Johns-Manville Environmental Health Task Force Policy Committee Minutes, May 1971 (1971)

Seven pages of minutes of the May 21, 1971 meeting of the Policy Committee of J-M's Environmental Health Task Force, signed by F. J. Solon Jr. F. L. Pundsack, J-M's research director, reported on a meeting with the new Environmental Protection Agency, which was drafting federal asbestos air pollution standards, and urged J-M to line up medical and technical witnesses for the fall hearings, choosing them with an eye to "who would be best qualified to rebut" Dr. Irving Selikoff. The committee also agreed to refuse Selikoff's request to see the health records of Manville plant employees.

What it shows

Pundsack reported on an article by William Nicholson, due in the progress reports of the Insulation Industry Hygiene Research Program (IIHRP), Selikoff's study of insulation workers. The minutes call it an "unsound conclusion" that a 5-fiber threshold limit was "far too high for safe occupational exposure" and that a level of 3 fibers accounted for the disease Selikoff found among insulators. Pundsack said J-M "cannot afford to let its name be associated" with this and that J-M's members on the IIHRP board should consider resigning; Jobe agreed, and Solon was to draft resignation letters for Jobe, Pundsack and Dr. George W. Wright with "no reasons" given. Pundsack also recommended ending J-M's funding of a Mount Sinai study when it expired in October.

On Selikoff's request for records, Dr. T. H. Davison noted that under the new federal safety law Selikoff, through the union, might get them anyway. Other items: Dr. Wright advised replacing crocidolite in J-M products wherever possible, a manager proposed teaching lower management "the facts about asbestos-health," and the committee agreed to fund Dr. William Smith's research at Fairleigh Dickinson on fiber size and mesothelioma. Weeks later Jobe agreed after all to give Selikoff data.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

According to minutes of the Environmental Health Task Force dated 5/21/71, F.L. Pundsack reported on his meeting with representatives of the EPA. E.M. Fenner was expected to be appointed to the committee to review proposed asbestos air pollution control standards and regulations. A discussion followed regarding J-M's preparations to participate in these meetings.

A disagreement with Dr. Selikoff regarding a report which arrived at the conclusion that a five-fiber TLV was far too high for safe occupational exposure was discussed. Pundsack recommends that J-M members on the IIHRP Board should resign as a result of this article. J.B. Jobe reported that Dr. Selikoff had asked J-M to cooperate in providing health records of employees and doing an epidemiological study. The group decided to refuse the request.

A.C. Smith discussed whether J-M should continue to try to eliminate crocidolite in its products. Dr. Wright supported the recommendation.

Editor's note: J-M's description speaks of a disagreement with Dr. Selikoff over a report and says Pundsack recommended that J-M's members of the IIHRP board resign. The minutes concern an article by William Nicholson for the IIHRP Progress Reports, and record that the J-M members "should consider submitting their resignations."