Johns-Manville plant at Redwood City, California

The earliest word of this plant in Redwood City, California, is an April 1924 notice from the National Magnesia Manufacturing Company, printed in Asbestos, the industry's trade journal: the company had bought most of the magnesia-making equipment of the Magnesia Products Company, and it was "now in operation at our plant at Redwood City," for making "85% Magnesia Insulating Materials and Carbonate of Magnesia."³ The plant then changed hands twice: in January 1929 Asbestos reported that the Celite Company of Los Angeles had bought National Magnesia that April, and that this "has been followed by the recent acquisition of The Celite interests by Johns-Manville Corporation."²

In 1990, the fund that answered lawsuits for Manville Corporation dated the Johns-Manville plant on Middlefield Road, Redwood City, from 1932 to 1955 in its sworn answers.¹ A February 1950 item in Asbestos named Redwood City among the plants making "Johns-Manville industrial products."⁴

The same 1990 answers list what the Redwood City plant made: 85% Magnesia block, cement and pipe covering, including pipe covering for copper tubing; magnesia plastic; Superex block, cement, pipe covering and plastic; combination pipe covering of 85% Magnesia and Superex; flat, curved and lagging blocks; rough sectional pipe covering of both; and end lap strips for weatherproof jackets.¹ The Navy's list of qualified products, in December 1951, also names Redwood City as a plant for J-M's Superex.⁵

Johns-Manville described Superex, in general and not Redwood City's output in particular, as "Made from asbestos fiber, diatomaceous silica and other insulating materials," and Manville's own account to the EPA, published in 1990, called it a "grey-white pipe covering and block forms, used for high temperature insulation."^6,7

Location

Pictures of products made here

Labels, packages, photographs and catalog pages from our library of products documents say were made at this plant. Each picture has its own page and library number.

• Label: Superex trademark (Johns-Manville, Inc.)Superex (Johns-Manville)Label or package · ACL Doc 20597

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.

• 85 Magnesia (Johns-Manville)¹
• Combination Pipe Covering (85% Magnesia and Superex) (Johns-Manville)¹
• D C Flexstone (Johns-Manville)¹
• End Lap Strips for Weatherproof Jackets (Johns-Manville)¹
• Flat, Curved and Lagging Blocks (85% Magnesia and Superex) (Johns-Manville)¹
• Magnesia Plastic (Johns-Manville)¹
• Superex (Johns-Manville)^1,5

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 “Redwood City Plant”, “Redwood City, California”, “Redwood City, Calif.”, “Redwood City”.

See also

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

References

1. Manville Fund's Responses to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories in Moore v. H.K. Porter (February 15, 1990), pp. 19, 26.
2. Asbestos Magazine, 1929, January 1929 (January 1, 1929), p. 4.
3. Asbestos Magazine, 1924, April 1924 (April 1, 1924), p. 45.
4. Asbestos Magazine, 1950, February 1950 (February 1, 1950), p. 42.
5. Military Qualified Products List (1951–1995) (December 3, 1951), p. 2.
6. The Borel v. Fibreboard Case File (1969-1972), Answers to interrogatories with exhibits (March 27, 1970), p. 29.
7. Asbestos; Publication of Identifying Information (February 13, 1990), p. 14.