J. R. D. Wilson's Notice to Toronto Plant Employees on Smoking and Asbestos (1975)

A one-page notice to all employees of Johns-Manville's Toronto plant, dated May 29, 1975, and signed by J. R. D. Wilson, headed "Smoking and Asbestos." It begins: "Many of you are aware that there is a direct link between asbestos produced disease and smoking," and cites a study by Dr. Irving Selikoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine indicating that without smoking, lung cancer among asbestos workers would be no higher than in the general population. From June 2, 1975, smoking was banned throughout the Transite Pipe building and the Flexboard fiber storage building, except in the pipe lunch room at breaks, on pain of the usual discipline.

What it shows

The ban answered an Ontario government proposal: the plant manager told the Ministry of Labour that J-M agreed with prohibiting smoking where asbestos was used, and that this notice went to each employee with the May 29 paycheck (B. C. Machin, June 2, 1975). The notice puts the stress on smoking, which multiplies the lung cancer risk from asbestos (the synergistic effect reported by Selikoff, Hammond and Churg in 1968); it says nothing about the other diseases asbestos causes.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M warns employees re smoking and asbestos interactive (synergistic) risk.