A. E. Bartlett to Industrial Insulations Plants on New Health Hazard Caution Labels (1970)

A two-page Johns-Manville memo of April 28, 1970, from A. E. Bartlett to managers at ten Industrial Insulations Division (IID) plant and research locations, headed "Health Hazard Caution Warning Labels, Industrial Insulations Products," with a list of Waukegan products to be labeled and copies of the two new labels. Caution warnings were to go on IID packages and products containing asbestos fiber and free crystalline silica: existing printed warnings on cartons and bags were to be revised, and new labels (L-4955 and L-4956) were to be stuck on unprinted cartons and bags "and in some instances to the product itself." The labels read in part: "AVOID BREATHING THE DUST. INHALATION OF ASBESTOS IN EXCESSIVE QUANTITIES OVER LONG PERIODS OF TIME MAY BE HARMFUL."

What it shows

The memo puts into effect the label wording J-M's insulation division had worked out in 1969 (Sheckler on the wording; Fenner on which products). The labels had Division, Environmental Control, Industrial Relations and Legal Department approval. At Waukegan they were to go on asbestos papers, a filler and Superex pipe insulation, and the Superex label was to be pasted over the printed caution on the magnesia carton. The labels name no disease; they tell users to wear U.S. Bureau of Mines approved respirators if dust cannot be controlled.