D. Poutiatine to W. P. S. Breese on Export Packaging of Asbestos Fiber (1969)

A two-page memo of January 29, 1969, from D. Poutiatine of J-M International in New York to W. P. S. Breese at headquarters, describing how Canadian Johns-Manville's fiber was packed and handled on its way to overseas customers. Most export fiber went in pressure-packed jute bags. The shortest grades (7TF and 7RF) could not be pressure packed and went in five-ply paper bags, whose condition on arrival "varies quite a bit depending on handling. A certain amount of breakage does occur." Poutiatine adds that customers often unstitched and emptied the used jute bags and sold them to outside buyers for reuse.

What it shows

Poutiatine describes dock work as clean "except in cases of accidental breakage of bags," but factory conditions as varying widely: Western European plants had some dust control, while in "less sophisticated developing economies" dust control "gets less attention." He did not try to describe conditions country by country, but wrote that there was "a great deal of difference" between the exposure of people handling bagged fiber in transit and those handling it in factories. The memo was part of the information Breese was gathering on overseas customers while J-M decided whether to put caution labels on export fiber bags (Breese's memos to Ball, March and April 1969). An earlier exchange on bag strength is Hutcheson's memo on 2-ply and 3-ply bags.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In a memorandum to W.P.S. Breese from D. Poutiatine, 1/29/69, re: Export Packaging of Asbestos Fiber. Poutiatine states that the shortest grades of asbestos (7TF and 7RS) cannot be pressure-packed and are therefore, shipped in five ply valve type paper bags. The author states that the condition of these bags at arrival of ports of destination varies quite a bit depending on handling. A certain amount of breakage does occur. The document provides a brief description of the conditions of several countries dealing with export packaging of asbestos fiber. The author states that there is a great deal of difference in the degree of exposure by people who handle bagged asbestos in transit throughout the world and by those who handle it in the manufacturing.

Editor's note: J-M's description gives the two shortest grades as 7TF and 7RS; the memo reads 7TF and 7RF.

Related documents

• J. R. M. Hutcheson Memos on Two-Ply and Three-Ply Paper Bags for Fiber Shipments (1968)