T&N Rochdale, asbestos and cancer - There WAS a cover up - Part 7

T&N, Cancer and Public Relations: The 1960s

In 1965 a Sunday Times investigation made clear to the public that even low-level exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma.

Much detail about how T&N reacted to the public revelations about their product is published in “Magic Mineral to Killer Dust”and “Defending the Indefensible”, both by Geoffrey Tweedale.

However, further T&N Board Meeting Minutes from 1968 demonstrate a close working relationship between T&N and the public relations industry to “spin” messages to defend asbestos production and use.

The T&N Board meeting minutes of 25 May 1967 give a summary of asbestos disease and cancer, a “digest of an enormous subject” that “...will, perhaps, serve to show the magnitude of the problem.”

Under the heading “Publicity in the UK” the emotive minutes suggest that much of what was being said about asbestos was “alarmist” and “ludicrous”. That the industry's products are being “smeared” by “alarmist headlines” particularly in local papers and Trade Union journals. The BBC was also criticised in the T&N Board minutes for putting out a “very irresponsible programme” that February.

“This makes a new problem for the salesman of all companies to surmount."

Under “Action” the formation of an “Asbestos Information Committee” was minuted, with the appointment of the London Branch of the American public relations firm Hill & Knowlton International.

Hill & Knowlton's roll was clear: “Their job will be to combat and, if possible, to forestall adverse publicity in all quarters.”

The concluding sentence in the minutes set the scene for an aggressive public relations campaign:

“...until it can be proved that no risks arise from using the Group's [asbestos] products the tendency of customers to play for safety by looking for alternative materials can be combated only by very active selling of the superior attractions of asbestos.”

The T&N Board Minutes for 25 January 1968 headed “Asbestos and Health – Progress Report" give an update on international PR consultants Hill & Knowlton's activity for the asbestos industry.

These included plans for a national advertising campaign, a short film for “overseas consumption” by the Central Office of Information. “Appropriate letters” were also drafted to editors challenging articles about asbestos in medical, technical and local journals.

A staff pamphlet entitled “Putting the Case for Asbestos” was also planned.

Asbestos Information Council expenses for September-November 1967 were listed as £4,469. 3s. 1d. From this, Hill & Knowlton's expenses were £ 2,942. 13s. 1d. T&N's share of that quarter's AIC expenses amounted to £2,473. 3s. 3d.

The T&N Board Minutes “Asbestos and Health – Progress Report” of 31 March 1968c onfirmed that:

“The AIC is building up a panel of speakers on asbestos who will be given proper training and briefing on health matters”.

Also reported was the appointment of a doctor to act “as a retained journalist on an experimental basis...at a fee of £250 for the quarter [year] plus a linage of 30/- per hundred words published.

A copy of the “confidential” glossy staff pamphlet “Putting the Case for Asbestos” is available to read:

A summary included the advice in capital letters:

NEVER BE THE FIRST TO RAISE THE HEALTH QUESTION.

The 5 key points it advised where:

Make clear our concern.

Emphasize rarity (NB “Emphasise” in American spelling)

Stress that control is effective.

Be positive

Mention indispensability

On occasions still in Rochdale, forty years after the world's largest PR agency wrote this pamplet for staff, the “case for asbestos”, 5 key messages are sometimes heard; despite four decades passing since its publication and the fact that Britain has seen tens of thousands of asbestos cancer deaths.

To conclude this series of documents is a letter drafted months after the broadcast of the Yorkshire TV's award-winning documentary “Alice Fight For Life”. The note was penned by T&N Company Medical Advisor Dr Tim Goffe. Dated 11 May 1983, it reads:

“I thought the bad old days of suppression of reports, secrecy on health and safety matters, non-investigation of sensitive problems were long since over.”

The frank letter concluded:

“Isn't it time there was a coherent company-wide health and safety policy which allows full investigation of serious health hazards, unhindered by directorial whim, which allows decision making on health priorities and which can authorise resources to tackle health problems?”

The original documents relating to this story are available for download below.

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13950/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13956/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up-part-2

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13955/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up-part-3

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13954/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up-part-4

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13953/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up-part-5

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/21/spodden-valley/13952/tandn-rochdale-asbestos-and-cancer-there-was-a-cover-up-part-6

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