Claire Vellines of Seawell, McCoy to Helen Marsh on the NIOSH Blue Book at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (1980)

A one-page letter of March 28, 1980, from Claire Vellines, a paralegal at the Norfolk, Virginia, law firm Seawell, McCoy, Dalton, Hughes, Gore & Timms, to Helen Marsh at Johns-Manville in Denver. She enclosed the NIOSH booklet "Caution, Asbestos Dust...is hazardous to your health," known as the "blue book" handed out to Norfolk Naval Shipyard workers in the early 1970s. "It is believed that Johns-Manville originated or extensively authored this brochure," she wrote; proving it would "improve Johns-Manville's posture" in the cases brought by shipyard workers, so she asked for a J-M copy to use as a deposition exhibit.

What it shows

In 1973 J-M had told its managers not to circulate the same NIOSH booklet to its own workers; see W. B. Reitze, OSHA Letter No. 22, on Not Circulating NIOSH's Asbestos Booklet to Employees (1973).