Document jyaqR4KrbJZnDqqrOnyeqq2XO

FILE NAME: PPG (PPG) DATE: 2020 DOC#: PPG018 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: PPG History - Barry Castleman Notes PPG Industries PPG Industries, Inc. was originally Incorporated as Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company In 1883. By the early 1900s, the company was expanding its glass production to an international scale, diversifying its business into new areas such as the production of paints, and had established research and development facilities. See https://web.archive.org/web/20081114020712/http://corporateportal.ppg.com/PPG/OurCom pany/125anniversary.htm. By the 1960s, the company had reached over $1 billion in annual sales, and it changed its name to PPG Industries to reflect its diversification. See id. PPG was also involved in the production of asbestos insulation products. In 1937, PPG formed Pittsburgh-Corning in 1937 in a joint venture with Corning Glass Works. In 1962, Pittsburgh-Corning acquired the Unibestos line of asbestos insulation products from UNARCO. Pittsburgh-Corning, which did not have its own medical department, would obtain medical and industrial hygiene information and services through PPG. PPG had an early understanding that occupational exposure to mineral dusts could have negative health impacts. Through its membership in the Industrial Hygiene Foundation (IHF), a number of surveys of dust conditions at PPG facilities were conducted by the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, IHF's parent organization, during the 1940s. See, e.g., Mellon Institute progress reports for week ending 9/12/1942; 2/12/1944; 1/20/1945; 10/22/1948; 6/3/1949. Dr. Francis Holden, an industrial hygienist on staff with the IHF in the 1940s, had formerly been employed as an industrial hygienist for PPG for more than 5 years during the 1930s. See, Industrial Hygiene Digest, Vol. 4, No. 5, May 1942. PPG admits that it was aware that exposure to asbestos dust could cause asbestosis as early as the 1940s. See Defendant PPG Industries, Inc.'s Responses to Plaintiffs' Interrogatories, dated 8/30/2019, at response to Interrogatory No. 42. In 1962, the same year that Pittsburgh-Corning became the manufacturer of Unibestos asbestos insulation products, PPG's Manager of Safety & Plant Protection was providing information regarding asbestos and asbestosis to Pittsburgh Corning, and further offered the services of the IHF through PPG's membership in the organization. See letter from Clyde Ruddick to Karl Baumler dated 5/15/1962. PPG further offered Pittsburgh Corning the services of its medical consultant at the time, Carey McCord. See id. Dr. McCord, in a 1937 publication, had referred to asbestos as "a menace to health and life." See "Hazards of Industry," Modern Home Medical Adviser, M. Fishbein, Ed., 1937. A year later, in 1963, the IHF conducted an evaluation of asbestos dust at Pittsburgh-Corning's Unibestos manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas. See Industrial Hygiene Foundation, "Report on Evaluation of the Asbestos Dust Hazard in Tyler, Texas, Plant of the Pittsburgh Corning Corporation," July 8, August 6 & &, 1963. The results of this evaluation were communicated to Dr. Lee Grant at the time that he joined PPG as medical director in 1964. See memorandum dated 10/19/1964, re: Asbestos Exposure at Pittsburgh Corning Corporation. Dr. Grant met with a Pittsburgh-Corning's president of manufacturing over concerns over the potential health effects of plant exposures to asbestos in facilities where Unibestos was being manufactured. See id. Between 1964 and 1971, PPG and Pittsburgh Corning hired industrial hygienist Morton Corn to inspect Unibestos manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania and Texas. Corn detected hazardous exposures in both plants and made recommendations to control those exposures, though many of his recommendations went largely ignored. Furthermore, as serious as the exposures to Pittsburgh Corning factory workers were, Dr. Grant held the belief that end user applicators of asbestos insulation were exposed to even higher levels of dust. See letter from Richard Packard to George Duncan dated 6/24/1968, re Tomplait Case Against Pittsburgh Corning Corporation. PPG admits that certain of its employees were aware of the link between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma in the 1960s. See Responses to Interrogatories, supra, at response to Interrogatory No. 42. Indeed, during his meeting with Dr. Grant in 1964, Pittsburgh-Corning's president of manufacturing provided Grant with a copy of an article, "A Rare Carcinoma Believed on Rise," reporting on Dr. Selikoff, et al.'s work studying the incidence of mesothelioma among construction workers who dealt with asbestos insulation products. See memorandum dated 10/19/1964, re: Asbestos Exposure at Pittsburgh Corning Corporation. By 1967, Dr. Grant was himself sharing peer-reviewed literature dealing investigating mesothelioma and its link to asbestos with members of the National Insulation Manufacturers Association (NIMA). See letter from Dr. L. Grant to J.M. Barnhart dated 8/23/1967, enclosing JAMA article "Mesothelioma and Its Association with Asbestosis." 2. Organization Memberships PPG was a member of a number of trade organizations from which it could have acquired knowledge of asbestos hazards. PPG was a charter member of the National Insulation Manufacturers Association (NIMA) in 1958, and continued its membership in the organization through at least 1968. See National Insulation Manufacturers Association Minutes, 1958; list of NIMA Committees, 1967-1968. PPG employees held prominent roles within the organization, including Dr. Grant, who served on NIMA's Occupational Health & Safety Committee. See list of NIMA Committees, 1967-1968. In 1968, R.L. Strickland, then President-Elect of NIMA, spoke at the IDCNA annual convention about the insulation industry's "mutual problem regarding the health and safety of employees." V.J. Cecilia, "MAICA Fall Meeting," IDCNA News Letter, Vol. 13, No. 12 (Dec. 1968), at pp. 32, 34, 36. Mr. Strickland noted Dr. Selikoff's "very active investigation of asbestos fibers," which he likened to Ralph Nader's publicity and the subsequent government regulation of automobile safety. Mr. Strickland further noted NIMA's publication of two brochures regarding recommended health and safety practices, health and safety presentations made to regional contractor association meetings, and ongoing research by the insulation industry. Mr. Strickland urged the insulation industry to "work jointly" and have "a voice in formulating safety practices" rather than be "faced with negotiating a labor contract having a health and safety package as part of the union's working conditions." PPG and numerous company officials were members of the American Ceramics Society (ACS) dating back to 1921 and continuing until 1970. See, Journal of the American Ceramics Society, Vol. 4, No. 6, June 21; American Ceramics Society Bulletin, October 1970. The publications of the ACS repeatedly discussed the relation between asbestos and lung disease. The importance of dust control, including through the use of devices such as dust masks and dust standards, were also emphasized. Beginning in the 1930's and 1940's, the Ceramic Abstracts contained references to numerous medical articles on asbestos and/or asbestosis. James Destefano, an engineering associate within PPG's Safety and Industrial Hygiene department, was a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) as early as 1966. See American Industrial Hygiene Association Membership Book 1966-1967. The AIHA distributed a monthly journal to its members that included articles about hazards associated with asbestos exposure. See, e.g., "The Industrial Hygiene Guide on Asbestos," American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2 (April 1958). PPG employees also held memberships with the National Safety Council from the 1930s through the 1960s. For example, PPG's Mr. Destefano served on the NSC Glass & Ceramics Section's Health Committee in 1967-68. See National Safety Congress Transactions, Glass and Ceramics; Rubber Industries, Volume 2, 1967. NSC published many reports about dust hazards including asbestosis starting in 1929, including its monthly National Safety News, annual meetings (NationalSafety Congresses), and various other reports. As previously noted, PPG was a member of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, with its membership spanning from 1937 through at least 1981. See IHF Annual Report 1981. IHF had a staff of experts in industrial medicine and hygiene, did hundreds of confidential industrial hygiene surveys for corporations and trade associations by 1953. Starting in 1937, the organization published the Industrial Hygiene Digest as a service to member companies. This monthly publication included numerous abstracts, or summaries of recently published articles, published in several hundred scientific journals. Between 1937 and 1974, there were dozens of abstracts on the lethality of asbestos published in the Digest, delivered monthly to member companies.