Manville Medical Manual, Section II, Medical Evaluation Procedures (1983)

Section II of the Manville Medical Manual, "Medical Evaluation Procedures," which replaced the company's examination procedures effective February 23, 1983; the 34-page file also holds a revised version effective March 25, 1983. It sets out pre-employment, periodic and annual examinations, with workers exposed to toxic substances examined every year. Among the grounds for turning down an applicant is a condition that, "while controlled, would raise serious question as to the advisability of exposure to hazardous or potentially hazardous substances," such as well-controlled asthma, because although Manville plants "consistently operate at or below the threshold limit value (TLV)," TLVs "are traditionally recognized as avoiding ill health effects only in clinically normal employees."

What it shows

The manual's own words concede that meeting the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) did not make exposure safe for everyone. It also requires that exposed employees be told of their examination results in writing: "It is absolutely essential that any unusual or abnormal clinical findings or diagnoses be disclosed to the employee at the time they are discovered," on a disclosure form signed by employee and physician and kept in the medical record, "whether or not the examining physician feels the finding is the result of an occupational exposure." That rule stands against the company's earlier practice, described by its own doctors, of not telling workers what their X-rays showed (see Dr. Samuel Keller's 1982 statement on Waukegan and Dr. Kenneth Smith's taped message on who decided what employees were told). The manual also makes lying about cigarette use on the medical history grounds for refusing employment.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Manville Medical Manual, Section II, Medical Evaluation Procedures, 2/23/83, states that an applicant's medical condition which, while controlled, would raise a serious question as to the advisability of exposure to hazardous or potentially hazardous substances should be denied for employment. Although J-M consistently operates at or below TLV, "TLV's are traditionally recognized as avoiding ill health effects only in clinically normal employees."