J. V. Miles to C. L. Sheckler on a Serious Dust Problem at the Marrero Pipe Plant (1964)

A confidential one-page memo of July 29, 1964, from J. V. Miles at J-M's Marrero, Louisiana, pipe plant to C. L. Sheckler at General Headquarters on the 1964 industrial hygiene survey. Miles was "disappointed" that only two of the ten dust stations sampled in the Wet End on May 22 had supported the plant's view that it had a serious dust problem. The local plant technician's counts, made with equipment and methods different from the area hygienist's and so "not acceptable as evidence for litigation," had for years shown samples "well above allowable limits on eight (8) out of ten (10)" of the Wet End stations.

What it shows

Miles wrote that, judging by "visible evidence," the number of employee dust cases still working in the department and the technician's counts made twice a year since 1958, "we do have a very serious dust problem in the Wet End of Pipe." The plant had for several years recommended spending about $400,000 to correct "these sub-standard working conditions," but the project had been deferred. Dust at Marrero comes up again in a 1966 memo to Sheckler.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J. Miles (Marrero Plant) writes to J. Sheckler on 7/29/64 regarding Industrial Hygiene Survey at the Marrero Plant. Miles expresses his disappointment in the sampling of the wet end and expresses his opinion that a "very serious dust problem in the Wet End of Pipe" does exist even though the samplings did not reflect a problem. He further states that the local Plant Technician, who uses different equipment and methods than Area Hygienists, has shown samples above allowable limits on eight out of ten of those Wet End Station.