Johns-Manville Report to the Board of Directors on Asbestos and Health (1969)

Three pages from J-M's "Report to the Board of Directors on Asbestos and Health," dated January 15, 1969: the cover, listing sections on facts, dust reduction, sales restrictions, research, workmen's compensation, public relations and planned future action, and two pages of Appendix B on workmen's compensation. At 1968 rates, the report says, a total disability case could cost $60,000 in New Jersey and $75,000 in California. Beyond the claims already filed, "Johns-Manville plant physicians have identified by X-ray various stages of pulmonary involvement," and "These numbers represent potential claims over a number of future years": 295 cases at eight plants, including 168 at Manville and 64 at Waukegan.

What it shows

By January 1969 J-M's board was told that its own plant doctors had found lung changes on the X-rays of 295 current workers, counted as future compensation claims. The report says Dr. L. J. Bristol of the Saranac Institute had been engaged to read serial X-rays of all plant personnel, so the company could "estimate more accurately future Workmen's Compensation potential." His first readings soon followed (Scientific Relations Subcommittee, February 1969; Jackson to Burnett on six plants, October 1969). The excerpt also reports no new diatomaceous earth pneumoconiosis at Lompoc since dust control began there in 1952, and an effort with New Jersey industry groups to limit hearing loss claims.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Document entitled "Report to the Board of Directors on Asbestos and Health, 1/15/69." Appendix B of this report contains a discussion of worker's compensation claims including the following: "In addition to workmen's compensation claim cases, Johns-Manville plant physicians identified by x-ray various stages of pulmonary involvement. Some represent the very earliest x-ray abnormalities, others are more advanced. These numbers represent potential claims over a number of future years."

There follows a list of 8 plant locations totaling 295 "cases". The report notes: "To obtain a full expert evaluation of pulmonary involvement in all locations, Dr. L.J. Bristol, Saranac Institute, has been engaged to interpret serial x-rays of all our plant personnel. The study of the Manville data will be completed in approximately four months and will enable us to estimate more accurately future workmen's compensation potential, as will the studies of each plant."