John H. Marsh to J. E. Day, Jr., on Striking "Safe" from a Letter to Asbestos Textile Customers (1977)

A two-page Raybestos-Manhattan memo of March 4, 1977, from John H. Marsh, the company's director of environmental affairs, to J. E. Day, Jr., commenting on Day's draft letter to the company's asbestos textile customers. Marsh rewrote two sentences, including one describing fabric dust tests as made "under unusually severe laboratory conditions" that "are not indicative of normal service conditions." He had taken the words "safely" and "safe" out of the last paragraph: "We must avoid the use of this word as a safe level of exposure has not been established."

What it shows

Marsh added that he had "never been very enthusiastic about using the results of the comparative fabric tests run at McGill for sales promotion purposes as it seems to me the argument is rather weak." He saw "no legal problems" with the letter but would check with Bob Sims. Two weeks earlier he had told another manager the same thing about the word "safe" (Marsh to M. Q. Scowcroft, February 1977). By 1977 the company's own environmental director was keeping the claim of safe use out of its sales letters.

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 memo to J.E. Day, Jr., 3/4/77, entitled "Draft of Letter for Asbestos Textile Customers." Marsh comments on a draft letter by J.E. Day, Jr. to asbestos textile customers. Marsh states that he has eliminated the words "safely" and "safe" from the last paragraph of the draft, because "we must avoid the use of this word as a safe level of exposure has not been established." Marsh also states that he has "never been very enthusiastic about using the results of the comparative fabric tests run at McGill for sales promotion purposes as it seems to me the argument is rather weak." Marsh also states that he does not see any legal problems with the letter, but will discuss it with Bob Sims (R-M).

About this copy

This is document 866 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-004583 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-004584.