Bronson Batchelor to Vandiver Brown on the Public Health Service Asbestosis Study (1938)

A one-page letter of September 9, 1938, from Bronson Batchelor of 475 Fifth Avenue, New York, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, pointing out "two items in today's CAPITOL DAILY" that Brown "may find interesting." The first was the listing of the U.S. Public Health Service's new bulletin, "Study of asbestosis in the asbestos textile industry," with the study's three objectives quoted, including "to find out what concentration of asbestos dust can be tolerated without injury to health." The second was a volume of National Labor Relations Board decisions.

What it shows

The Public Health Service study (the Dreessen report) proposed the first working limit for asbestos dust. Within weeks of its publication in August 1938, its appearance in a Washington listing was being passed to J-M's attorney. The letter itself only repeats the listing; it does not describe the study's findings.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

In a memorandum dated 9/9/38, Batchelor notifies V. Brown of the appearance in the Capitol Daily of a reference to the Dreessen Report and describes the contents of the study.

Editor's note: J-M's description says Batchelor described the contents of the study. The letter quotes only the three objectives of the Public Health Service study as listed in the Capitol Daily, and says nothing of its findings.

Related documents

• Dreessen and Others, A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestos Textile Industry (1938)
• Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service on Dust Standards (1930)