North American Asbestos Corporation

North American Asbestos Corporation was the Chicago sales company of the Cape Asbestos group of London, formed in 1953. It imported and sold Cape's South African amosite and crocidolite (blue) asbestos fiber, along with products such as Noramite plastics reinforcement, Caposite rope and Asbestolux board. It was sued by workers at plants that used its fiber, and it was dissolved in May 1978.

Draft. The history on this page was written from the documents in our library and has not yet been reviewed by a person.

History

Asbestos magazine reported in December 1953 that the Cape Asbestos Company Ltd. had formed North American Asbestos Corporation to look after its interests in the United States.¹ The new company was to market Cape's raw amosite and blue fiber and some Cape products, such as blue asbestos textiles, and it was expected also to distribute fiber and products from outside the Cape group.¹ Its first officers were Robert E. Cryor, president, and L. W. Dennis, vice president, and its first office was at 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago.¹ In January 1954 the magazine reported that Giles F. Newton, Cape's managing director, had presided at the opening of the Chicago company during a visit to North America.⁸ A November 1954 notice said South African blue asbestos was now directly available to the American market through the company, then at the Board of Trade Building in Chicago.⁹

Cryor's obituary in Asbestos says he began in the asbestos industry in 1929 with the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company (later Unarco Industries), and served as president of the Asbestos Textile Institute in 1951–52.¹⁰ It credits him with founding North American Asbestos in 1953 and calls the firm the largest distributor of amosite and crocidolite in the Western Hemisphere.¹⁰ He was also president of Cape Asbestos (Canada) Ltd., and he died on April 21, 1970.¹⁰ The company's own 1978 answers to interrogatories name C. G. Morgan as its president and chief executive officer.⁶ Asbestos listed Morgan as vice president and general manager in 1971.¹¹

In a 1959 account of the Cape group printed in Asbestos and written in Cape's own voice, Cape described North American Asbestos as one of three overseas subsidiaries whose work was selling, and said it sold Cape products, including Asbestolux and crude asbestos, in the United States.¹² Cape's 1959 annual meeting report said the Chicago company had had a successful year and spent much of its profit on promoting Asbestolux.¹³ A 1969 advertisement called the company the largest importer of amosite and crocidolite for customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, and said it was "engaged exclusively in the marketing of Amosite and Crocidolite Asbestos."⁵

By 1973 the outlook had changed. Cape's annual report, as summarized in Asbestos in June 1973, said a better U.S. economy had helped the Chicago company's fiber sales, but that this was more than offset by moves away from asbestos on environmental grounds.¹⁴ The company's answers in a 1978 New Jersey lawsuit state that it was dissolved as of May 19, 1978, and was in liquidation.⁶

Asbestos products

Most of what North American Asbestos sold was raw fiber. Its 1978 answers say the majority of what it sold was raw asbestos, and that from 1954 to 1972 it acted as a sales representative and also bought and sold raw fiber and some products such as rope and yarn.¹⁵¹⁶ The fiber came from South Africa in bags.¹⁶

• Raw fiber. A 1956 letter from Cryor to the purchasing department of Owens-Illinois, on letterhead calling the company the U.S. subsidiary of The Cape Asbestos Co. Ltd., acknowledges an order for 25 tons of SW grade amosite, the first 10-ton lot shipped from a Jersey City warehouse.¹⁷ Cryor wrote that "SW grade is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain."¹⁷ In its 1978 answers the company said it sold raw amosite directly to the Owens-Corning Fiberglas plant at Berlin, New Jersey, from 1968 to October 1972, and that from 1956 to 1967 Owens-Corning had bought raw fiber from Egnep (Pty.) Limited, free on board in South Africa.¹⁸ United States Gypsum stated in 2001 interrogatory answers that it bought amosite from North American Asbestos for block insulation made at its Greenville, Mississippi, plant from 1966 to 1971.¹⁹
• Noramite. Advertisements in 1958 describe Noramite products as prepared fibers, rovings, ropes and fabrics, all based on amosite or crocidolite.² In October 1963 the magazine reported the company's prices for Noramite fiber, mats, felts and textiles for reinforcing plastics.²⁰ In 1965 Cape's British company formed a division to sell Noramite outside North America, saying the product had been developed in the United States by North American Asbestos.²¹
• Caposite. Advertisements from 1958 offered Caposite rope for insulation, for service up to 750° F.³ A product listing in the Sourcebook on Asbestos Diseases describes North American Asbestos's Caposite as amosite fibers.²²
• Asbestolux. A 1958 advertisement describes this fireproof insulation board as long-fibered amosite and silica bonded under heat and pressure.⁴
• Pluto. The Sourcebook listing describes Pluto as blue asbestos fiber and products.²³

Cryor also wrote trade articles on crocidolite as a reinforcement for corrosion-resistant plastics, which Asbestos noted in 1966.²⁴

The library also holds a customer list the company sent in 1976, with a note dated 10-6-76: typed lists of its "Textile Customers" and "Fiber Customers" from 1954 through July 1975.²⁵ It was produced as a Union Carbide trial exhibit.²⁵

What the documents show

The fullest statement of the company's position is its answers to interrogatories in Austin v. Johns-Manville, a New Jersey lawsuit, given in 1978 after the company was dissolved.⁶

• Asked whether it had warned anyone of the hazards of its asbestos, the company answered that since June 19, 1972, its acknowledgments of purchase orders and its bags of raw fiber had stated: "CAUTION Precautions should be taken when handling asbestos to avoid creating dust. Breathing asbestos dust may cause serious bodily harm."¹⁶
• Asked what studies it had made, it said it had once furnished fiber samples to Dr. Irving Selikoff for his studies, and that it was a member of the Asbestos Information Association and had access to its studies.¹⁶ An undated brochure of the Asbestos Information Association/North America lists North American Asbestos Corp. among its members.²⁶
• Asked whether prolonged exposure to its asbestos could cause or contribute to diseases including asbestosis, it answered "No." It said that although asbestosis is associated with inhaling high concentrations of fiber over many years, hygiene standards for asbestos dust had been set that were designed to virtually eliminate the risk of its earliest clinical signs.²⁷
• Asked whether it took dust counts where its fiber was used, it answered no, explaining that it was a sales representative and distributor whose customers were well-known manufacturers.²⁸

Lawsuits

In Neal v. Carey Canadian Mines (1982), former workers at the Philip Carey plant at Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, sued the plant's successor and five suppliers of raw fiber, including North American Asbestos.⁷ The company argued that it was only a "facilitator" for deliveries of fiber from Cape in South Africa.⁷ The federal court disagreed. It pointed to testimony from Max Meyer, a former director, that the company was formed in 1953 as a wholly owned Cape subsidiary to "manufacture, buy, sell, deal in and with asbestos and asbestos products," and to records of sales and commission income from 1954 to 1960.⁷ The court held that the jury could find the company was a seller of fiber to the plant, and it left in place the verdict that the suppliers, except Bell Asbestos, were liable for failing to warn.⁷

The company was also sued in Illinois. A 1992 Illinois appellate opinion in suits by workers at the UNARCO plant in Bloomington, Betts v. Manville Personal Injury Trust, recalls that in Hammond v. North American Asbestos Corp. (1982, affirmed 1983) the same court rejected the "sophisticated purchaser" defense, and that in an earlier McLean County case, Dietrich v. North American Asbestos Corp., the trial court entered judgment for the company and the plaintiff appealed.²⁹ Neal cites Hammond for the rule that raw asbestos fiber is a product.⁷

A different company with the same name

The library also holds a 1909 stock certificate of a North American Asbestos Company incorporated in Arizona.³⁰ Nothing in the library connects it to the Chicago company formed in 1953.

References

1. Asbestos, December 1953, p. 48
2. Asbestos, January 1958, p. 37
3. Asbestos, April 1958, p. 37
4. Asbestos, August 1958, p. 37
5. Asbestos, July 1969, p. 15
6. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), p. 2
7. Neal v. Carey Canadian Mines, Ltd. (E.D. Pa. 1982)
8. Asbestos, January 1954, p. 49
9. Asbestos, November 1954, p. 54
10. Asbestos, May 1970, p. 16
11. Asbestos, June 1971, p. 40
12. Asbestos, June 1959, p. 8
13. Asbestos, August 1959, p. 54
14. Asbestos, June 1973, p. 38
15. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), p. 17
16. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), pp. 8–9
17. R. E. Cryor of North American Asbestos to R. H. Horst of Owens-Illinois on an Amosite Order (1956), ACL Doc 13132
18. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), p. 3
19. Union Carbide exhibit UC-5456: United States Gypsum Company's Responses to Standard Interrogatories in Karal v. Atlas Turner, Inc. (2001), p. 4
20. Asbestos, October 1963, p. 14
21. Asbestos, October 1965, p. 21
22. Caposite (North American Asbestos) product page
23. Pluto (North American Asbestos) product page
24. Asbestos, November 1966, p. 14
25. Union Carbide exhibit UC-1118: North American Asbestos Corporation Transmittal of Textile and Fiber Customer Lists, 1954-1975 (1976), ACL Doc 16297
26. Union Carbide exhibit UC-3140: Asbestos Information Association/North America, Descriptive Brochure with Membership List, p. 3
27. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), p. 10
28. Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978), p. 12
29. Betts v. Manville Personal Injury Trust (Ill. App. 1992)
30. North American Asbestos Company stock certificate for 1,000 shares (1909), ACL Doc 14596

Asbestos products

4 products our documents name North American Asbestos Corporation as making or selling. Each product's page says what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• Asbestolux (North American Asbestos)
• Caposite (North American Asbestos)
• Noramite (North American Asbestos)
• Pluto (North American Asbestos)

Court cases

2 court decisions in our case-law library name North American Asbestos Corporation as a defendant, newest first.

• Betts v. Manville Personal Injury Trust (1992)
• Neal v. Carey Canadian Mines, Ltd. (1982)

In our library

2 documents in our library name North American Asbestos Corporation, by collection.

Motley 1000 (2)

• R. E. Cryor of North American Asbestos to R. H. Horst of Owens-Illinois on an Amosite Order (1956) (publisher)
• Austin v. Johns-Manville, North American Asbestos Company's Answers to Interrogatories (1978)

In the Union Carbide documents

North American Asbestos Corporation is named in 8 Union Carbide documents dated 1964 to 2001 (1 as the source, 8 mentioned), from asbestos lawsuits over Union Carbide's Calidria asbestos. All are published in our collection.

• Oleesky and Mohr, Handbook of Reinforced Plastics of the Society of the Plastics Industry, Chapter III-2 'Asbestos-Reinforced Plastics' (1964) UC-5292 (mentioned)
• W. N. Johnson Transmittal to F. H. Larrison and E. A. Piersall of AIA/NA Memos on FDA and Bureau of Mines Asbestos Actions (1972) UC-4282 (mentioned)
• W. N. Johnson to F. H. Larrison and E. A. Piersall Forwarding AIA/NA Memos on the FDA Asbestos Task Force and the Bureau of Mines Asbestos Dust Standard (1972) UC-5096 (mentioned)
• North American Asbestos Corporation Transmittal of Textile and Fiber Customer Lists, 1954-1975 (1976) UC-1118 (mentioned, source)
• Asbestos Information Association/North America File on the Third Annual Industry-Government Conference, Sept. 8-9, 1976 (1976) UC-4241 (mentioned)
• United States Gypsum Company's Responses to Standard Interrogatories in Karal v. Atlas Turner, Inc., with Exhibits 1-9 (2001) UC-5456 (mentioned)
• Asbestos Information Association/North America, Descriptive Brochure with Membership List (undated) UC-3140 (mentioned)
• AIA/NA Member Companies, Environmental Control Sub-Committee and Counsel Roster UC-3877 (mentioned)

Names in the documents

The spellings documents use for North American Asbestos Corporation, OCR misreadings included, so a search for any of them finds this page: North American Asbestos Corp · North American Asbestos Co., Inc. · North American Asbestos Company · North American Asbestos · North American Asbestos Corporation, Chicago, Illinois.

Where this comes from

This page brings together every document in our library that names North American Asbestos Corporation, across collections. Titles and affiliations are taken from the documents themselves, and units and subsidiaries are grouped under the company they belong to.