Johns-Manville plant at Los Angeles, California

In November 1938, Asbestos, the industry's trade journal, printed Johns-Manville's announcement that with "the completion of its new million-dollar plant at Watson (a suburb of Los Angeles) California," the company had "started production of asbestos-cement pipe on the West Coast."¹ The sources disagree on when the plant began: in its 1990 sworn answers, the fund that answered lawsuits for Manville Corporation dated the plant at "(Watson), Los Angeles, California" from 1929 to 1981.^1,2

The 1938 announcement said the plant "is turning out all classifications and sizes of Transite water and sewer pipe, electrical conduit, domestic flue pipe, and industrial vents and stacks," that it also had "facilities for the manufacture of rock wool home insulation," and that it would "employ a total of between 150 and 200 people."¹ In 1950, Asbestos named Watson among the places where Johns-Manville made industrial products, in announcing a manager's new responsibilities.³

The fund's 1990 answers list "15A Asbestos Jacket," "45A Asbestos Jacket" and "Insulkote ET" among the Los Angeles plant's products.² The same answers name the Southeast Medical Center in Huntington Park as serving the plant from 1955, and Doctor Michael Wald there from 1970.²

Location

Asbestos products made here

The products documents say were made at this plant, with the years a document gives for the product here. Each product's page has what the documents say about it, including its asbestos content.

• 15A Asbestos Jacket (Johns-Manville)²
• 45A Asbestos Jacket (Johns-Manville)²
• Insulkote ET (Johns-Manville)²

Asbestos claims

If you or a family member worked at this plant, lived with someone who did, or worked with its products, and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, a claim may be paid by the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust. Free case review.

What each document says

Every statement about this plant in the documents, in each document's own words.

Other names

Documents call this plant “Los Angeles Plant”, “Los Angeles (Watson), California”, “Los Angeles”.

See also

• Johns-Manville: the company's history, documents, people, products and plants
• Asbestos exposure sites in California

References

1. Asbestos Magazine, 1938, November 1938 (November 1, 1938), p. 16.
2. Manville Fund's Responses to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories in Moore v. H.K. Porter (February 15, 1990), pp. 19, 21, 55.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1950, February 1950 (February 1, 1950), p. 42.