Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee on Rebutting the Biological Effects of Asbestos Conference (1964)

The first two pages of minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene and Manufacturing Committee meeting of October 8, 1964, at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel in New York, chaired by L. C. Williams of Raybestos-Manhattan, with Johns-Manville members present. The committee heard that the U.S. Public Health Service survey under Dr. Lewis J. Cralley had finished six plant studies and was working at Raybestos-Manhattan's Manheim plant. Of the coming "Biological Effects of Asbestos" conference headed by Dr. Selikoff in New York, October 19 to 21, it wrote: "Since they are linking asbestos with cancer, the committee feels this Conference will have an effect on the entire Industry and are concerned as how best the results of the Conference can be investigated and rebutted."

What it shows

In June the committee had agreed the Institute would take no active part in the conference. Now it suggested hiring "a Public Relations man" as the quickest way to get "accurate publicity" to the public, noting that Dr. Selikoff's latest news release had gone to about 1,750 news outlets, and passed its thinking to the Board of Governors. The minutes show the textile makers' response to the cancer findings, days before the conference opened.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

ATI Meeting Minutes, 10/8/64 - Air Hygiene Committee. Progress on the U.S. Public Health Service Survey is discussed. There is discussion of the New Jersey Conference on Biological Effects of Asbestos. The Committee is now concerned that the Conference would be used as a vehicle for establishing a link between asbestos and cancer and for that reason desires to take an active role in investigating and rebutting information to be presented at the Conference.

Related documents

• Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee on Dr. Cralley's Progress Report (1964)
• Asbestos Textile Institute Board of Governors on Adverse Publicity from the 1964 Conference (1965)
• Asbestos Textile Institute Minutes on Selikoff's Conference and a Lawyer's Letter to Selikoff (1964)

About this copy

This is document 342 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-001711 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001712.