Johns Manville

Johns Manville (J-M) was one of the most prolific asbestos product manufacturers in United States history. The company traces its origins to 1858 when the H.W. Johns Manufacturing Company began producing asbestos-based roofing materials in New York. After merging with the Manville Covering Company in 1901, the combined entity grew into a massive industrial conglomerate with dozens of product lines containing asbestos.

The company manufactured an extraordinarily broad range of asbestos products including pipe insulation and coverings, Marinite high-temperature boards, Transite asbestos-cement pipe, roofing shingles and felts, Flexboard building panels, Spin-Glas fiber insulation, industrial packings, and sprayed insulation coatings. At its peak, Johns Manville operated more than 50 manufacturing facilities and mines across North America.

Internal documents later revealed that Johns Manville's management was aware of the health hazards of asbestos as early as the 1930s but actively concealed this information from workers and the public. Company doctors were instructed not to inform employees of their chest X-ray results showing asbestosis. This corporate cover-up was described by a New Jersey court as demonstrating a "conscious disregard" for worker safety.

By the early 1980s, Johns Manville was facing over 16,000 asbestos-related lawsuits. In August 1982, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the largest US industrial corporation to do so at that time. The Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust was established in 1988 with $2.5 billion in initial funding to compensate asbestos victims. The Trust has since paid out billions in claims.

Johns Manville emerged from bankruptcy in 1988 and was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2001. The company continues to operate as a building and specialty products manufacturer, producing fiberglass insulation, commercial roofing, and engineered products — none of which contain asbestos.