C. W. Hite to N. J. Gray on C. B. Burnett's Dust Control Orders at the Senior Officers' Meeting (1968)

A three-page confidential memo of April 22, 1968, from C. W. Hite to N. J. Gray and four other managers at Johns-Manville's Waukegan, Illinois works, passing on what C. L. Sheckler had told him by phone. Sheckler said he had given the Waukegan managers "a false sense of security," because the dust control and housekeeping standards had changed since C. B. Burnett, a senior J-M officer, toured the Laurinburg, Savannah and Green Cove Springs plants. At a Senior Officers' Meeting, Burnett had said the plants had done "a minimal job" of cleaning up, and he set out fourteen points.

What it shows

Burnett's orders included vacuum cleaners in the plants at once; no further sale or reuse of jute fiber bags, which were to be sealed in plastic and buried at the dump "to prevent anyone from coming along and reclaiming the bags"; vacuuming of fiber inventories and boxcars; respirators, long sleeves and gloves for anyone handling asbestos fiber or bags "regardless of the dust count"; and an end to using Transite pipe scrap for paving, with existing roads covered or removed. Dust stations above the maximum standard and areas with visible dust were now to get "equal priority." The bag order followed Sheckler's March 1968 warning about reselling used bags. Hite asks his managers to meet and agree on priorities, noting that he could not tell how far Sheckler's account was exaggerated.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

C.W. Hite in a memorandum to N.J. Gray, et al., 4/22/68, discusses various dust control directives given by C.B. Burnett at a Senior Officers' meeting. Burnett stated the following: (1) Environmental Control, General Plant Engineering, and Industrial Relations are not forceful enough in following standards, (2) No progress has been made regarding the use of vacuum cleaners in the plants. He suggested that the plants not wait until GPED develops something but go ahead with their own projects to acquire vacuum cleaners. (3) There will be no future sale of or re-use of jute bags. These bags will be bundled and put in plastic containers. (4) Fiber packaged in paper bags will be handled the same as was jute bags. (5) Fiber inventories will be vacuumed. (6) Progress must be made in improving standards relating to the unloading of fiber from boxcars. (7) Innovations in improved fiber feed methods need to be made by the plants. They should go ahead and not wait for GPED. (8) All visible fibers must be vacuumed up.