Asbestos Information Association Memos to Members on the HEW Cancer Estimates Paper (1978)

Five pages from the Asbestos Information Association/North America: two memos of December 15, 1978, from B. J. Pigg, its executive director, to members; Pigg's December 13 letter to Tom Hall of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration asking that the association's comments on the "Estimates Paper" be made part of the record on OSHA's proposed cancer policy; the first page of an association press release of September 20, 1978; and a memo of December 19 on a survey of members. The government paper, "Estimates of the Fraction of Cancer in the United States Related to Occupational Factors," underlay Secretary Califano's warnings; the release called it "simply another extrapolation, stated in statistical terms, from the same data."

What it shows

The December 19 memo said the National Cancer Institute's "Asbestos Public Awareness Campaign" had reached doctors and workers through radio and television spots and a flyer mailed to over 30 million people with their Social Security checks, and that press coverage was "accompanied by distortion and sensationalism." Members had not agreed on a counter public relations program, but the association asked them to fill in a survey so it could "develop an asbestos constituency by state and congressional district" where there was an asbestos plant or mine.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Three memos from AIA to its members; two dated 12/15/78 and one dated 12/19/78, regarding 1) the recent statements made by HEW Secretary Joseph A. Califano, Jr. concerning the incidence of cancer which may be expected in the future as a result of past exposures to asbestos fibers 2) National Cancer Institute's Study entitled "Estimates of the Fraction of Cancer in the U.S. Related to Asbestos Fibers." Attached to these memos is a letter from B.J. Pigg (AIA) to Tom Hall (OSHA), 12/13/78, enclosing the AIA's comments regarding the NCI study.

Related documents

• Asbestos Information Association Statement on the HEW Asbestos Warning Program (1978)

About this copy

This is document 677 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-002353 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002357.