Asbestos International Association Executive Committee Minutes on Refuting the Califano Statistics (1978)

Three pages of minutes of the tenth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Asbestos International Association, the industry's worldwide trade body, held at the Park Lane Hotel in London on October 27, 1978. John Marsh of Raybestos-Manhattan attended as chairman of the Textiles Advisory Panel, and J. R. M. Hutcheson of Johns-Manville as chairman of the Fibre Producers Advisory Panel. Marsh "emphasised the very serious situation existing in the USA concerning asbestos and health," with "growing unrest and disillusionment with Government scientists and their alarming statistics." The committee agreed that Dr. Murray and "a few more doctors" should produce a medical statement "refuting the latest statistics in the Califano statement," ideally to be published in journals and sent to Washington.

What it shows

Califano was Joseph Califano, then the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; the minutes do not set out the statistics themselves. They record the international industry group planning a doctors' statement against those figures, with the action assigned to Marsh. The rest of the meeting set up a working party on tools for cutting asbestos-cement products and kept a new public relations panel small, "to advise the Executive Committee and no more."

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

Asbestos International Association (A.Int.A.) Meeting Minutes, 10/27/78 - Executive Committee. J.H. Marsh emphasizes that a very serious situation exists in the U.S.A. concerning asbestos and health. There is growing unrest and disillusionment with government scientists and their alarming statistics. It is agreed that a medical statement should be produced by Dr. Murray and a few more doctors refuting the latest statistics in the Califano statement, which ideally would be published in scientific or medical journals and distributed in Washington.

About this copy

This is document 704 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002549 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002551.