Johns-Manville Correspondence on Describing Marinite to the American Medical Association (1948)

Three Johns-Manville papers of April 1948 on how to describe Marinite. On April 9 Dr. C. F. Rassweiler wrote to E. R. Williams of the research laboratory at Manville, New Jersey, that a doctor had asked what Marinite was made of, in connection with a claim that handling it caused dermatitis. "We would, of course, like to avoid stating that Marinite is made from silica, lime, and Amosite fiber," he wrote, and asked for wording that would satisfy a doctor "and yet would not disclose that this is a lime-silica rather than a cement product." The research center proposed "a low density sheet material composed of asbestos fiber and hydrated mono-calcium silicate," and on April 20 Vandiver Brown gave that description to Dr. H. D. Kautz of the American Medical Association's Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry.

What it shows

The answer that went out did say Marinite contained asbestos. What Rassweiler wanted kept back was the raw materials, including that the asbestos was Amosite, and that the board was a lime-silica rather than a cement product. Brown told the American Medical Association the product contained "no soluble or insoluble toxic materials" and that J-M had never before met a case of allergic reaction to it.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Correspondence relating to an inquiry which Vandiver Brown received from the AMA as to the potential that Marinite could cause dermatitis. Rassweiler noted that J-M should avoid stating that Marinite was composed of silica, lime and amosite asbestos fiber. Marinite was ultimately described as "a low-density sheet material composed of asbestos fiber and hydrated mono-calcium silicate."