John H. Marsh to P. G. Dolan and Others with the McGill Safety Garment Report (1974)

A 31-page item: a March 1, 1974 Raybestos-Manhattan memo from John H. Marsh to P. G. Dolan, J. F. Maclachlan, M. W. Oliver, W. S. Simpson and I. H. Weaver, enclosing Dr. Graham W. Gibbs' final report on Phase 1 of the McGill study, "Asbestos fibre release from asbestos safety garments," and Gibbs' letter of January 29, 1974. Marsh wrote that "Engineering improvements are essential if the products are to be acceptable under the existing federal asbestos standard," and that Plant 2's management had been told the fibers breathed by men wearing the garments exceeded the 5 fibers per cc limit for an 8-hour day. "Immediate action, in the form of engineering improvements, is necessary to insure that R/M products comply with OSHA standards."

What it shows

Gibbs measured fibers in the breathing zones of men wearing asbestos coats, hoods and mittens at the blast furnaces of a large steel plant (Plant 1) and at a second plant (Plant 2). At Plant 1 a third of the readings exceeded the British standard of 2 fibres/cc; at Plant 2 they exceeded the U.S. 15-minute ceiling of 10 fibres/cc, and he wrote that "Such garments should not be used until a method of reducing their fibre release has been found." Counting the finest fibers, exposures ran about 10 to 1,700 times the standard optical counts, and he cited evidence that such fibers play a role in mesothelioma. This is the report John Hawkins criticized and John Magenheimer defended.

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.H. Marsh memo to P.G. Dolen, et al. (R-M), 3/1/74, entitled "McGill Study of Asbestos Safety Garments," enclosing the final report on Phase 1 of the McGill study and comments by Dr. Gibbs in response to questions J.B. Marsh raised. J.B. Marsh states that engineering improvements are essential if the products are to be acceptable under the existing federal asbestos standard.

Related documents

• Dr. G. W. Gibbs to John H. Marsh on Fiber Counts and Asbestos Safety Garments (1974)
• John Hawkins to John H. Marsh Criticizing the McGill Safety Garment Report (1974)
• John J. Magenheimer to John H. Marsh Answering Hawkins on the McGill Report, Page 2 (1974)

About this copy

This is document 659 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-002267 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002297.