Asbestos Timeline: The 1980s

Every dated document we have published from the 1980s, year by year: 35 from the J-M chronology, 16 from the J-M litigation chronology, 4 from the Motley 1000. Each line links to the document itself. For the story these documents tell, read the 1980s on our history page.

Key documents

• February 4, 1980. J-M chairman John McKinney tells Dr. Irving Selikoff that extreme scientists may leave J-M no choice but to "destroy the credibility of such scientists." Read it
• December 11, 1980. M. A. Tappin directs that no union get retired J-M employees' medical records despite OSHA's new rule, preferring to litigate. Read it
• March 5, 1981. J-M's Audit Committee hears why Coopers & Lybrand qualified its opinion on the 1979 and 1980 accounts because of the asbestos suits. Read it
• December 18, 1981. A J-M attorney lists why the company's lawyers fought discovery of plant workers' compensation files, including fear they showed disease from low or indirect exposure. Read it
• 1982. Manville's lawyers set fourteen years of board discussions about asbestos beside what each SEC filing told investors, ending with the Herrmann shareholder suit. Read it
• February 19, 1982. A J-M claims official asks that a doctor rewrite his report on Samuel Rubbico to remove all references to colon cancer; the reply says the doctor will cooperate. Read it
• August 25, 1982. The board's Special Committee recommends that Manville immediately file for Chapter 11, after its accounting adviser says a reserve for asbestos claims is now required. Read it
• August 26, 1982. Filing for Chapter 11, Manville swears that its asbestos liability could run from $2 billion to many times that over twenty years, more than it could pay. Read it
• October 4, 1982. A Manville draft letter asks the Health and Human Services Secretary to investigate Dr. Selikoff's research and says he appears to lack a medical diploma. Read it

1980

• 1980. Johns-Manville's 1980 annual report counts 5,087 asbestos suits and warns that the cost to the company "could be substantial." Read it (Motley 1000)
• February 4, 1980. A J-M attorney's history of the Brazil Thermobestos plant finds no dust collection in 1970 and still no way to monitor dust in 1977. Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 4, 1980. J-M chairman John McKinney tells Dr. Irving Selikoff that extreme scientists may leave J-M no choice but to "destroy the credibility of such scientists." Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 26, 1980. S. W. McCallie warns that a proposed EPA rule could expose health studies "kept from plaintiffs' counsel" and calls for a strategy to deal with it. Read it (J-M chronology)
• March 1980. J-M's annual SEC filing reports 2,857 asbestos suits and new cases at 146 a month, and discloses a court fight with its insurers. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• March 6, 1980. Raybestos-Manhattan's counsel asks Dr. David Ozonoff to testify as a medical historian on occupational medicine from the 1930s through World War II. Read it (Motley 1000)
• March 14, 1980. Waukegan workers say they were never told their examination results; one learns only in 1980 of a medical problem dating from 1957. Read it (J-M chronology)
• March 25, 1980. After a NIOSH study reports that J-M missed two of three cases at Waukegan, angry workers tell Dr. Paul they were not told their X-ray results. Read it (J-M chronology)
• April 7, 1980. A California lawyer handling a widow's claim for J-M writes that the company will settle only for everything, or "stonewall her." Read it (J-M chronology)
• April 16, 1980. A J-M chairman's bulletin says properly handled asbestos poses no health hazard and pledges to defend it against "unjustified regulation." Read it (J-M chronology)
• May 13, 1980. J-M's J. P. Leineweber challenges a U.S. Geological Survey mineralogist's claim that chrysotile is harmless; the mineralogist accuses J-M of downplaying blue asbestos. Read it (J-M chronology)
• May 30, 1980. Dr. Paul Kotin tells J-M's president the company has no firm asbestos policy and asks to be told if asbestos has "no future" so a phase-out can be planned. Read it (J-M chronology)
• July 3, 1980. G. Earl Parker reports that conditions at J-M's Mexican affiliate have worsened and that J-M may have to stop selling it fiber or sell its stake. Read it (J-M chronology)
• July 31, 1980. J-M's lawyers tell the board of 493 new asbestos cases in 28 days and show projections in which claims costs outrun the company's insurance by the mid-1980s. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• September 11, 1980. W. B. Reitze says J-M should tell Ontario that its 2-fiber limit is safe and that crocidolite and amosite are no more hazardous than chrysotile. Read it (J-M chronology)
• December 11, 1980. M. A. Tappin directs that no union get retired J-M employees' medical records despite OSHA's new rule, preferring to litigate. Read it (J-M chronology)
• December 14, 1980. W. B. Reitze tells M. A. Tappin that ordering a plant to withhold retirees' medical records from the union would violate a federal regulation, and HS&E does not concur. Read it (J-M chronology)

1981

• January 30, 1981. Plaintiffs in consolidated Mississippi shipyard cases serve interrogatories on J-M and other makers about asbestos insulation products, warnings and sales to Ingalls. Read it (Motley 1000)
• February 2, 1981. An inspection at J-M's Waukegan plant finds workers sweeping spilled asbestos with push brooms and leaving respirators on open asbestos bags. Read it (J-M chronology)
• March 1981. J-M's 10-K reports about 5,800 asbestos suits and says no reasonable estimate of its loss can be made, so no liability is recorded. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• March 5, 1981. J-M's Audit Committee hears why Coopers & Lybrand qualified its opinion on the 1979 and 1980 accounts because of the asbestos suits. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• March 11, 1981. J-M attorney George Evans suggests it might be worth paying a plaintiff to bring in co-defendants who would not share in settlements. Read it (J-M chronology)
• April 30, 1981. J-M's outside counsel proposes refusing to admit facts in the Hirst claim that J-M could admit, judging any sanctions would be small. Read it (J-M chronology)
• May 13, 1981. J. F. Reis drafts J-M's answer on why it never warned Nashua dump site owners about asbestos: the hazard was thought limited to high workplace exposures. Read it (J-M chronology)
• July 14, 1981. S. W. McCallie circulates an EPA case plan on Nashua, obtained from a confidential source, and asks that J-M not discuss having it. Read it (J-M chronology)
• July 31, 1981. J-M's lawyers tell the board they now expect 32,500 asbestos plaintiffs and $1.47 billion in costs through 1991, and ask whether claims would follow assets moved to subsidiaries. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• September 9, 1981. Manville files to put J-M under a new parent company, as McKinney tells stockholders that asbestos publicity and litigation have distorted the public's view of the company. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• September 25, 1981. Reviewing a Utah study of asbestos-cement pipe and cancer, S. W. McCallie prefers a short news item quoting its favorable conclusion to printing the whole study. Read it (J-M chronology)
• December 18, 1981. A J-M attorney lists why the company's lawyers fought discovery of plant workers' compensation files, including fear they showed disease from low or indirect exposure. Read it (J-M chronology)
• December 25, 1981. Searching for early workers' compensation claims, a J-M lawyer finds the company's records differ from what its asbestos litigation group had told him. Read it (J-M chronology)

1982

• 1982. Manville's lawyers set fourteen years of board discussions about asbestos beside what each SEC filing told investors, ending with the Herrmann shareholder suit. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• January 7, 1982. J-M's outside counsel advises on the formal steps needed if the company is to defend and indemnify Vandiver Brown, its former attorney, in the asbestos suits. Read it (J-M chronology)
• January 18, 1982. J-M's Illinois counsel notes Hugh Jackson testified the Celite warning label began in 1957 and asks for proof it began in 1952. Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 1, 1982. J-M tells its New Jersey counsel not to name Tom Williams, who knew of sales to refineries, in interrogatory answers. Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 12, 1982. J-M attorney George Evans tells outside counsel that the company's sworn answers about asbestos use at Lompoc are probably wrong. Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 12, 1982. Answering a union request under OSHA's records rule, J-M counsel releases a substance list but offers Long Beach medical data only with each worker's consent. Read it (J-M chronology)
• February 19, 1982. A J-M claims official asks that a doctor rewrite his report on Samuel Rubbico to remove all references to colon cancer; the reply says the doctor will cooperate. Read it (J-M chronology)
• March 1982. Manville's 10-K reports 9,300 asbestos suits and the first punitive damage verdicts against J-M, but says its ultimate liability cannot be reasonably determined. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• March 17, 1982. Shipyard worker James L. Jackson files tables tying the Ingalls ships he worked on to J-M and other asbestos insulation products. Read it (Motley 1000)
• May 6, 1982. J-M's Minnesota counsel writes that the company brought third-party claims mainly to get Judge Miles Lord off an asbestos case, and that it worked. Read it (J-M chronology)
• June 3, 1982. J-M's lawyers learn their longtime safety witness Cliff Sheckler never attended Rutgers as he testified, and decide to withdraw him as a witness. Read it (J-M chronology)
• June 11, 1982. After J-M limits a mesothelioma plaintiff's bid for an early trial, its counsel writes that the plaintiff "will probably expire" before year's end. Read it (J-M chronology)
• June 28, 1982. J-M asks an outside epidemiologist not to give a town citizens' group a study analysis on asbestos-cement water pipe while a lawsuit is pending. Read it (J-M chronology)
• June 29, 1982. J-M attorney George Evans urges outside counsel to do everything possible to block the deposition of Dr. Merrill, the Manville plant's physician. Read it (J-M chronology)
• August 4, 1982. Manville's board creates a Special Committee to weigh the consultants' forecasts of asbestos cases, possible "materially large reserves" and the company's options. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 4, 1982. The Legal Department shows Manville's board a projection of 47,600 asbestos plaintiffs and $1.86 billion in costs through 2001, $1.26 billion after insurance. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 4, 1982. Manville announces that outside studies show asbestos suits continuing for years, stops common dividends, and names a special board committee to weigh reserves and options. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 24, 1982. A draft interview for shareholders and employees has John A. McKinney blame Chapter 11 on 16,500 lawsuits, the government and insurers, saying nothing was known until 1964. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 25, 1982. At a special evening meeting in a New York hotel, Manville's board unanimously resolves to file for Chapter 11. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 25, 1982. The board's Special Committee recommends that Manville immediately file for Chapter 11, after its accounting adviser says a reserve for asbestos claims is now required. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 26, 1982. Filing for Chapter 11, Manville swears that its asbestos liability could run from $2 billion to many times that over twenty years, more than it could pay. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• August 26, 1982. Manville announces that it has filed for Chapter 11, saying the filing was forced by asbestos litigation costs, not by any trouble in its businesses. Read it (J-M litigation chronology)
• October 4, 1982. A Manville draft letter asks the Health and Human Services Secretary to investigate Dr. Selikoff's research and says he appears to lack a medical diploma. Read it (J-M chronology)

1983

• February 23, 1983. Manville's new medical manual says TLVs protect only "clinically normal" workers and requires that abnormal findings be disclosed to employees in writing. Read it (J-M chronology)

1985

• July 3, 1985. Manville's Earl Parker writes The New Yorker to attack Paul Brodeur's asbestos articles and defend Senator Hart's compensation legislation. Read it (J-M chronology)