W. A. Cooper to Dr. Paul Kotin on Conditions at the Jeffrey Mine and Mills (1975)

A two-page memo of July 29, 1975, from W. A. Cooper to Dr. Paul Kotin (copies to E. M. Fenner and W. B. Reitze) on the Jeffrey Mine and mills at Asbestos, Quebec, where Cooper had spent July 21–25 filming for J-M's "Asbestos and Health" film. "The bagging operation on the main floor was shocking. There were accumulations of dust everywhere." He describes an ankle-high pile of fiber shoveled by a worker without a respirator, opened bags spilling fiber that workers tracked through, a quality control man tossing handfuls of fiber without a respirator, and filming stopped three times in Mill 5 to wipe dust off the equipment.

What it shows

Cooper notes that the visit came after a week's maintenance shutdown and right after a two-hour weekly cleanup, "yet still had to order additional cleaning," and that "brooms still seem to be a preferred method of dust control." Truck drivers in the pit worked with windows open, sprinklers meant to keep down dust were not being used, and an elevator operator sat on a ruptured bag of Paperbestos No. 5. "I cannot remember conditions as poor as the ones I saw on this trip," he writes, and he puts them down to poor housekeeping and "lax employee training in material handling."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum from Walter Cooper to Paul Kotin dated 7/29/75, entitled "Jeffrey Mining & Milling Operations." Cooper reports on a recent visit to asbestos for the purpose of filming segments of an Asbestos and Health film.

Cooper reported "the bagging operation on the main floor was shocking. There were accumulations of dust everywhere. It took more than an hour to clean up one bagging unit of visible dust before filming. At another bag unit, I noticed an ankle-high accumulation of fiber, which was being shoveled into an open cart for disposal by a worker, who was not wearing a respirator. . . . On the main floor, I noticed bag after bag of packed fiber broken or purposely opened, but in no case were they taped or resealed. I was told they were opened for sample-taking, but still they were not resealed. Fiber continued to spill from the bags onto the floor, where other workers tracked through it. . . . I saw a QC man at the bagging operation open at least four bags, grab a handful of fiber, throw it into an open plate, and then break it apart and swish it around. He did not wear a respirator. . . . In one area of Mill 5, where there are a number of rock screens and air separators, we had to stop filming three times in order to have a team wipe down fiber dust on the equipment. Our photo flood lights revealed what I would call moderate to heavy concentrations of fiber in the air. . . . Dumping operations also were producing large clouds of dust. We found a fair sprinkling of dust on our car after leaving it in the lot most of the day. Both the camera man and I had dust on our clothes, equipment and our hair at day's end. . . . It should be noted that we visited the operations after they had been closed down for one week for maintenance and repair, and we were at the bagging operation right after they had been shut down for a 2-hour weekly clean up, yet still had to order additional cleaning. And brooms still seemed to be a preferred method of dust control by many operators."