R. C. Smith's Confidential Memo on Waukegan Red Slip and Pink Slip Pneumoconiosis Cases (1963)

A three-page confidential memo of January 28, 1963, by R. C. Smith of J-M's Waukegan, Illinois plant, on the plant's pneumoconiosis cases. It defined a "Red slip" case as a worker medically identified with occupational pneumoconiosis and a "Pink slip" case as one "possibly" showing signs of it. Of 71 red slip cases, 25 "have not been told of their condition and are not necessarily in dust free jobs," and only two new cases had been told since July 1962. The plant also had about 225 pink slip cases, none of whom had been told.

What it shows

The memo said that "from a moral standpoint" and "from an ethical standpoint" the men should be told promptly, but that telling 25 men within weeks might cause "an undesirable panic or near-panic." It recommended telling each untold red slip case at his next annual physical, on a schedule running to September 1, 1963, and arranging exams so that two men in the same department were not told in the same month. For the 225 pink slip cases, a January 17, 1963 meeting of C. L. Sheckler, Dr. Davison, Boyd Mulder, R. C. Smith, J. D. Anderson and E. C. Greene agreed that management could not "at this time" tell them of their "possible" condition, and the memo recommended that pink slips be returned to the medical department and destroyed, and that supervisors "destroy all records or codes which refer to Pink slip cases." A handwritten note says all recommendations were approved at the plant managers' meeting of January 31, 1963. The same backlog is described from the doctor's side in Dr. Davison's memo of January 31, 1963 and Dr. Kenneth Smith's reply.

The file also holds a list, dated May 1972, of the Waukegan red slip cases from 1945 to 1971, with each man's clock number, diagnosis, and the dates he was diagnosed and told. We have not published it, because it identifies individual workers and their medical conditions.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Series of memoranda from R.C. Smith dated 1/28/63 and 2/26/63 describes situation in which the Waukegan plant fell behind in medical program and failed to advise 25 employees about their diagnoses of definite occupational chest disease. To avoid panic, J-M decided to advise these workers, and remove them from dust over a one year staggered period. J-M decided not to advise 225 cases of possible pneumoconiosis at all, and to allow them to remain in dusty jobs rather than disclose reason for transfers. All relevant records other than individual medical files were to be destroyed. Memorandum notes discussion included Sheckler, Dr. Davison, Boyd Mulder, J.D. Anderson, and E.C. Greene. Marginalia notes that this decision was approved at Plant Managers meeting 1/31/63.

Editor's note: J-M's description covers a series of memos dated January 28 and February 26, 1963; only the January 28 memo is in this file. Where the description says all relevant records other than individual medical files were to be destroyed, the memo recommends that supervisors destroy "all records or codes which refer to Pink slip cases."