Opinion ID: 3134558
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Labeling

Text: Plaintiffs’ evidence of contacts between Owens Corning and Johns-Manville included a 1964 internal Owens Corning memorandum. This memorandum indicated that Johns-Manville’s medical director had informed Owens Corning that, in October of that year, Johns-Manville planned to label shipping cartons of asbestos-containing products with warnings of the “alleged hazards of asbestos.” The author of the Owens Corning memorandum observed: “It is obvious that these warning labels will have some impact in the field and possibly upon Public Health and other government officials. The question before us is whether or not Fiberglas Kaylo should protect itself against more stringent and punitive health laws and the possibility of third party actions by following the J-M lead.” A 1965 internal Owens Corning memorandum indicated that, several months after receiving this information from Johns-Manville, Owens Corning was still deciding whether to place warning labels on its own asbestos-containing products. The author of the 1965 memorandum recommended that Owens Corning “continue to give serious consideration to the labeling of  Kaylo products in a manner similar to that currently being used by Johns-Manville [because] the fact that Johns-Manville is labeling their preformed products is in itself a pressure on the whole industry to consider labeling.”