W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin on Unlabeled Asbestos Bags at the Toronto Plant (1975)

A short internal memo of May 12, 1975, headed "Warning Label on Asbestos Bags," from W. B. Reitze of Johns-Manville's health and safety staff to Dr. Paul Kotin, head of J-M's Health, Safety and Environment Department (copy to E. M. Fenner). Reitze writes that he understood all bags of asbestos leaving J-M's Canadian mines were to carry "the standard caution label as prescribed by OSHA in this country," whether used in the United States, shipped to Europe, or used within Canada. "A recent check of the Toronto operation indicates that the bags arriving at the Toronto plant are not so labeled."

What it shows

The memo shows a gap between J-M's stated labeling policy and what was arriving at its own plant in Canada, where U.S. rules did not apply. Two months earlier J-M's London office had advised holding off on physical labels for shipments to Britain (W. R. Janes to F. J. Solon Jr., March 1975). Earlier debates over labeling fiber shipped outside the United States are in the 1968–1969 correspondence on Canadian Johns-Manville's caution label.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Reitze in a memorandum to Kotin, 5/12/75, indicates that it is his understanding that all bags of asbestos that leave J-M's Canadian mines are to be labeled with the standard caution label as prescribed by OSHA. This includes those shipped to the U.S., those shipped to Europe, and those transported within Canada. A recent check of the Toronto operation indicates that the bags arriving at the Toronto plant are not so labeled.

Related documents

• W. R. Janes of J-M London to F. J. Solon Jr. on British Warning Labels and the Asbestos Information Committee (1975)