Asbestos Information Association Executive Committee Minutes on Califano, Smoking and Expert Witnesses (1979)

Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Asbestos Information Association/North America, meeting in Arlington, Virginia, on January 9, 1979, with a cover memo of January 24 from its executive director, B. J. Pigg (7 pages). The committee noted a speech by Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, saying the government would work "on an urgent basis" on standards that account for the added risk smoking brings to workers, and discussed the department's reply to the association's criticism of the study "Estimates of the Fraction of Cancer in the United States Related to Occupational Factors." Guy Gabrielson reported that counsel's expanded list of "state-of-the-medical art" expert witnesses and the report on Ms. Carey Gross's West Coast interviews had gone to the Legal Research Committee. John Marsh of Raybestos-Manhattan reported that Dr. Philip Enterline's editorial, based on his literature research for the association, had been published in the American Review of Respiratory Disease.

What it shows

The minutes record the association preparing for an OSHA hearing on a stricter asbestos standard, following state and federal rules, and meeting with a Department of Labor contractor studying compensation for occupational diseases. They also show the industry's legal research program continuing: the expert-witness list described in Gabrielson's memo of January 8 (Motley #729), and a decision whether to keep paying for the data bank. The previous meeting's minutes are Motley #728.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

AIA Meeting Minutes, 1/9/79 - Executive Committee. HEW Secretary Califano's recent speech is discussed. In that speech Califano said that the federal government will develop an asbestos standard which will take into account the increased health risk which smoking adds. HEW's reply to AIA's response to the NCI study entitled "Estimates of the Faction of Cancer in the United States Related to Occupational Factors," and related matters are discussed. G. Gabrielson reports that memoranda prepared by Special Counsel have been forwarded to regular and associate members of the Legal Research Committee regarding an expanded list of potential "state of the medical art" expert witnesses and regarding the extent of the current use of the data bank.

Related documents

• Asbestos Information Association Executive Committee Minutes on Expert Witnesses and the Califano Letter (1978)
• Guy G. Gabrielson, Jr. to the Asbestos Information Association Legal Research Committee on State of the Medical Art Witnesses (1979)

About this copy

This is document 730 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-003138 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-003144.