Department was recommending the hooded shelf "chiefly because of relative cost." The committee also discussed removing the industrial hygiene permanent record books from the plants to the Research and Engineering Center; at Jackson's recommendation no decision was made pending review by the Industrial Relations Department. The textile survey results were taken up in more detail in Jackson's Manville textile plant survey, June 1969; the move to the new method is described in Fenner's memo of February 1969. Earlier, a plant manager had sent his records to headquarters ahead of a subpoena (Burnum to Sheckler, November 1968).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Report, dated 6/4/1969, prepared by G.L. Swallow, of J-M Environmental Control Subcommittee meeting held on 5/19/69. The results of the Manville plant asbestos textile department industrial hygiene survey indicated that 79 of 89 stations were above the J-M internal TLV of 6 f/cc. and that 33 stations were over the ACGIH TLV of 12 f/cc.

Attempts to correct the situation were discussed. The glove box bag opening station in the Manville textile shop was compared with the hooded-shelf asbestos bag opening station in the Manville asbestos-cement shop. Station samples showed fiber counts of 4.4 and 1.7 f/cc respectively at the glove box and hooded-shelf. In answer to customer inquiries, the environmental control department is recommending the hooded-shelf bag opening station rather than the glove box, "chiefly because of relative cost."

The new environmental control industrial hygiene survey reporting methods were discussed. (Results of surveys are now being reviewed with plant managers before the industrial hygienists leave the plant location. Dust survey results are sent to the plant manager directly from the area industrial hygiene lab as soon as counts are completed, eliminating the wait for final notification and return of the permanent record books.) The merits of removing the industrial hygiene permanent record books from the plants and filing them in the research and engineering center were reviewed. The committee agreed that no decision would be made until consideration by the industrial relations department.