Johns-Manville, Dust Abatement: Manville Plants (1958)

A 22-page J-M program for dust abatement at the Manville, New Jersey, plants, with attachments. Its aim was to control dust so the plants would be seen as "clean" by management, employees and state labor and health officials, and it stresses the importance of visible dust to "the attitude of our employees and the New Jersey labor, compensation and health authorities." Problem areas were to be surveyed, ranked and assigned to task teams, with regular progress reports. Attachments include J-M's 1957 list of threshold limits, which notes that "J-M standard applied to asbestos exposure is 1 million fibres per cubic foot"; the Executive Bulletin of May 6, 1957, on task teams; and dust abatement reports from the Lompoc, California, plant.

What it shows

The program closes by calling dust abatement "the principle method of reducing and controlling current and predicted Workmen's Compensation costs." It builds on the task team method J-M adopted in its 1955 bulletin on evaluating dust conditions, later widened to all industrial hazards, with the company's legal and public relations staff kept informed where community problems were involved.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Recommended program for dust abatement at the Manville plant is presented. List of TLV's for 1957 is attached. Lists J-M's standard for asbestos exposure as 1 mfpcf. Dust abatement program includes a task team approach and submission of regular progress reports.

Related documents

• Johns-Manville Executive Bulletin 33-26 on Dust and Fume Abatement Project Evaluation (1955)