Paul-A. Filteau of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association on Dr. Selikoff's Toronto Lectures (1973)

A memo of May 10, 1973, from Paul-A. Filteau of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association to Michael J. Messel, J. R. M. Hutcheson and other members, reporting on two talks Dr. Irving J. Selikoff gave at the University of Toronto on May 2 and 3, 1973. The association handed out its own publicity material at the door. From the floor, Ivan Sabourin argued that the experience of American insulation workers had to be distinguished from that of Canadian miners and millers, and Dr. P. Pelnar said Canadian workers had been exposed to pure chrysotile.

What it shows

Filteau judged that "Dr. Selikoff came out on top," but that the Canadian industry's position had been "clearly asserted." He wrote that "the ideal confrontation would be with a qualified medical person with equal speaking ability and willing to present the industry point of view." The memo also records Selikoff's report that no lung cancer had been found among non-smoking insulation workers. The attached list of twenty industry attendees includes J-M people such as F. J. Solon and Hutcheson, of Canadian Johns-Manville.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Selikoff makes presentation before Toronto TB association in 5/73. Ivan Sabourin emphasized that a distinction had to be made between the experience of asbestos insulation workers in the United States and the asbestos mine and millworkers in Canada.