Dr. Kenneth W. Smith to H. G. Donovan on the Bonafide Plastics Company (1959)

A one-page memo of November 5, 1959, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, Johns-Manville's medical director, to H. G. Donovan of J-M's Research department, about a customer, the Bonafide Plastics Company. Donovan had asked Smith to write the company that "asbestos fibre is no more hazardous than limestone, cement, or other products of that nature," because the New Jersey State Health Department apparently believed there was "a very definite health hazard due to asbestosis" in its operations. Smith refused: "I cannot write such a letter for it is a well recognized fact that asbestos fibre is a very definite health hazard when improperly handled."

What it shows

Smith added that asbestos was "definitely more toxic when inhaled than is limestone or cement," and that the customer's handling of it might be "creating a potential health hazard and a workmen's compensation liability." He offered instead to review the company's handling methods, number of employees, housekeeping and the state's dust counts. Copies went to H. M. Ball, J-M's attorney, and to others at Asbestos, Quebec, and in Philadelphia. The next month Smith told General Motors and Firestone that long inhalation of asbestos may cause lung changes (Smith to General Motors and Firestone).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Correspondence from Kenneth Smith to H.G. Donovan, Research, 11/5/59, re Bonafide Plastics Company. Smith had apparently been asked by Donovan to advise the customer that asbestos fiber was "no more hazardous than limestone, cement, or other products of that nature." Smith responded that he could not "write such a letter for it is a well recognized fact that asbestos fiber is a definite health hazard when improperly handled . . . It is entirely possible that this company's handling of asbestos fiber is improper and is creating a potential health hazard and a workman's compensating liability." Smith suggests reviewing the customer's material handling procedures and other relevant data.