John H. Marsh to Dr. J. C. Gilson on Mesothelioma at the Manheim Plant (1974)

The first page of an October 28, 1974 letter from John H. Marsh of Raybestos-Manhattan to Dr. J. C. Gilson, director of the Medical Research Council's Pneumoconiosis Unit at Llandough Hospital in Wales. Marsh offered company data that might help Gilson develop "a dose-response relationship for asbestosis" and assess "the special hazards of exposure to crocidolite and amosite." He wrote that the Manheim, Pennsylvania textile plant had processed large amounts of amosite during World War II and smaller amounts of crocidolite, and that "there have been a number of cases of mesothelioma among the Manheim workers," while none were known at the Charleston, South Carolina plant.

What it shows

Marsh listed the dust surveys of Manheim on file: by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company five times from 1930 into the 1940s (see the 1930 survey), by the Pennsylvania Department of Health from 1934 to 1954, and by the Industrial Health Foundation in 1944 and 1947. Surveys from the early 1930s, he wrote, showed that dust levels at Manheim "were far higher than at Charleston." The letter shows the company's records of dust and disease reaching back four decades.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

J.B. Marsh letter to Dr. J.C. Gilson (Director, MRC Pneumoconiosis Unit, Llandough Hospital, Wales), 10/28/74, discussing R-M's incidence of mesothelioma in its Manheim and Charleston plants. Refers to the early industrial hygiene surveys conducted at R-M's plants, including those conducted by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the 1930's and 40's.

About this copy

This is document 642 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-002224 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002224.