H. M. Jackson to J. D. Anderson on Outside Requests for Medical Information (1968)

A one-page memo of November 15, 1968, from H. M. Jackson of J-M's headquarters industrial relations staff to J. D. Anderson at the Manville, New Jersey, plant, headed "Request for Medical Information." Anderson had been quoted in a news release as saying he would be "happy to supply" a doctor with the information he wanted. Jackson writes that each such request must now be sent to him with Anderson's comments on the doctor, his relationship to the plant, the workmen's compensation situation and anything else bearing on "the degree and form of information to be provided." The company was "willing, and even eager, to collaborate with those who are searching for fact and truth through research," he writes, but must avoid "providing information which might only be requested for purposes which are to our detriment."

What it shows

Jackson singles out the plant's IH-601 work history (the company's record of each worker's jobs and dust exposure) as "an instrument for our own internal use," and writes that he strongly doubted J-M "would ever release it in its present form." By late 1968 headquarters was taking control of what outside doctors and researchers could learn from J-M's plant records, weighing each request against compensation claims. Jackson raised the same worry the next spring with the U.S. Public Health Service (Jackson to Dr. Lewis Cralley, April 1969).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter from H.M. Jackson to J.D. Anderson (Manville) dated 11/15/68 regarding the need to consider individually each request for medical information. Jackson asks that a copy of each request be forwarded to him along with the sender's evaluation and comments regarding the doctor making the request and any other factors which might "have a bearing on the degree and form of information to be provided."

Jackson states that while the company is willing and even eager to collaborate with those who are searching for "fact and truth" through research, the company must take appropriate precautions in the handling of privileged communications and beware of providing information which might only be requested for purposes which "are to our detriment." Jackson specifically mentions the IH601 work history as a document which is for internal use only.