Johns-Manville Board of Directors Minutes on Asbestos Health (1974–1978)

Excerpts from the minutes of seven meetings of Johns-Manville's board of directors, March 1, 1974, to November 3, 1978. They run from a director's request in 1974 for information on the company's compliance with job safety law, through favorable health reports in 1977, to an October 1978 meeting at which John A. McKinney, J-M's president, told the board that "to the extent that Johns-Manville is in compliance with the present OSHA standard of two fibers per cubic centimeter, future asbestos-related disease is not being generated."

What it shows

March 1 and April 10, 1974. Director William F. May asked for information on J-M's compliance with equal opportunity and Occupational Safety and Health Act laws, and at the next meeting the president, W. R. Goodwin, reviewed it.

March 4, 1977. The president reported that health surveys at the Stockton plant showed "no asbestos disease among the workers exposed at that location for up to fifteen years," and that Dr. Selikoff had found "no excess of disease" in Paterson, New Jersey. Two months earlier, Dr. Paul Kotin, J-M's senior vice president for health, safety and environment, had written that pleural changes had been seen in the Stockton X-rays and that "insufficient time has elapsed" to rule out disease there (Kotin to McKinney, January 1977).

May 5 and July 7, 1978. The asbestos health situation "was discussed at length," and McKinney was to be interviewed by news organizations. In July the board heard about Dr. Kotin's appearance on Meet the Press and talks with Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; Kotin reviewed Dr. Selikoff's work, and after adjourning the board met Selikoff at Mount Sinai Hospital.

October 6, 1978. Director John A. Love asked whether J-M was taking adequate precautions "to avoid or minimize health risks and future liability." McKinney answered that asbestosis, lung cancer, cancer of the larynx and gastrointestinal cancer "are all dose related diseases," and that Kotin believed two fibers per c.c. was a safe level, "although there is opinion to the contrary." Stockton had been held to about 5 fibers per c.c. for much of its 20 to 21 years, with "only one case of mesothelioma," thought to come from exposure before the worker came to Stockton.

November 3, 1978. McKinney reported a class action filed in Los Angeles for workers of Todd Pacific Shipyards and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.