Johns-Manville Environmental Health Task Force Policy Committee Minutes, August 1969 (1969)

Four pages of minutes, taken by F. J. Solon Jr., of the August 18, 1969 meeting of the Policy Committee of J-M's Environmental Health Task Force, circulated to C. B. Burnett, Johns-Manville's president, Dr. George W. Wright and other senior officers. W. L. VanDerbeek, vice president for production and engineering, reported on lowering dust counts below the TLV in the Manville textile operation, and the committee discussed making textiles from asbestos paper to do away with dusty carding and spinning. VanDerbeek also "suggested that profitability study should be made of Marshville textile operations before a decision is reached on installing costly dust control equipment."

What it shows

The minutes record several decisions about outside scrutiny. On A. B. Marchant's advice, J-M would not work with the labor federation's Industrial Union Department (IUD) on asbestos and health on a company-wide or industry-wide basis, but would "identify and solve these problems in its own plants and mines without any outside help or assistance," and talk to unions locally. J-M would offer Dr. Irving Selikoff a tour of its Stockton and Lompoc operations and open the Manville plant to him "as soon as our present control programs have been completed (in about two months)." Dr. Wright reported that he had been asked, with Selikoff, to review planned federal asbestos air pollution standards, and recommended animal tests of Selikoff's view that the smallest fibers did the most harm, a view Wright did not hold. The committee also heard about plans to spray asbestos fireproofing at the World Trade Center, decided J-M should not "get too heavily involved," and noted that "J-M does not favor asbestos spraying as a matter of policy." The Manville textile dust problem is set out in Jackson's June 1969 survey.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Minutes from an 8/18/69 meeting of the Environmental Health Task Force state that a profitability study of the Marshville plant should be done before a decision is made to install costly dust control.

Related documents

• G. L. Swallow, Report of the Environmental Control Subcommittee Meeting of May 19, 1969 (1969)