H. E. Vanherle to A. E. Dambach on Labeling Asbestos Bags for Europe (1978)

A two-page letter of December 19, 1978, from H. E. Vanherle, secretary of the European Economic Community (EEC) Advisory Council of the Asbestos International Association, to A. E. Dambach of Grace Industrial Chemicals in Lausanne, a distributor of asbestos goods made in the United States by Union Carbide. The distributor had asked the maker to mark its bags with the EEC label for harmful substances, but the Association was preparing its own asbestos label. Vanherle wrote that "most North American fibre producers are, at present, shipping asbestos bags to EEC which contain a warning, but not a label," and that companies should avoid "any other kind of label" in the meantime. A "truly international label," he said, was "the only way to avoid the EEC authorities from imposing upon the asbestos industry the use of the EEC 'toxic substance' label (i.e. the skull and cross-bones)."

What it shows

The letter sets out the industry's labeling strategy in Europe at the end of 1978: discourage individual companies from using the official hazard labels, and promote a single industry label instead, in the hope that the EEC would accept it and not require the skull and crossbones. It belongs with Sir Neville Stack's letters on the same case (October 1978 and January 1979).

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

H.E. Vanherle (A.Int.A.) letter to A.E. Dambach (Grace Industrial Chemicals, distributor of Union Carbide Products), 12/19/78, re labeling of asbestos-containing goods manufactured in the USA and distributed to the EEC. Vanherle states that most North American fiber producers are at present shipping asbestos bags to the EEC which contain "a warning, but not a label." The asbestos label the A.Int.A. has prepared is intended for use only inside the EEC, but A.Int.A. is endeavoring to gain worldwide acceptance of the label. Until a standardized and international label is approved, the A.Int.A. feels that the use of any other kind of label but its own should be avoided. The A.Int.A. feels that the generalized use of an international label is the only way to avoid the EEC authorities from imposing upon the asbestos industry the use of the EEC "toxic substance" label (i.e. the skull and crossbones).

Related documents

• H. E. Vanherle to Sir Neville Stack, and Stack to J. H. Marsh, on Labeling Calidria Asbestos (1978)
• Sir Neville Stack to J. H. Marsh on a European Label for Asbestos (1978)

About this copy

This is document 706 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002569 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002570.