W. B. Reitze, OSHA Letter No. 26, on Keeping J-M's Ban on Brooms (1974)

A memo of September 16, 1974, from W. B. Reitze to J-M's "OSHA Distribution List," issued as OSHA Letter No. 26, on the use of brooms with asbestos-containing waste. Reitze recalls that years earlier J-M's president, Clint Burnett, had in effect banned sweeping where asbestos waste was present, and that the federal emergency asbestos standard had also banned it, but the final federal standard dropped the ban. J-M would keep it: "this is one area where we at J-M are going to have to do better than the Federal regulations."

What it shows

Reitze wrote that sweeping asbestos waste with brooms "can and usually does produce potentially high dust counts," and that it should "immediately be superseded" by vacuuming or wet collection to remove "this clearly controllable source of contamination." Eleven days earlier he had found brooms in use and dusty vacuum cleaners at the Waukegan plant (Reitze to Kotin). Burnett had pressed for dust control at a 1960 managers' meeting (C. B. Burnett on industrial hygiene). Pages 2 and 3 are the distribution list of J-M managers and plants.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Reitze, in a memorandum dated 9/16/74, to "OSHA Distribution List," reiterates the directive made a number of years ago by J-M's President, C.B. Burnett, that the use of brooms for sweeping asbestos-containing waste is prohibited. Reitze states that J-M will maintain this policy even though OSHA now allows this practice.

Related documents

• W. B. Reitze to Dr. Paul Kotin on Conditions at the Waukegan Plant (1974)
• C. B. Burnett, President of Johns-Manville, on Industrial Hygiene (1960)
• Johns-Manville Report on the Current Status of Asbestos/Health, Prepared for the Seaview Meeting (1970)