K. H. Slater on an Internal Audit and Mandatory Respirators at the Manville Plant (1963)

Two papers of May 10, 1963, from K. H. Slater of J-M's Manville Industrial Insulations plant in New Jersey. In a confidential memo to C. E. Grote headed "Mandatory Wearing of Respirators in Areas Where the Dust Content Is Known To Be Above the Maximum Limits," Slater reports that J-M's internal auditor had found several cases where E Building employees "have not worn respirators in areas of high dust content" and had recommended making respirators mandatory there. Slater notes that plant policy was not to require them, last confirmed on June 30, 1960, after consultation with Hugh Jackson, and asks Grote to review it again.

What it shows

The second paper answers the auditor's findings item by item, most of them about pay standards for autoclave and trucking crews. Item 8 restates the respirator policy: the plant does not make respirators mandatory or a job requirement, a policy "established after review with the Manager of Industrial Health," and the Industrial Insulations plant "will follow the established policy" until the review is done. Three years after the decision recorded in the 1960 Sheckler and Dobson memos, men were still working without respirators in areas known to be over the dust limit.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

On 5/10/63, a proposal to include respirator usage requirement in job evaluations/job descriptions where worker is exposed to known hazard is again made at Manville plant.