Johns-Manville Standard Interrogatory Answer on Health Information Given to Customers and Employees, with a Program Order Form (c. 1977)

Three pages of a Johns-Manville interrogatory answer, with blanks left for the interrogatory number, describing what J-M told customers and employees about asbestos, filed with a one-page order form addressed to Walter A. Cooper for J-M's "Working With Asbestos" film and slide programs, "Industrial Hygiene at J-M," and copies of "The Asbestos Report." The answer says J-M had advised insulation contractors to use respirators approved by NIOSH (formerly the Bureau of Mines), put caution instructions on its products, and distributed the National Insulation Manufacturers Association booklet "Recommended Health Safety Practices for Handling and Applying Thermal Insulation Products Containing Asbestos" (1968).

What it shows

The answer says the NIMA booklet, printed May 1, 1968, was written by NIMA's Education and Information Committee, chaired by Clifford L. Sheckler, J-M's manager of accident prevention and health, and that NIMA programs on the biological effects of fibrous materials were given at regional meetings of insulation contractors in 1967 and 1968, each attended by about 400 contractors. It lists Asbestos Information Association work-practice booklets, the National Insulation Contractors Association booklet "Safety Reminders" (see National Insulation Contractors Association, Safety Reminders (1972)), J-M's employee booklets of 1973 and 1975, a 1973 fiber-handling pamphlet, a paycheck insert "Dear Johns-Manville Employee" from 1970, and the 1976 catalog of health and safety programs. For J-M's own account of these programs, see W. A. Cooper to Dr. Paul Kotin on the History of J-M's Employee Education About Asbestos (1977).