Johns-Manville Board of Directors Minutes on Dust at the Asbestos, Quebec, Mill (1938)

The notice and minutes of the Johns-Manville Corporation board meeting of April 18, 1938, kept by Vandiver Brown as secretary. Among other business, the board was told that the officers of Canadian Johns-Manville had authorized about $215,000 for "more effective dust-eliminating equipment" at the Asbestos, Quebec, mill. The existing settling chamber was "less than 50% effective"; about sixty tons of dust escaped during capacity operations and the winds scattered it over the town, "creating during the Summer months an almost intolerable nuisance."

What it shows

The minutes record that "Counsel had advised the subsidiary that", and then the sentence breaks off, with a blank before the next passage. The company's engineers had chosen a Cottrell electrical precipitator, and a test unit had shown it could "effectively eliminate the dust nuisance." The directors present included Lewis H. Brown. The next year the town thanked the company for the new equipment (the town's letters); see also the precipitator entry.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

At a Board of Directors Meeting on 4/18/38, the officers of CJM authorized $215,000 for more effective dust collection equipment at the Asbestos mill. At the present time, the dust collection equipment was only 50% effective. There was dust blowing all over the town, creating an & "almost intolerable nuisance." Counsel had advised the subsidiary that it might incur civil liability and many protests had been received from the town council and from individual residents."

Editor's note: J-M's description calls this a Canadian Johns-Manville board meeting. The minutes are those of the Johns-Manville Corporation board in New York, which was told of the decision by Canadian J-M's officers. In this copy the sentence about counsel's advice stops after "that" and the rest is blank, so the description of civil liability and protests from the town cannot be checked against this file.