Document QgjdxxB36E6xJvEjpgnQ7Ov2k
C 149.2
internal correspondence
To (Nam ) Division Location
METALS DIVISION
Dr. J. J. Welsh Medical Dept,, 4th Floor New York, New York 10017
Copy fo
E. A. Piersall , Grand Junction, Colorado
P. 0. BOX K, KING CITY, CALIFORNIA 93930
Dof* March 22
Ori^inolioy Dept. Amwr!ng lellol daft Subject
I have enclosed 2 articles about Johns-Manville law suits for asbestosis which appeared in San Francisco papers recently.
These articles, I'm sure, have influenced the doctors at the clinic in King City as evidenced by the enclosed letter to Jim Stanford. You will remember him as one of the employees whose records you checked during your visit. We have been notified that George Larson will also get one of these letters. In both cases we have been notified that Dr. Fisher thinks the men should be removed from the asbestos atmosphere.
These incidents happened because, following receipt of your letter of March 4th, I had talked to these employees about results of their tests. Stanford informed me that he had a bad cold at the time of his test and Larson said he had been suffering from asthma when tested. I sent them to the clinic for retesting with these results.
We have no work at this location which would remove these men from exposure to
asbestos. We need a procedure for cases of this type.
,
Very truly yours,
.
UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION METALS DIVISION
F. H, Larrison, Jr. y Manager, King City Operations
/ smp
ends:
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` Wise has filed $10 million cibs-
- fJlZXO) 15 -
scomplaints against the company in each case alleging that the eompany told him that it had a specialist
Lung Disease
who would be responsible for read
Suits AccuseJ ing X-rays of asbestosis or silicosis.
. Three other workers have filed
suits--also for $10 million--naming
the doctor and the company as co- -
' defendants.
,
Bay Company
"We contend the doctor was negligent and the company submit ted the men to deliberate expo sure," said attorney Steve Kazan.
"They went for years without telling the guys they had lung problems developing so'they could be treated and-their exposure stopped" Kazan added bitterly.
Johns-Manville officials re
fused to discuss the pending law
suits.
-
.
They emphasized repeatedly that the plant currently meets government-safety standards--less than five particles' of asbestos per cubic c.. entim ete. r o_f air. f . * '.
"The suits concern delayed symptoms from conditions as they existed many years ago, before anyone recognized what asbestosis was," said Neal Amarino, a spokes man at the company's.headquarters in Denver, j
\ - By Jackton ftannelh
-
' TheJohns-Manville roofing ma
terials plant at Pittsburg in Contra
Costa County is under legal siege
for asbestosis ailments suffered by
past and present employees, it was
learned yesterday.
Eight law suits, each claiming $10 million in damages, are on file in- Contra Costa Superior Court.
And more are in the works as .
relevant material is developed In
related, workers compensation
claims by victims of the debilitating *
industrial disease.
"It's a legal time bomb," said
one attorney who is keeping an eye
on the action.
:
Asbestosis is a severe lung disease caused by deposits oflndestructible, microscopic asbestos fi , bers. The fibers can also cause a ' lethal fortn of lung cancer.
\ '
,
Marcos Vela, a former employ
ee at the Pittsburg plant, won a
$350,000 malpractice award from
Dr. Wise two years ago that caused
others to consider legal action.
-` -
i
Justin Roberts, one of Vela's
attorneys, said yesterday that X-
rays taken during required compa
ny medical examinations in 1962,
Back Page Col. 2
An unusual three-sided legal fight at the Johns-Manville plant was disclosed yesterday by Labor Pulse, an independent union-orient ed newspaper.
The Chronicle confirmed these facts;
Five lawsuits have been filed against Dr- Kent Wise, a former company doctor, on charges that he deliberately withheld information from the workers that they had asbestosis.
UCC 023067
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LUNG DISEASE
From Page t ,,
.'
xstanding that he had no expertis<
in diagnosing silicosis or ^bestosis 1965 and 1968 showed progressive
development of asbestosis, but Vela
"He was assured by J-M tha
was never informed of this.
they didn't expect him to do that,
Vela's problem was diagnosed Lewissaid.
'.
incidentally when he visited-a San
Johns-Manvilie may be exemj
Francisco specialist on arthritis, from civil complaints by worker
Roberts said.
. because they get workers compel
DR. KENT WISE . Former company physician
' "Dr. Wise said he had no responsibility to inform workers, only to inform the plant," Roberts sa' id. ' i - :',r` ~S -: '' '
Glenn Lewis, an attorney whotook up Wise's defense since the Vela case, contends that the doctor took over the company- medical program from his father. Dr. David Wise, in 1962. with the clear under
sation benefits, Lewis said. H cross-complaints, however, ar based on alleged fraud against, tt doctor.
Maurice (Yank) Marcus, a wor
ers compensation. attorney when
former clients are now filing tf
damage suits, said that every cai
parallels Vela's.
. *
"They would let them retii
without ever telling them they ha
lung conditions that might qualil them tor disability benefits," Ma
How Asbestosis
cussaid. State occupational health ar
Attacks the Lung
safety officials said the plant h; been inspected several times recent years and found to l
meeting standards.
Asbestosis is' an insidious lung disease that is only one. of several types of damage caused by long term exposure to asbestos fibers in mines or in factories like the Johns* ManvtUe plant at^Pittsburg,
While several types of industri al dusts -- such as silicates, beryllfc um or coal--can cause similar lung diseases, asbestos- fibers alone are responsible for a lethal type of cancer called mesothelioma. -
Regional director Don Tick said the company has reduced i _ use of asbestos, but company of: cials would not comment.
The state is investigating tv
The microscopic fibers lodge in the finest air passages of the lungs and when they do tiny knots of fibrous tissue form around each
asbestos particle!
About 75 Bay Area workers who were chronically exposed to asbestos in shipyards during and _ after World War H have died of mesothelioma. According to Dr.
Asbestosis Itself causes no early Irma West, occupational, health
symptoms, but over many years as specialist at the State Health De
the lung tissue thickens it begins to partment, more and more older
cast^X-ray shadows, and more and workers will Inevitably develop the
more severe shortness of breath disease as a result of long-term
may develop. Infection, empbyse- exposure in past days when plant
ma and even heart-failure often safety-standards were far more lax
follow.
. than they are today.
alleged asbestosis-related deaths : the Johns-Manvilie mining and mi ing plant at Lompoc in the centr coast area. ,
Tests made there by an ind pendent firm showed the operatic is well within the current standan and would pass a new standard < two particles per cubic centimetc which is scheduled to go into effe< July 1.
Class action lawsuits have bee filed against Johns-Manvilie an other asbestos manufacturers i other states, but none have come i
trial.'
',
UCC 023068
A 17607
Victims' Story
MARCUS VELA He sued successfully
( Bitter Results of
| Asbestos Exposure
I
| By Bill Workman
Harold Browner can still find some humor in the memory of l unloading railroad box cars filled with the deadly dust of raw asbes
tos at Johns Mahvilie's sprawling Pittsburg plant.
"We'd go into one of those cars, colored and white guys together/' grinned the 58-year-old black. "But we'd all come out of there the same color -- slate gray "
it
But the last time Browner challenged himself to break a sweat
or move at anything more than a
deliberately slow* pace was back in
1957.
That's when the Contra Costa county healthdepartment--where he had taken a routine tuberculosis screening -- told' him he had asbestosis in his lungs. He lost large sections of both lungs to surgery.
' What was particularly discour aging about the asbestosis discov ery, he said, was that only a few months before he had been X-rayed by the company physician. Dr. Davis Wise, and pronounced fit.
"I asked that doctor; `why, why, why did you let this thing go 'so far without telling me said Browner. "But the man swears he didn't know about it."
Browner later received 38000 in worker's compensation benefits and the company Continues to pick up some of the tab for his medical expenses.
He feels lucky that despite his crippled lungs he's able to work as a laundry supervisor at the county Juvenile Hall in Martinez ("The kids lug all the laundry bags for me.")
Nevertheless, he's still bitter about his experience. "That compa ny got away with murder. Some one ought to find a way to make
, HAROLD BROWNER
Porta o# hit kings on gone
them -pay the guys who survived tins terrible thing."
One man who did find a way. is Marcos Vela,, a 5&year-oid former shingle machine tender who spent 33 years at the Pittsburg plant
Vela successfully sued Dr. Wise in 1968 for malpractice. He claimed that the doctor had read his X-rays, knew of his worsening condition, but went ahead and declared him fit A court awarded Vela $350,000.
Vela has invested what was left ofthe award after lawyer's fees and says "I don't have to worry about where my next meal will come from."
"If I take too deep a breath it kicks up a coughing that can send me to the hospital for three to four weeks at a time," he said.
The asbestosis, coupled with arthritis that Vela claims one doc tor links to his lung problems, has left him able to do little more than shuffle around his modest Antioch bungalow and go for a drive with bis children.
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