Document np6zvq8nYDB9nG5oYRD8nr1pX

FILE NAME Manville JMA DATE 1976 Feb 1 DOC JMA033 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION Asbestos Fiber Sales Policy - Draft Letter to Customers 3770A C THK: 7M 7M 7M Manville TYE 1 14 1114 ues Dr. RReeiittgegeWright Internal Correspondence To Dr. Paul Kotin J. A. McKinney From M. Harris Copies N. W. Hendry Subject A STATEMENT OF ASBESTOS FIBER POLICY SALES RELATING TO Date February 3 1976 Attached is a draft letter to one of our customers as well as a Statement of Policy on Asbestos Fiber Sales from N. W. Hendry I would appreciate your comments as soon as possible as we intend to send this letter and statement to each of our asbestos fiber customers throughout the world as well as to our asbestos fiber users who are not customers cn Attach Mr. G. H. Lovegrove Director of Purchasing The Bendix Corp. Friction Materials Div P. O. Box 238 Troy N.Y. Dear Mr. Lovegrove In view of recent developments relating to the submission of sales contracts by certain asbestos producers in Canada with a clause relating to Purchaser's liability the proposal by OSHA to reduce asbestos fiber exposure in plants to 0.5 fibers and the growing number of legal suits from and by workers exposed to asbestos we believe it is essential for us to issue a policy statement statement on behalf of lanville reflecting our viewpoint on asbestos fiber sales now and in the future We have attached the J.II. policy for your information and guidance MANVILLE POLICY STATEMENT O SALES SALSEALSES OF ASBESTOS FIBER WORLDWIDE Manville is Canada's largest producer of chrysotile asbestos with a projected production level in 1976 of 720,000 tons at the Jeffrey mine and 80,000 tons at the Advocate mine the largest single consumer of asbestos in the U.C. Also J.M. is and Canada in the manufacture of asbestos containing products It is apparent then that asbestos tibor 15 of great importance importance importance to Manville first to supply this essential mineral to industry and second to manufacture products with it internally . internal y The corporate policy of lanville on environmental health is stated as follows It is our Company's policy to equip our plants for the highest degree of personal safety --~-- providing it is technically possible and economically feasible to do so When technology is not available ---- or when it is not feasible economically from a competitive standpoint to make these installations --== we will elect to discontinue a particular operation rather than knowingly endanger the health or life expectancy of a single employee We are and we convinced that are installing asbestos fiber can be produced and used safely equipment and and expanding expanding funds at our asbestos mines and asbestos using plants to meet this objective Purther we are convinced that disappear as employee liability suits will exposure to asbestos diminish fiber is and eventually reduced to s safe afe levels we consider it morally wrong to attempt to pass on to our customers the liability responsibility for our asbestos fiber In addition we are expanding our asbestos production in 1976 at Jeffrey mine and allocating additional funds for the purpose of finding and bringing to production new asbestos mines to alleviate the present and future shortages Based on this preamble we can state the Manville sales policy as follows 1 We will continue to produce and market asbestos fiber on a worldwide basis as we have in the past and we will not ask our customers to accept the health liability resulting from the use of our asbestos fiber 2 As in the past we will continue to inform educate and provide all manner of information to our customers for the safe use of asbestos and we will insist that our customers adhere to existing federal or state regulations relating to the use of asbestos and that they inform and educate their employees on the safe use of asbestos 3 We will reserve the right to refuse to sell asbestos fiber to customers who take no action or not sufficient action to meet the existing regulations on asbestos exposure and thereby endanger or shorten the lives of their employees 4 We will continue to search for and implement improved methods of packaging and shipping asbestos to our customers and to develop new and improved forms such as blocks and pellets to improve the condition of arrival and to eliminate any problem of excess exposure to asbestos which can result from handling the product in the form in which we ship it