Dr. Kenneth W. Smith to J. B. Jobe with Two Draft Caution Labels for Asbestos Products (1964)

A one-page memo of January 27, 1964, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, to J. B. Jobe of the Industrial Insulations Division, with a page of two draft caution labels. Smith wrote that labeling the division's asbestos products "should be done" but suggested "that this decision be reviewed with the Senior Officers, for this move may affect products sold by other divisions of the Company." Both drafts read: "This product contains asbestos fiber. Inhalation of asbestos in excessive quantities over long periods of time may be harmful," followed by advice to avoid breathing the dust and to wear respirators approved by the U.S. Bureau of Mines where ventilation could not control it.

What it shows

Smith said the labels followed the Manufacturing Chemists Association format and that he was sending them to "my friend in the U. S. Public Health Service," Dr. Lewis Cralley, who had helped devise the labels for J-M's Celite products; his letter to Cralley went out the next day. Labels would go only on products from which fiber could be freed when "handled, machined, etc."; for putties or floor tile, "the fiber cannot become air-borne and the label would not be necessary." The division had proposed the plainer "contains asbestos - harmful if inhaled" in Pocius's memo of December 20, 1963.