E. L. Randolph to W. B. Reitze Listing Pneumoconiosis Cases at the Pittsburg Plant (1973)

A one-page memo of December 6, 1973, from E. L. Randolph at J-M's Pittsburg, California, plant to W. B. Reitze at J-M headquarters in Denver, enclosing "a copy of all identified chest cases at Pittsburg Plant." The four-page list, marked "Confidential" and headed "Listing Pneumoconiosis Cases," names 96 workers with an X-ray grade and the year each was first identified, from 1946 to 1970. It includes, as the memo says, "the mesothelioma case," and marks several men as deceased, retired or terminated.

What it shows

By the end of 1973 J-M's Pittsburg plant had identified close to a hundred employees with dust-related chest changes on X-ray, some first found in the 1940s. A handwritten note asks that J. W. Cook, the plant manager, be shown the list. Three months later Reitze told Cook that because of "the history of our medical program at Pittsburg and the possible litigation that can result" the plant should provide the best medical care possible (March 14, 1974).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

List of suspected or probable chest disease cases at J-M's Pittsburg Plant forwarded by Emmett Randolph to Bill Reitze on 12/6/73. List was prepared by plant nurse Violet Hess. Workers not advised of list, some unaware of diagnosis.

Editor's note: J-M's description says the list was prepared by plant nurse Violet Hess and that the workers were not told of it, some being unaware of their diagnosis. The list is marked only with a handwritten "Med. Dept." and "RN" initial, and neither the memo nor the list says what the workers were told.