OSHA Poster for Workers, Asbestos (1978)

A fold-out poster, "Asbestos," issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as publication No. 3038, prepared by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, written by Dr. Molly Coye and produced by Dorothy Cochrane. Shown here in seven pages, it tells workers that "There is no safe kind of asbestos" and that "every kind of asbestos causes cancer." It explains asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, the "20 year rule" of delay before disease, the added danger from smoking, and the rights the OSHA asbestos standard gave workers to monitoring and medical examinations. It also warns that workers bringing fibers home on clothes or in their lunchboxes endanger their families.

What it shows

The poster is a plain-language government warning of the late 1970s aimed at workers. It said "Just one month of working with asbestos can double your chances of getting lung cancer," and that in one study a third of asbestos workers' family members had abnormal chest X-rays decades after their exposure at home.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

OSHA poster entitled "Asbestos." Discusses asbestos-related disease, including the odds of getting asbestos-related disease; protection against asbestos exposure; classes of people exposed to asbestos; etc.

About this copy

This is document 718 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002888 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-002894.