Property Damages and Early Knowledge Chronologies of Medical and Scientific Literature on Asbestos, Attorney Work Product Drafts (1993)

A 283-page set of two lawyers' chronologies of published medical and scientific writing on asbestos, every page marked "Privileged and Confidential, Attorney Work Product, Draft, 5/1/93." The first, the "Property Damages Medical/Scientific Chronology" (182 pages), runs from 1921 to 1993 and leans toward asbestos in buildings, product use, fiber release, sprayed asbestos and abatement. The second, the "Early Medical/Scientific Knowledge Chronology" (101 pages), runs from the British factory inspector's report for 1898 to 1939. Each entry gives a subject category, the year, the citation with a reference number, and a short comment on what the publication says.

What it shows

A list like this was made for litigation in which the question was what was known, or could have been known, about asbestos and when. Here the first list is built around property-damage cases, the suits by building owners (schools, public buildings, offices) over the cost of finding and removing asbestos materials, so many of its later entries deal with fiber levels in buildings, government surveys of schools and removal work. The early list follows closely, sometimes word for word, the comments in an earlier attorneys' draft of 1987 to 1988 published in the Library as Chronology of Publications on Asbestos and Disease, Attorney Work Product List and Draft (1988); of the 1898 factory report, for example, it says the report "appears to be the first published mention of a health hazard to asbestos workers." The comments summarize the publications and do not argue a side.

Who made it

The pages do not show which law firm compiled the chronologies or for which client. The old research base recorded the file under Johns-Manville, and the close match with the 1987 to 1988 draft suggests, as a guess only, that it came from the same lawyers' research. The handwritten dates on the first page of each list (June 24 and June 22, 1993) may be when the drafts were received or reviewed.

About this copy

The pages are typed sideways. The work-product marking is not treated as a bar to publication (owner's ruling, 2026-11-10).