Minutes of the Formation and First Board Meetings of the Asbestos Information Association/North America (1970)

Minutes of two meetings, kept by W. P. Raines, J-M's director of public relations, as secretary. At a meeting on November 5, 1970, eight companies, among them Johns-Manville, Certain-Teed, Flintkote, National Gypsum and Raybestos-Manhattan, formed the Asbestos Information Association/North America "to inform the public concerning the facts about the asbestos/health problem." They named Harold McNabb of Certain-Teed chairman and Raines secretary, had J-M's general counsel H. M. Ball act as legal counsel at first, and chose Hill & Knowlton as public relations counsel. The board met on December 4, 1970, at J-M's New York headquarters.

What it shows

J-M led the effort. F. J. Solon, Jr., J-M's vice president for advertising and public relations, explained the need for the group, and its name was chosen to avoid confusion with Britain's Asbestos Information Committee, the model proposed in J-M's September 1970 report. Dr. George W. Wright, J-M's medical consultant, warned against "any visible link" with the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association. In December the board agreed to issue J-M's Media Source File under the association's name, to prepare an industry version of J-M's paper on its health research (the History of Johns-Manville Health Research), to have the medical advisory board of the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, which Wright chaired, review its statements, and to file a statement at New York City's hearings on banning asbestos-containing sprays. Solon suggested a statement on asbestos spraying as a "good news peg" for the press conference announcing the association.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Asbestos Information Association (North America) formally organized, patterned on British counterpart. J-M was one of eight-member companies.

Related documents

• Johns-Manville Report on the Current Status of Asbestos/Health, Prepared for the Seaview Meeting (1970)