D. B. Wingerter to J. F. Mell on Rubber-Stamping the Marinite Caution Label (1970)

A two-page memo of December 10, 1970, from D. B. Wingerter of the Quality Control Department of J-M's Industrial Insulations Division to J. F. Mell at the Billerica plant, copied to sales, legal and plant staff. Because of a "serious complaint" about the stick-on caution label on Marinite, Billerica was to stop using the label on shipments to marine customers and instead stamp the same wording on one face of each sheet in red ink. The wording began "CAUTION THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS ASBESTOS FIBER" and told users to avoid breathing the dust and to wear Bureau of Mines approved respirators if dust could not be controlled.

What it shows

The memo sets out the rules for the stamp: under 4 inches high, legible, ink that would not interfere with the adhesives used in veneering, "no product information," and placed twice near the ends of one face of the sheet. The orders for Hopeman Brothers and National Industries were to be marked this way at once. It is J-M's answer to the Hopeman Brothers complaint: the warning stayed, in the same words as label L-4955, but in a form that would not have to be sanded off.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from Wingerter to J.F. Mell, (Billerica) dated 12/10/70, instructing that the Marinite caution label will now be applied with a rubber stamp to get around the problems of stick-on labels which either mar the surface of the finished product or in some cases have required sanding to remove.

Related documents

• P. F. Coggins Telex on Hopeman Brothers and the Marinite Caution Labels (1970)