John H. Marsh to W. S. Simpson on the NIOSH Study of J-M's Manville Textile Plant (1973)

A one-page Raybestos-Manhattan memo of October 2, 1973, headed "NIOSH," from John H. Marsh to W. S. Simpson, forwarding a memo (not included) from Fred Puckhaber about the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's proposed study of the Johns-Manville textile plant in Manville, New Jersey. Marsh wrote that "we" had hoped NIOSH would choose another company's plant, "since the J-M textile plant is reportedly well under two fibers and certainly is not representative of the asbestos textile industry." George Wright had told him of his concern that a study of the Manville plant "might result in a proposed standard unacceptable to the rest of the industry."

What it shows

The memo shows Raybestos-Manhattan preferring that federal researchers study a dustier plant, out of concern that results from a cleaner Johns-Manville plant would support a stricter exposure standard than the rest of the textile industry wanted. Marsh added that the Manville plant's textiles were used inside Johns-Manville and that its process was not suited to making most asbestos textile products.

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 W.S. Simpson, 10/2/73, entitled "NIOSH." Marsh states that "we" had hoped NIOSH would select "Amatek" over the J-M Manville textile plant for the proposed NIOSH study, "since the J-M plant is reportedly well under two fibers and certainly is not representative of the asbestos textile industry." Marsh further states that several weeks ago Dr. George Wright expressed his concern that the study of the Manville plant "might result in a proposed standard unacceptable to the rest of the industry."

About this copy

This is document 646 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-002230 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002230.