W. P. Howard of the Asbestos Information Committee to F. J. Solon on Caution Labels for Overseas Shipments (1969)

A two-page "confidential" letter of February 11, 1969, from W. P. Howard, secretary of the British Asbestos Information Committee, to F. J. Solon, Johns-Manville's vice president for advertising and public relations. At its meeting of February 6, Howard writes, the committee "registered extreme concern" on learning that J-M's "overseas" caution labels would go on all shipments outside North America, and the Asbestos Fibre Importers Committee felt the same. He quotes the label ("inhalation of this material over long periods may be harmful"), suggests adding the words "of substantial quantities," and adds that "the British industry would prefer no labels to be used at all."

What it shows

Howard's worry was that American transport workers who saw the labels would pass their "disquiet" to the Transport and General Workers Union, "whose members largely control the passage of cargoes through British docks." He also reports that new British asbestos regulations were expected to be made in March 1969 and to come into force in March 1970. The letter carries the London address of the committee, which operated through the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm, and asks for replies to Turner & Newall in Manchester. It follows the British objections of October 1968 (Correspondence on Canadian Johns-Manville's Caution Label for Asbestos Fiber Bags and the British Objections (1968–1969)). A week later J-M's health policy committee told Solon to write Howard "that we will use caution labels on shipments to Canada and U.S. Let the chips fall" (February 1969 minutes).