J-M Manville Industrial Engineering Report on Replacing Dust Control at the Shingle and Transite Forming Machines (1957)

A three-page supplemental appropriation request of January 7, 1957, from the Industrial Engineering Department of J-M's Manville, New Jersey, factory, for $1,937 more to improve dust control at the shingle and Transite forming machines, where a newly installed dust collecting system had proved "inadequate at five locations." Dust at the shingle forming machine, the report says, was asbestos fiber, silica, cement and Traprock, "a serious exposure": concentrations were above J-M's 5 million particles per cubic foot standard and free silica was "over the 5% maximum allowable." With it is a May 24, 1955, memo from J. M. Joyce saying that because of higher production schedules, work on the dust system could be done only on Sundays, pushing completion from June 30 to September 30.

What it shows

The report weighs the cost of the fix against the cost of claims: "A disability resulting from this exposure is compensable in the approximate amount of $18,000 for total disability plus litigation and medical examination costs" under New Jersey's workers' compensation law, and "to avoid costly consequences of continuing with inadequate equipment" early approval was recommended. It names five men working at the No. 3 forming machine, which ran eight or more hours a day. Together the two papers show dust control at Manville being scheduled around production and justified in part by compensation costs.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

In a memorandum dated 1/7/57, the Industrial Engineering Department (Manville) recommends improvement of dust controls to reduce high dust counts. In an attached letter dated 5/24/55, J.M. Joyce (Manville) states that to achieve a necessary increase in production schedules, work on the dust control system can be done only on Sundays when the machines are down. If this situation continues, the completion date will need to be pushed back from June 30 to September 30.