J. H. Marsh to Dr. Philip Enterline Sending J. D. Christian's Address on Asbestos and Health (1975)

A one-page letter of April 23, 1975, from John H. Marsh of Raybestos-Manhattan to Dr. Philip Enterline of the University of Pittsburgh, enclosing the nine-page address "Asbestos and Health" given by J. D. Christian, chairman of Cassiar Asbestos Corporation, at the company's twenty-third annual meeting on April 17, 1975. Marsh had been asked to get it published, possibly in a trade magazine, but wrote: "It seems to me there are a number of statements that are inaccurate, incomplete or misleading." In the address Christian answered a letter from a worried Toronto man, telling him asbestos "is not a poison like arsenic" and that at Cassiar's mines there had not been "one reported case of any of the three asbestos-related diseases" in twenty years.

What it shows

Christian, head of the company that ran the Cassiar Mine, told the man that the exposure in mesothelioma cases "has largely been Crocidolite," that there was no evidence anyone in the general public had become ill from asbestos in community air, and that substitutes for asbestos were costly or less effective. Marsh asked an epidemiologist to check those claims rather than pass them on. Handwritten notes in the margins of this copy question several of the statements.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

J.H. Marsh letter to Dr. P. Enterline, 4/23/75, enclosing a copy of J.D. Christian's (Chairman, Cassiar Asbestos Corporation) Address at the 23rd Annual Meeting on Asbestos and Health held on 4/17/75. The Address includes a discussion of asbestos-related disease in the general population and in insulation workers. A copy of the Address was given to Marsh with the suggestion that it be published in a trade magazine. Marsh believes that there are a number of statements that are inaccurate, incomplete or misleading and that there are also several significant omissions. Marsh asks for Dr. Enterline's comments on the Address.

Duplicate of Motley Document #667.

About this copy

These are documents 667 and 687 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-002328 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002337.