A. Pocius to Dr. K. W. Smith on Caution Labels for Industrial Insulations Division Products (1963)

A one-page memo of December 20, 1963, from A. Pocius at the headquarters of J-M's Industrial Insulations Division to Dr. K. W. Smith, the company's medical director, headed "Products Containing Asbestos." "We have decided to label all the products which we sell, which for my responsibility are cements and molded insulations, that contain asbestos with a caution label," Pocius wrote, asking for comments from Smith and the Legal Department on the wording. His own idea was something brief: "this product contains asbestos and proper precautions should be taken to avoid excessive inhalation," or, "contains asbestos - harmful if inhaled."

What it shows

This is the earliest paper in the 1964 labeling sequence: Jobe's memo of January 2, Smith's two draft labels of January 27, and his letter to the Public Health Service the next day. Smith's drafts did not use Pocius's words "harmful if inhaled"; they said instead that inhaling asbestos "in excessive quantities over long periods of time may be harmful." Copies went to M. W. Burleson, E. C. Lindstrom and others, with a note for W. W. Acher, whose May 1964 memo settled the wording.