Minutes of a J-M Headquarters Meeting with Dr. Lanza on Gardner's Unfinished Saranac Experiments (1947)

Confidential six-page minutes of a meeting at Johns-Manville's headquarters on January 21, 1947. Dr. Anthony Lanza of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company reported on his visit to the Saranac Laboratory after Leroy Gardner's death to Vandiver Brown, A. R. Fisher, J. P. Woodard and other J-M officers. Gardner had nearly finished the part of his asbestos report on the effect of dust on human beings, and Dr. Kenneth Lynch had been asked to put the rest in order. Brown pointed to the agreement that nothing would be published "without our consent." He hoped Lynch would leave out "any objectionable material from our point of view, as, for example, any relation between asbestos dust and cancer, such as the reference which Dr. Gardner had made to this in his monograph."

What it shows

Brown added that J-M would probably still allow publication of a report with some unfavorable material "because of the benefit to be gained from the balance of the report." Lanza assured him that any report by Lynch "would first be submitted to Johns-Manville before being published elsewhere." Fisher said the company had "a definite job to do in Canada to offset the effects of a lot of propagandizing" about the harm of asbestos dust, and that a report by Lynch would help. He also mentioned eight dust cases at Asbestos, Quebec, "summarily thrown out." Most of the rest of the meeting dealt with Gardner's guinea pig experiments on calcined diatomaceous earth from J-M's Lompoc, California, plant. Gardner's notes suggested the Hyflo product "stimulates tubercle infection," a finding the group found "rather disturbing." Woodard closed by telling Lanza that the company would get "practically all" it would have had if Gardner had lived. The terms Brown cited go back to the 1936 agreement funding Gardner's work, and the cancer reference is the one discussed in the March 1947 Brown–Bowditch letters.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Minutes of a meeting of 1/21/47, discussing report of Dr. A. Lanza on diatomaceous earth dust experiments. Present were: A. Lanza. R. Lea, A. Fisher, A. Elsenbast, V. Brown, C. Hite, F. Armstrong, N. Jackson, J. Hamilton, J. Woodard. It appears Dr. Lanza went to Saranac to find out more about the results of Dr. Gardner's experiments. Dr. Lanza found that Dr. Gardner's report was partially finished with the section on the effect of asbestos dust on humans "practically finished."

Dr. Gardner had rough notes and comments written on the rest of the report covering such topics as the effect of asbestos on animals, related research problems, production problems and dust control. Dr. Lanza wrote Dr. K. Lynch (Medical School of Charleston, South Carolina) to find out about organizing Dr. Gardner's work. Dr. Lanza explains that while there are capable people working on completing Dr. Gardner's research, there is no pathologist available to interpret the findings and coordinate the project.

Regarding Dr. Gardner's experiments on calcined diatomaceous earth, those in attendance at the meeting were concerned about the findings that Hyflo stimulates tubercle infection. Experiments with the calcined diatomaceous earth started on 2/7/45 with 100 guinea pigs. Discussion about the "Gerhart sample," which contained chrystobilite, is included, and the question is raised as to whether Dr. Gardner had used this sample in his experiments. It was V. Brown's opinion that Dr. Gardner had not carried on any experiments with the Gerhart sample, but that this sample had given him a "clue" and in following up on this, Dr. Gardner had analyzed some Lompoc flux calcined material. Dr. Lanza promises to inquire whether the Hyflo powder is used in the condition it was received or whether an effort is made to separate it and use different types of particles in the dust experiments. Dr. Lanza plans to meet with Mr. Westmont at the Lompoc plant about industrial hygiene matters.

Editor's note: J-M's description calls it the "Gerhart sample." The minutes call it the Corhart sample, after the refractories company.