H. B. Meller of the Air Hygiene Foundation to Sumner Simpson on Plant Surveys (1939)

A one-page letter of April 5, 1939, from H. B. Meller, managing director of the Air Hygiene Foundation of America in Pittsburgh, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. Meller reports that at the foundation's March 15, 1939 trustees' meeting a member spoke of the value of having a "disinterested and recognized authority" survey dust and fume conditions in a plant, so that if an employee filed a claim under the new state laws "a strong defense against an unjust claim could be made." He offers the foundation's own surveys to members at a low cost.

What it shows

Meller sets out the case for surveys in three parts: the legal advantage in defending compensation claims, the chance of "lower insurance rates through having competent data," and operating savings that often paid for the equipment the survey showed was needed. Company records made by the employer's own staff, he writes, were often disregarded as "prejudiced." A handwritten note on the letter reads "Copy to Vandiver Brown," J-M's attorney.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

H.B. Meller of the Air Hygiene Foundation (IHF) writes to Sumner Simpson on 4/5/39, offering the services of an Air Hygiene Foundation industrial hygienist to Simpson. Meller suggests that it might not be a bad idea to secure the services of a "disinterested and recognized authority" in the medical and engineering field of industrial health to evaluate the prevailing working conditions. Then a strong defense can be made against any unjust claim based on records of actual conditions before and at the time of the alleged injury prepared by a disinterested party. Meller points out that besides the legal advantage and the possibility of securing lower insurance rates through having "competent" data the results of surveys usually result in operating savings that more than compensate for the expense of the study.