Deposition of Dr. Paul Kotin in Burows v. Johns-Manville on the Merewether Report and Latency (1977)

An excerpt (cover, appearances, index and pages 85 to 88) of the deposition of Dr. Paul Kotin taken October 6, 1977, in Denver in Raymond Burows v. Johns-Manville Products Corporation, a case in the U.S. District Court for Montana. Kotin, head of J-M's Health, Safety and Environment Department, says he had known the 1930 Merewether report, "Report on Effects of Asbestos Dust on the Lungs and Dust Suppression in the Asbestos Industry," for "20 years or more." He agrees that asbestosis does not show up immediately and can appear long after exposure begins, and even after it ends.

What it shows

Asked whether the disease can show up 10 or 20 years later, Kotin answers that "every 'can' question you ask is 'yes,'" while calling 20 years "extremely unlikely." He also places the first detection of asbestos in the lung at 1924 (Dr. Cooke). The excerpt shows J-M's own medical chief acknowledging, in 1977, the delay between exposure and disease (latency) and his long familiarity with the British report that first measured the hazard. For J-M's earlier dealings with Merewether's work, see Dr. Lanza's view of Merewether's paper.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Kotin testifies on 10/6/77 that latency was understood by medical community as of 1930.