Lou Hemerda Circulating Dr. Selikoff's Letter on an Insulation Worker's Death (1969)

A handwritten note dated 5/25/69 from Lou Hemerda of Johns-Manville to C. L. Sheckler, H. M. Jackson, R. R. Standel and a fourth man (the name looks like D. W. Lanigan), passing on a copy of a letter from Dr. Irving J. Selikoff of New York to Mortimer Wald, an East Orange, New Jersey, lawyer. Hemerda wrote that they "might be interested in the attached thoughts & theories of our good friend Dr. Selikoff," told them to "check the 2d paragraph on page 3!!", and said an attorney friend had supplied the report. Selikoff's three-page letter, a poor copy that is mostly unreadable, describes an asbestos insulation worker he had examined in his research surveys who later died of cancer of the tongue, and reviews what was then known of cancer among insulation workers.

What it shows

The paragraph Hemerda pointed to, as far as it can be read, reports the work of J. C. Wagner and others finding mesothelioma after very light asbestos exposure, such as living near an asbestos plant or in an asbestos worker's home. By 1969 Selikoff's findings were reaching J-M's industrial health and legal staff through private channels as well as through his published work.

About this copy

Only Hemerda's covering note is published here. The copy of Selikoff's letter (pages 2 to 4) is held back because it is a medical report on a named worker, with his home address and his hospital and autopsy findings.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Lou Hemerda sends a copy of a letter from Dr. Selikoff to Mortimer Wald, Esq., to Sheckler, Jackson, Standell and Lanigan on 5/25/69 with the remarks: "Thought you might be interested in the attached thoughts and theories of our good friend Dr. Selikoff" and especially draws the addressees' attentions to the second paragraph on page three of Dr. Selikoff's letter. Dr. Selikoff's letter reviews the medical condition of an insulation worker, who died of tongue cancer caused by occupational exposure. (Dr. Selikoff's letter is practically illegible.) Interestingly, the worker had almost normal lungs at the time of death.

In the second paragraph on page three, Dr. Selikoff states that Wagner and Borow have noted cases of mesothelioma as a result of very light asbestos exposure such as that occurring while living within the vicinity of an asbestos plant.