Joan Ross, Survey of Female Employees in the Canadian Johns-Manville Textile Department (1944)

A seven-page internal report on the women working in the textile department of Canadian Johns-Manville at Asbestos, Quebec, by Joan Ross, with a cover letter of August 15, 1944, copied to plant manager H. K. Sherry. Ross interviewed about seventy women and found that the department's absence rate was "the highest in the entire Asbestos plant," and that the number of girls who had become ill, "especially with tuberculosis," had become a topic of conversation "throughout the entire community." She names three main causes of absence for health reasons: dust, bad ventilation and cold at night; fatigue; and the generally higher absence rate of women.

What it shows

Ross writes that the dust in the textile department "is several times the worst in the factory," and that more than half of the employees who left the department did so because of illness. Of the cases the industrial relations department followed up, five women had a definite diagnosis of tuberculosis. In her cover letter she adds that many more women would take the work "if it were not for the bad health reputation of the department in the entire community." This was the same summer Gardner reported asbestosis to be rare at Asbestos; the report does not say whether the women were X-rayed for dust disease.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Document entitled "Survey of Female Employees in Canadian Textile Department," by Joan Ross, 8/11/44. Notes that there is a very high absentee rate among women in the Textile Department as compared with any other operation at Canadian Johns-Manville. This situation has become a topic of conversation throughout the entire community and is a serious detriment to the reputation of the company. Three factors are responsible for absentee rate being so high: (1) dust and bad ventilation; (2) fatigue; and (3) higher absentee rate among women in general as opposed to men. Ross notes that the dust situation in the Textile Department is worse than in any other department in the factory. (The document is partially illegible.)