D. Poutiatine's Call Report on Eternit Germany's Fiber Tests and Opposition to Caution Labels (1968)

A three-page call report of November 11, 1968, by D. Poutiatine of Johns-Manville's asbestos fiber sales, copied to D. T. Colton and N. W. Hendry, on a meeting in Berlin with Eternit Germany, a buyer of J-M's Canadian fiber. Most of it concerns fiber grades and quality tests. On caution labels, Poutiatine reports that Eternit was "categorically opposed to any 'Caution' labels on fibre bags," saw "no legal obligation for us to put such a label," and considered it "strictly their internal problem about which they, and others, are perfectly aware." They felt "it is unnecessary to advertise its possible danger to labor unions or to dockworkers who only handle bags of asbestos, but do not work with it."

What it shows

Poutiatine adds that "The same feeling, but even stronger, is being expressed in England," quoting a man at Cape Asbestos: "If J-M goes ahead with this label, we shall also put a label on our Amosit going to America, saying: This is Amosite; it is not Johns-Manville chrysotile." The Europeans were "very bitter about it" and argued that no single producer should label its bags alone. The report shows the pressure on Canadian J-M from its foreign customers in the weeks after it announced its fiber-bag label; by January 1969 J-M had agreed not to label bags for international customers (correspondence, 1968-1969; see also the 1969-1970 Eternit letters).