Statements of Clifford Sheckler, Dr. George W. Wright and Henry B. Moreno at the Labor Department Asbestos Hearing (1972)

Fifty-five pages of written statements given at the U.S. Department of Labor's hearings of March 14–17, 1972, on a permanent asbestos standard, all opposing the proposed cut from 5 to 2 fibers per cubic centimeter. Clifford L. Sheckler, speaking for the National Insulation Manufacturers Association and the National Insulation Contractors Association, urged the Secretary of Labor to "Reinstate the Threshold Limit Value for Asbestos Dust at 12 fibres per milliliter" for an interim period. Dr. George W. Wright of St. Luke's Hospital in Cleveland argued that the 5-fiber standard "should not be lowered but left as it is," and Henry B. Moreno, J-M's senior operating vice president, said that adopting 2 fibers "with no scientifically credible evidence" would be "nothing less than complete social irresponsibility."

What it shows

Moreno said J-M supported the emergency standard "if they are modified as suggested by my Johns-Manville associates here today." He told the hearing that about half of J-M's dust stations read over 2 fibers, that meeting that level would cost twelve million dollars in equipment and five million a year to run, and that about eleven hundred workers at five plants would lose their jobs. Wright, formerly of the Saranac Laboratory, was introduced at the hearing by J-M's Fred Pundsack as "our next testifier," and Sheckler was on J-M's corporate safety staff (Pennewell's 1971 memo), though here he spoke for the insulation trade groups. J-M's labeling testimony at the same hearing is Pundsack's, whose file also holds the hearing transcript.

About this copy

The official hearing transcript of the same witnesses is published on separate Library pages: Dr. Wright's testimony, Henry B. Moreno's testimony and the insulation industry witnesses' testimony.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M Executives/Consultants Sheckler, Wright and Moreno testify in 1972 against proposed reduction of TLV from 5 f/cc to 2 f/cc in the so-called Goldberg hearings before Department of Labor.