H. M. Jackson's Memorandum of the Manville Industrial Hygiene Meeting on Special Cases (1949)

A confidential one-page memorandum of September 19, 1949, by H. M. Jackson at J-M's General Headquarters, recording a meeting on September 14 about industrial hygiene at the Manville, New Jersey, plant, attended by F. Ryan, N. F. Naylor, Dr. A. N. Pauly, J. P. Woodard and Jackson. Woodard presented "a recapitulation of the five previous lists of special industrial hygiene cases," Dr. Pauly was to mark each man to be continued or dropped, and the group agreed to review the list at two-year intervals. Pauly thought about ten cases could be classed as "bad," and the exposure in the mixer man job in two buildings was to be eliminated when a bulk handling system was finished.

What it shows

Naylor reported that Stanley Reynolds knew it was desirable to transfer certain men and was watching for ways to arrange it. The three pages after the memo are the case list itself, a chart of names with X-ray findings by year, mostly illegible in this copy. Dr. Pauly was the Manville plant physician who sent Michael Szurick's case to Saranac that year (the autopsy records).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from Hugh Jackson, dated 9/19/49, entitled "Industrial Hygiene Manville. Memorandum of Meeting, September 14." Jackson describes a meeting at which J.P. Woodard presented a list which was "a recapitulation of the five previous lists of special industrial hygiene cases." Dr. Pauly was asked to review the list and indicate those individuals who should have continued follow-up and mark other names for deletion. Attendees agreed that a special case list would be reviewed at two year intervals following a bi-annual examination of the individuals. Pauly believed there were only 10 truly "bad" cases and noted that apparently hazardous exposures to the mixer men were. to be eliminated through changes in the processing system. Naylor reported that an effective transfer policy was being implemented.