Johns Manville

Johns Manville is an American company based in Denver, Colorado, that manufactures insulation, roofing materials and engineered products.

[1] The stock of Johns-Manville Corporation had been included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from January 29, 1930 to August 27, 1982, when it was replaced by American Express.

Todd Raba succeeded him in the summer of 2007; he came from MidAmerican Energy Holdings, another Berkshire Hathaway company.

The company serves markets that include aerospace, automotive and transportation, air handling, appliance, HVAC, pipe and equipment, filtration, waterproofing, building, flooring, interiors and wind energy.

The company employs 8,000 people and operates 46 manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe.

The present-day Johns Manville company traces its origins to two early manufacturers of construction materials.

Glass Fibers had several plants in Waterville and Defiance, which are still in operation under Johns Manville, Beginning just after World War II, sculptor Beverly Bender spent thirty-two years working in the art department of Johns-Manville, creating animal sculpture in her free time.

[7] In 1943, Samac Laboratory in New York confirmed the link between asbestos and cancer, but Johns-Manville suppressed the report.

Files and testimony alleged that "[Johns-Manville] maintained a policy into the 1970s of not telling its employes that their physical examinations showed signs of asbestosis".

During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the company faced thousands of individual and class action lawsuits based on asbestos-related injuries such as asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma.