J. A. McKinney, President's Bulletin on Smoking Tobacco (1977)

A one-page President's Bulletin, No. 640-2 Revised, dated August 1, 1977, signed by J. A. McKinney, Johns-Manville's president. Because smoking "has an extremely adverse effect on health, particularly of persons exposed to excessive amounts of asbestos dust," J-M would stop buying or giving out tobacco products and smoking promotions such as matchbooks and lighters bearing its name, destroy any stock, and not show smokers "in a favorable light" in advertising. For employees exposed to asbestos, smoking would be prohibited on a schedule to be worked out with employee representatives.

What it shows

The bulletin says the company's "massive effort" to control asbestos dust "will be of little benefit to you so long as the toxic substances in tobacco smoke remain in your work place atmosphere." It is part of J-M's late-1970s campaign against smoking by asbestos workers, which also included a petition to OSHA for an emergency ban and smoking bans at its plants abroad.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M President's Bulletin No. 640-2, dated 8/1/77, states that because smoking has an extremely adverse effect on health, particularly on persons exposed to excessive amounts of asbestos, J-M will discontinue activities (advertising, purchase of tobacco, etc.) which might encourage smoking.