H. B. Lewis to R. D. Batson on The Refractories Institute, with Its 1988-89 Plans and Budget (1988)

A 101-page Manville file on The Refractories Institute (TRI), the refractories makers' trade association. At its center is H. B. Lewis's memo of September 28, 1988, to R. D. Batson describing TRI's committees and the issues they watched, among them "Increased emphasis by NIOSH, OSHA, MSHA and Congress on pulmonary diseases." It also holds an August 1988 letter and a "Confidential Report on Attorneys Conference July 14, 1988" from TRI's counsel Henry W. Fulton, Jr., and TRI's 1988-89 plans and budget.

What it shows

Fulton reported that member companies' lawyers had discussed whether TRI should do a "Retrospective Cohort Mortality Study of Refractory Manufacturing Employees to determine if there is any relationship between exposure to free crystalline silica and cancer," but that no study should start "until all details, controls and parameters could be agreed upon to satisfy the needs of the industry." They also discussed a cooperative defense of "third party asbestos/silica claims." The plans note that OSHA's 1986 standards covered asbestos, tremolite, anthophyllite and actinolite and that "Some refractory raw materials contain slight amounts of asbestos form fibers." See Silicosis and OSHA.

About this copy

The file opens with a 1990 page of discovery definitions from a plaintiffs' lawyer and a 1983 trade-press page on TRI, and also holds directory entries on Dr. Ian Higgins, the epidemiologist named for the study, and the Institute's budget tables.

About this copy

Page 2, a 1983 page from the trade journal Brick & Clay Record, and pages 6 to 10, copied from published directories, are left out.