Johnmanvill
The case study titled, "When Did Johns-Manville Know?", is primarily concerned with the issue of an employer's liability with respect to the health and safety of its employees. This case deals specifically with how much of what an employer knows, or ought to know, about a potential hazard should be communicated to workers, and what steps the company is obligated to take in protecting workers from such dangers. In addition, the avoidance of cash payments to employees for damages by seeking relief through bankruptcy protection is also discussed.Today most people have heard, at least to some degree, about the potential health problems associated with exposure to asbestos, but in the mid 1920's medical evidence of this threat was still being compiled. The article notes that even though concerns about potential health problems from asbestos exposure were documented as early at 1907, asbestos related illness was reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1928. These concerns were enough to cause the Prudential Insurance Company to suspend life insurance policies on asbestos workers. The Johns-Manville company was a producer and supplier of asbestos in the United States. A
Rawls would also support the view that what J-M did was wrong. His Original Position philosophy would hold out that no reasonable person would affirm the company's behavior if put in a position to make the rules. Even Mills would have a hard time supporting the organization's actions because he would demand that they evaluate the consequences of their actions, which they clearly did not do. By concealing the potential asbestos hazards from their workers they may have been causing stockholders a great happiness in the form of increased profits, but they also caused a greater unhappiness to the families that lost loved ones due to asbestos illness and death. ccording to J-M, the company had followed asbestos safety standards, later set forth by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1938, since the early 1930's. The firm also alleges they had no knowledge of asbestos related cancer until as late as 1964. According to the evidence presented in the text this knowledge, and the company's apparent attempts to conceal from employees the harmful effects of asbestos exposure, was the basis for several successful lawsuits against the organization. Though the J-M company began taking annual chest X-rays of plant workers in the 1930's, and participated in an asbestos study during that same time, there was evidenc
Some common words found in the essay are:
Health Service, Original Position, , Categorical Imperative, Insurance Company, According J-M, Medical Association, asbestos related, j-m company, evidence text, johns-manville company, potential asbestos, indeed company, potential health, action wrong, asbestos health, avoid paying,
Approximate Word count = 886
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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