Document ZB8kpVaa1qwE6v0kzvq48Xq7Y

FILE NAME Monsanto MON DATE 0000 DOC MON000 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Barry Castleman Report on Monsanto Monsanto Monsanto and its subsidiary Lion Oil manufactured products using asbestos as a raw material from 1941-1972 In the years before and during this entire period asbestos had become recognized as a mortal hazard The company employed a corporate medical department director Emmett Kelly who had started as a plant physician in 1936 and an industrial hygienist Elmer Wheeler starting in 1946-1947 Jack Garrett joined them and started work as an industrial hygienist for Monsanto in 1954 Dr. Kelly has testified that in 1940 people at Monsanto knew that breathing asbestos dust could cause pulmonary changes and disability At Monsanto he subscribed to and read journals on industrial hygiene and medicine in the late 1940s and thereafter On April 17 1964 within 2 weeks after a landmark epidemiological study on asbestos insulator mortality was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dr. Kelly wrote that workers sawing asbestos should be provided with respiratory protection In the 1970s the company was well aware of regulatory standards for asbestos Mr. Garrett has testified that asbestos insulation work was regarded as hazardous in the 1950s at Monsanto Insulators wore respirators and they were provided with daily changes of clothes including sock and underwear We didn't want it at home he explained Monsanto was a corporate member of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation from 19371954 and the corporate medical department thereby received the monthly Industrial Hygiene Digest containing dozens of 1-2 paragraph abstracts of medical and scientific articles about asbestos and its hazards published around the world As a major chemical company Monsanto would also have had access to Chemical Abstracts which contained abstracts of articles on 12 articles on asbestos and cancer between 1938-1958 Asbestos Medical and Legal Aspects 5th Ed Aspen NY 2005 p 665