Dr. Irving J. Selikoff to J. B. Jobe Asking for Data on Manville Plant Workers (1971)

A two-page letter of June 28, 1971, from Dr. Irving J. Selikoff of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine to J. B. (Burt) Jobe of Johns-Manville. Local 800 of the Papermakers and Paperworkers Union, which represented Manville plant workers, had asked Selikoff and Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond to help monitor whether J-M's new dust control measures were protecting workers' health. Selikoff asks J-M to confirm employment dates, to let him review the workers' earlier X-rays, and to identify groups who had had "little or no adverse health effects" so that their exposure could be studied.

What it shows

Selikoff writes that "our legacy of the past, in which inadequate appreciation of the problem was reflected by inadequate control measures, will plague us for some years." He offers assurances: "It is not our intention that your cooperation hurt you," the data would be for research only, individuals' information would stay confidential, and he would take no part in any workmen's compensation questions. A month earlier J-M's Environmental Health Task Force had agreed not to let Selikoff see employee health records; Jobe's reply of July 16 nonetheless agreed to provide the data.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Selikoff writes to J.B. Jobe (GHQ) on 6/28/71, requesting certain information on Manville plant workers for a proposed research project designed to review and document the suitability of the environmental control measures that have been and are being introduced at the Manville plant. The local paperworkers' union requested Dr. Selikoff to conduct this study of Manville plant workers represented by this union. So far Dr. Selikoff needs to confirm dates of employment, to review prior X-rays of workers, and to gather information concerning the exposure and work conditions of individuals who have had little or no adverse health effects. Dr. Selikoff states that it is not his intention to hurt J-M. The data provided would be for research purposes only, and information concerning individuals would be kept entirely confidential.