Memorandum of Agreement Funding Gardner's Asbestos Experiments at Saranac Laboratory (1936)

Three documents setting up the asbestos industry's research at the Saranac Laboratory. In a Memorandum of Agreement dated November 20, 1936, the signers agreed to underwrite experiments with asbestos dust by Dr. LeRoy U. Gardner at $5,000 a year for three years, shared equally, with Johns-Manville or Raybestos-Manhattan paying Gardner and the others reimbursing them. Eleven companies signed. The same day Vandiver Brown, J-M's general attorney, authorized Gardner to begin, "for the purpose of determining more definitely the causes and effects of asbestosis," and set the terms: the results "will be considered the property of those who are advancing the required funds, who will determine whether, to what extent and in what manner they shall be made public," and any manuscript "will be submitted to us for approval prior to publication."

What it shows

Brown listed the questions the work was to answer: what dust concentration produces asbestosis, whether it occurs without previous infection, whether the scarring keeps progressing after exposure ends, whether it is caused by the silicon in asbestos or by its fibers, and whether "asbestos bodies" have diagnostic value. On November 23 Gardner accepted: "The Saranac Laboratory agrees that the results of these studies shall become the property of the contributors and that the manuscripts of any reports shall be submitted for approval of the contributors before publication." From the start, then, the sponsors controlled whether and how the findings were published. The plan grew out of Sumner Simpson's letters to Keasbey & Mattison and Thermoid; Gardner's first progress report followed in May 1937.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

On 11/20/36, Asbestos industry (10 companies) commission research by Leroy Gardner at Saranac into effects of asbestos on animals. Gardner agrees that the results of the studies shall become the property of the contributors and that the manuscripts shall be submitted for approval to the contributors.

Editor's note: J-M's description says ten companies commissioned the research. The agreement bears eleven signatures. The terms on ownership and approval of results are set out in Brown's letter and Gardner's reply, not in the Memorandum of Agreement itself.

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to A. S. Blagden of Keasbey & Mattison on Funding Gardner's Asbestos Research (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to F. H. Schluter of Thermoid Rubber on Funding Gardner's Asbestos Research (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to Leroy Gardner Requesting the 1938 Saranac Report (1939)