Johns-Manville Officers Board Minutes on Dust Problems (1935)

Five pages of minutes from the June 27, 1935, meeting of Johns-Manville's Officers Board (W. R. Seigle, E. M. Voorhees, L. R. Hoff and S. A. Williams), covering only "the various dust problems" discussed. Vandiver Brown, the company's attorney, reported 53 dust lawsuits pending in Illinois and on occupational disease bills in five states. The board also decided to fund experiments on diatomaceous earth at the Saranac Laboratory, to pay two women workers' disability benefits in installments, to follow up on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's dust surveys of its plants, and to try to hire Metropolitan Life's dust counter Otto L. Binder full time.

What it shows

On respirators, the minutes record that it would be "difficult to compel the workmen to wear the respirators at all times," but that "in order to keep our record clear in the event litigation should develop, certain things should be done, which could be made the subject of testimony." Brown was told to work out a respirator procedure that would protect the worker and also "afford the Company maximum protection against the legal hazard" (his inquiries that August are at Brown to the Portland Cement Association). Large sums had been set aside for dust control at the Waukegan, Illinois, plant, but spending was deferred until the legislature adjourned, since a proposed "Blower Act" might affect what equipment was needed (Kottcamp's memo of July 2). The two women, Estelle Hacker and Helen Gunderson, were to be paid by installments partly so that a lump sum would not go to their lawyer "and assist him in further activities against us." Binder's salary was then being paid jointly by J-M and Raybestos-Manhattan.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M Officers Meeting Minutes, 6/27/35, refer to 53 Illinois plantworker cases, plus "Arizona." Also discusses two TB claims (Illinois; Hacker and Gunderson) awarded total disability under Travelers Group Life policy. Diatomaceous earth research to be funded at Saranac (reference to Harvard rock wool study) difficulty in enforcing respirator use discussed. Policy regarding respirator use in home insulation units since 1934 noted.

Related documents

• Johns-Manville and Raybestos-Manhattan Letters on Hiring Dust Counter Otto Binder (1936)