Management strategies for health

Business historians have much preferred to concentrate on the dynamics of leadership and management rather than the health and safety of the workforce. Meanwhile, in the 1940s both B. A. Turner & Newall and the Roberts’ management fought a long and successful rearguard action against the government to prevent spraying becoming a scheduled operation. Property-damage litigation in America has forced the leading British asbestos producer, Turner & Newall, to disgorge its huge archive into the public domain. Using these records, the chapter explains the management strategies of J. W. Roberts, an asbestos company in Leeds that was a Turner & Newall subsidiary. Roberts’ activities were transferred to a new Turner & Newall factory at Hindley Green, near Wigan, with new offices conveniently situated at Horwich, near Bolton. During 1932, Turner & Newall began implementing the dust regulations through its newly-convened Asbestosis Committee at Rochdale.