G. W. Gibbs to John H. Marsh Enclosing "Fibre Release from Asbestos Garments" (1975)

A 14-page item: a March 6, 1975 cover letter from Dr. G. W. Gibbs of McGill University to John H. Marsh, director of environmental affairs at Raybestos-Manhattan, enclosing "a copy of the final manuscript submitted to the Annals of Occupational Hygiene." Gibbs had made small changes "following our conversation with John Magenheimer." The manuscript reports fiber counts in the breathing zones of workers wearing asbestos coats, hoods, mittens and leggings at two plants; at Plant 2 the 8-hour time-weighted average was 4.7 fibres/cc. It concluded that "there is a need to identify and decrease the fibre release from asbestos garments."

What it shows

This is the public version of the study Raybestos-Manhattan paid for and argued over in 1974 (see the Phase I report, John Hawkins' critique and John Magenheimer's view). It recommended new ways of making or coating asbestos cloth and testing garments for fiber release "before distribution for sale to industry," and it states that "This research was supported by a grant from Raybestos Manhattan Inc."

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Dr. G.W. Gibbs letter to J.H. Marsh, 3/6/75, enclosing a copy of Dr. Gibbs' final manuscript submitted to the Annals of Occupational Hygiene entitled "Fibre Release from Asbestos Garments."

Related documents

• John H. Marsh to P. G. Dolan and Others with the McGill Safety Garment Report (1974)

About this copy

This is document 649 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-002233 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002246.