Showing 49 results

Corporate correspondence and papers on asbestos and health, including information leaflets on the topic, and safety labelling for asbestos products. Predominantly 1972-1986.

Correspondence and papers re asbestos workers at the Havelock/Bulembu asbestos mine, Swaziland. The bulk of the file relates to an epidemiological study of workers at the mine, undertaken jointly by the Medical Research Council Pneumoconiosis Unit at Llandough Hospital, Penarth (Wales), T&N Ltd, Manchester, and the Havelock Mine, Swaziland.

Includes reports of visits to the mine, preliminary reports of the epidemiological study of chrysotile workers. The study was triggered by a report of Peter Elmes, at the time director of the MRC Pneumoconiosis Unit, Penarth, following a visit in 1978.

Photocopy of an account of Turner & Newall Ltd, issued by the directors of T&N "so that the shareholders of the company may be acquainted with the nature and scope of its operations". Appeared while the company was still chaired by Frederick Stirling Newall, who died 1930.

Correspondence documenting T&N’s efforts to counter the findings in a report by the University of Leeds re the health hazards of using asbestos in buildings.

Includes:

• company correspondence re lung cancer, 1923-1946, including statistics on occupational lung cancer mortality, lists of 'suspended employees' (= suspended on health grounds) and of employees whose cause of death (as stated by coroner or medical board) involved some degree of asbestosis; also correspondence re Dr Leroy U Gardner's asbestosis research at the Saranac Laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis, New York
• correspondence and papers re medical research conducted by Drs T Belt and E J King on behalf of T&N, 1942-1952
• records relating to Drs R Doll and J Knox' study on mortality from lung cancer among asbestos workers, and T&N seeking to suppress the findings, 1953-1954
• records chiefly re epidemiological studies on lung cancer among asbestos workers, 1954-1959
• correspondence and papers re asbestos and health, 1959-1986, including lists of claims settled or still proceeding, list of deaths from lung cancer and mesothelioma, etc

Correspondence 1993-1998, re Michael O’Connor’s move to release copies of Turner & Newall records gathered in preparation of Chase Manhattan Bank v. T&N plc et al., United States District Court, Southern District of New York.

At the time O’Connor was Vice President and Senior Associate Counsel of Chase Manhattan Bank.

Includes

• set of Turner & Newall documents re insulation and shipbuilding, 1944-1950, with an overview
• SPAID documentation on Dr Kevin Browne
• set of Turner & Newall documents re asbestosis widows and press coverage of one of them, Molly Fisher
• press coverage on Chase Manhattan’s case turning to dust, and an inquiry from Nancy Tait with London colleagues, asking could they let her have “the index to Mike O’Connor’s papers”

Closes with Nancy Tait corresponding re O’Connor’s Freedom of Information Award in the UK, 1995, in recognition of “his remarkable efforts to supply British victims of asbestos diseases with documents needed for their compensation claims."

Copies of minutes and other papers relating to T&N Board and Executive Committee meetings, 1967-1990.

With a detailed covering letter from Michael O'Connor, 20 July 1993. Correspondence and papers re proposed changes to the Asbestos Regulations and T&N's subsequent steps for compliance.

Papers include

• minutes of T&N Chairman's Committee meetings, meetings of Advisory Panel on Problems Arising from the Use of Asbestos, meetings between the Ministry of Labour (renamed Department of Employment and Productivity in 1968) and the Asbestosis Research Council (ARC)
• also records re first prosecution of T&N for breaching the new regulations, 1971
• and what Michael O'Connor (and Nancy Tait with him) termed the "evil day" memorandum of 12 August 1968. This came from the manager of J W Roberts Railways and Insulation Department, advising the Chairman of J W Roberts (A N (‘Sandy’) Marshall) on the probable impact of the provisions made in the draft Regulations on Asbestos re sales of sprayed and other asbestos.The memorandum includes the comment: “If … we demonstrate, by a token effort only of ostensible intention to comply with the regulations, it is conceivable that we can ward off the evil day when asbestos cannot economically be applied …”

Corporate correspondence and papers re media coverage on the asbestos industry, in particular the Yorkshire Television documentary ‘Alice: a fight for life’ (broadcast 20 July 1982). The programme was named after Alice Jefferson, who developed malignant pleural mesothelioma thirty years after working at an asbestos plant for a few months as a teenager. The film documented her last days and explored the health issues surrounding the manufacture and use of asbestos products.

Includes

• formal complaint to the Independent Broadcasting Authority by Wilfred Penney (Asbestos Information Centre)
• T&N's extensive point by point refutations of statements made in the documentary, among them the allegation that T&N had removed four pages from the evidence it submitted to the Advisory Committee on Asbestos (Simpson Committee) in 1976-1977; presumably the tables 'Airborne asbestos dust survey results' 1961-1972, see http://atom.lib.strath.ac.uk/oeda-turner-newall-tables-to-aca )

The bulk of the file dates from 1982-1983. Covering correspondence with Chase Manhattan is dated 1993.

Correspondence and papers, itemised, re new shipbuilding regulations. Includes many draft versions of the regulations. Also covers asbestosis statistics and meetings of the Scottish Insulating Engineers' Association.

Continues a similar series (1944-1950) that forms part of the Nancy Tait - Michael O'Connor correspondence. See link below.

Correspondence and papers (foliated), 1928-1991, chiefly re asbestos injury cases and compensation claims brought against T&N. With a telephone message from Michael O’Connor (Chase Manhattan Bank), 25 May 1993, inquiring whether copies of the T&N material had been received and offering more.
Includes:

• inventory of the papers
• copies of T&N Board meetings and Executive Committee meetings
• correspondence on T&N factories at Hindley Green, Armley, etc.
• documents relating to inquests, lists of deceased, newspaper articles, lists of asbestos-related deaths and claims (containing date of birth, cause of death), copies of medical records and autopsy reports
• research papers
• account (incomplete) by defendants' law firm Richards & O'Neil, addressed to the magistrate judge in Chase v. T&N, detailing progress made by T&N in complying with court's orders re disclosure
• affidavit of John Mason Atkinson (25 August 1991), in Chase Manhattan Bank v. T&N plc et al., United States District Court, Southern District of New York. J M Atkinson was the Group Solicitor of T&N plc, 1966-1988

Copies of correspondence and papers relating to T&N seminars of Industrial Medical Officers (IMO seminars), 1970-1974. Also re offering similar seminars for GPs in the Rochdale area.

Chiefly correspondence between National Coal Board and Turner Brothers Ltd, Rochdale, re dust samplers and dust sampling. Includes results of dust sampling and counting, Rochdale Factory 'B' block, 1957.

Correspondence and papers re health and asbestos, in particular crocidolite (blue asbestos) 1959-1982.

The aggregation was triggered by J C Wagner's discovery, in South Africa, of a probable relationship between exposure to crocidolite and mesothelioma. (See Wagner (1959), 'Some pathological aspects of asbestos in the Union of South Africa', in \Proceedings of the Pneumoconiosis Conference held at the University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, 1959\, ed. A J Orenstein (London: J&A Churchhill Ltd, 1960): 383–390).

Closes with a 6pp summary ‘T&N’s use and sale of blue asbestos’ (n.d.) and listing of ‘Asbestos and health: possible questions’ by PR company Hill and Knowlton International, London, c.1982.

Further includes photocopies of ‘Bulletin JWR’ (n.d., c.1960s).

Foliated minutes and papers of T&N Ltd Board and Executive Committee meetings. Includes an inventory. Among subjects covered are reports on the Asbestosis Fund, information on employers’ liability insurance for asbestosis, asbestosis cases, research into asbestosis and mesothelioma cases and claims, deaths of asbestos workers, claims and payments, etc.