W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin on Asbestos Tailings Dust at the Advocate Mine and in Quebec (1978)

A one-page memo of July 11, 1978, from W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin, head of J-M's Health, Safety and Environment Department, under the subject "Letter of D. V. Bates, M.D., to Newfoundland Minister of Health." Reitze writes that a television program about the Advocate mine in Baie Verte, Newfoundland, must have had "some basis of fact": children commonly wrote their names on cars "in asbestos dust near the Advocate mine," and the same could be done in Asbestos and Thetford, Quebec. The dust came mostly from the handling of the tailings, a condition that had "been going on for decades" at all three places.

What it shows

Reitze writes that progress had been slow at Thetford, where a recent visit found conditions no different from Advocate, and that the tailings area had so far been "an unsolvable problem." He asks whether anyone had studied the populations living around the Jeffrey Mine or Thetford. The memo is a company record that dust from mine waste had reached the towns around three asbestos mines for years. For his earlier report from the Advocate mine, see Reitze on conditions at Advocate; for the CBC coverage, see the memos on the CBC's "Here and Now".

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Reitze writes a memorandum to Kotin, 7/11/78, regarding the need to control the dust from the tailings at J-M's mines. It is a rather common occurrence for children to write their names on automobiles in asbestos dust near the Advocate Mine. This also happens at Asbestos, Quebec and Thetford, Quebec. This condition has been going on for decades at these three places. To date, the problem of controlling dust from the tailings has been an unsolvable problem.

Related documents

• W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin on His Visit to the Advocate Mine at Baie Verte (1975)