L. Seppala to Boyd Mulder on the Waukegan Medical Schedule (1960)

A two-page memo of October 28, 1960, from L. Seppala, newly assigned to the medical department at J-M's Waukegan, Illinois, plant, to Boyd Mulder, with "Personal + Confidential" and a note routing it to Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, written across the top. Seppala reports that the plant physician, Dr. Culmer, had been arriving after 3 p.m., that Dr. Wood was late for morning re-examinations, and that X-rays from September's re-examinations were still waiting to be read by Dr. Pitts. In checking shift records, the department had found workers "who have not been examined for 3, 4, or five years."

What it shows

Waukegan's periodic chest X-rays and physical re-examinations were J-M's main way of finding lung disease among its workers there. The memo describes that program falling behind in practice: 40 to 50 people a day coming to the medical department, X-ray folders stuck unread, and workers left waiting. A postscript tells of one man, not examined for more than two years, who gave up waiting for the doctor and said, "I won't come back anymore." Two months earlier the plant's industrial relations manager had made similar complaints about Dr. Culmer's hours (Marchant to Higbee, August 1960).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

L. Seppala discusses in a memorandum to Boyd Mulder, 10/28/60, problems at Waukegan concerning the medical schedule. The biggest problem is that Dr. Culmer has been late for his exams at the plant. Dr. Wood has also been coming in late. X-rays related to physical re-exams in September and since that time are awaiting reading by Dr. Pitts. Traffic in the Medical Department is heavy. On a normal day, 40-50 workers come to the Medical Department for one reason or another. There are instances where workers have not been examined for 3, 4, or 5 years.

Related documents

• A. B. Marchant to A. K. Higbee on Waukegan's Handling of a Compensation Case (1960)
• Arthur J. Vorwald to J. P. Woodard on Asbestosis at the Waukegan Plant (1951)