J. G. Cole's Memos to R. E. Sampson Transcribing CBC Reports on the Advocate Mine (1975)

Four memos of June 6 to July 21, 1975, from J. G. Cole, manager of Johns-Manville's Advocate asbestos mine at Baie Verte, Newfoundland, to R. E. Sampson at Asbestos, Quebec, each transcribing a news report about the mine on the CBC's "Here & Now" program or local radio. Miners, union leaders and doctors described heavy dust in the mill and around the town, tailings that blew for miles, and fear that Baie Verte was becoming "another St. Lawrence." Martin Saunders, president of United Steelworkers Local 7713, said that when the mine opened "nobody was told of anything, danger of the dust," and that the company's brief area dust tests should be replaced by monitors worn by each worker.

What it shows

The July report featured Dr. John Ross of Memorial University's medical school, who had seen asbestos fibers on the vegetation around the mine years earlier and warned the government of "a decided hazard"; Newfoundland's Minister of Mines and Energy, Leo Barry, who would not release the province's dust counts; and a worker who said that before visitors "there's always a big cleanup program" and production was cut back. Ed Roberts, leader of the opposition, urged the province to bring in Dr. Irving Selikoff. Cole sent each transcript up the line without comment. Two months later J-M's own health officer visited and found many of the same problems (W. B. Reitze, September 1975); an earlier internal warning is Reitze to Hutcheson on Advocate above the limit, 1974.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

A series of memoranda (6/6/75-7/21/75) written by J.G. Cole (J-M Advocate Mines) report on a couple of spots appearing on the CBC news program "Here and Now" concerning the poor conditions at the Advocate mines. The program included interviews with employees, government officials, union officials, and a doctor from the local medical school. Interviewees discussed the extremely dusty conditions at the mines and surrounding area, J-M non-disclosure practices regarding x-ray results and asbestos hazards in general, non-enforcement of respirator usage, and inadequate dust sampling procedures. (Individual workers are not monitored; only work areas are sampled).