R. C. Smith to A. B. Marchant on Safe Placement of Waukegan Workers with Lung Impairments (1961)

A two-page confidential memo of January 24, 1961, from R. C. Smith, the safety and industrial hygiene man at J-M's Waukegan, Illinois, plant, to A. B. Marchant, headed "Safe Placement of Persons with Lung Impairments." From the December 1960 hygiene lab report it lists 44 identified pneumoconiosis cases, 151 possible cases and 37 non-occupational lung cases, 232 in all, and in the column "Number Properly Placed" a zero against each. Smith explains that the plant managers had decided on June 4, 1956, "to postpone the decision of what to do about the possible group."

What it shows

Smith reports that by January 1960 most of the identified and non-occupational cases had been placed in suitable jobs, but that Dr. Kenneth Smith, J-M's medical director, then made "a change in the interpretation of Mixed Dust which was so sweeping" that every placement had to be investigated again; a month later the plant managers recorded that the lower limits "had cancelled all 'Safe Placements'" (Waukegan managers' minutes, February 1961). His first objectives for 1961 were to check the placement of every identified and non-occupational case and to set up a program for the possible cases. He adds: "Our main problem will be that we cannot announce what our first two objectives this year are because of the Confidential nature of the problem."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from R.C. Smith (Waukegan) to A.B. Marchant re Safe Placement of Persons with Lung Impairments, dated 1/24/61. Smith responded to an inquiry from Marchant that the Waukegan plant as of 1960 reported 44 identified pneumoconiosis cases, 151 possible pneumoconiosis cases and 37 individuals with non-occupational pulmonary conditions a total of 232 individuals of whom zero had been "properly placed" to prevent further injurious dust exposures.

R.C. Smith memoranda dated 1/24/61 reports 44 definite and 151 possible pneumoconiosis at Waukegan. Notes that issue of possibles has been deferred since June of 1956; also notes that K.W. Smith recently made a change in the interpretation of Mixed Dust which was so sweeping "that it required re-evaluation of transfer placements. Pink (possible) cases to be checked for current job exposures and consideration to be given to subclassifying them.

Smith attributed the problem to a change in the interpretation of "mixed dust" which required re-evaluation of the safety of the present occupational exposures of these individuals. Smith's employee relation goals for 1961 afforded top priority to placements of identified occupational and non-occupational pulmonary cases and regretted that "our main problem will be that we cannot announce what our first two objectives this year are because of the Confidential nature of the problem."