J. R. M. Hutcheson on a Task Force to Solve the Environmental Problems of Fiber Handling (1975)

A one-page memo of November 27, 1975, from J. R. M. Hutcheson, a senior executive of Johns-Manville's asbestos fiber business, to R. E. Sampson, N. W. Hendry and D. Poutiatine (copy to M. Harris), headed "Fibre Handling - How Best to Solve the Environmental Problems." Hutcheson sets up a task force to study fiber handling "from our mill production lines to the customers' finished product" and find how fiber should be handled "to reduce the environmental hazard to the lowest possible level." The group would start with J-M's Waukegan paper mill, then asbestos-cement sheet and pipe plants, and with chosen customers, including "put the heat on Armstrong concerning their use of Paperbestos #5." He ends: "This is an important project - success is imperative, lack of it could mean our demise."

What it shows

By late 1975 the head of J-M's fiber business saw the dust hazard in handling asbestos, in J-M's own plants and in its customers', as a threat to the business itself. The same year J-M staff had described fiber spilling from broken bags at the Jeffrey mill (W. A. Cooper, July 1975).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from J.R.M. Hutcheson to R.E. Sampson, N.W. Hendry and D. Poutiatine (cc: M. Harris) dated 11/27/75 regarding "Fiber handling how best to solve the environmental problems". "This is an important project success is imperative, lack of it could mean our demise."