Sumner Simpson to A. S. Blagden of Keasbey & Mattison on Funding Gardner's Asbestos Research (1936)

A two-page letter of November 10, 1936, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to A. S. Blagden, president of Keasbey & Mattison Co. of Ambler, Pennsylvania. Simpson and Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville had met Dr. Leroy Gardner of Saranac and Drs. Lanza and McConnell of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company "with reference to the Asbestosis situation in the Asbestos industry." The two companies could now eliminate much of the dust, he writes, "but as yet have no definite information as to what Asbestosis will lead into," though "We do know that Asbestos Fibres can, and do, get into the lungs." He proposes that four or five manufacturers share the $5,000 a year cost of three years of animal experiments in Gardner's dust chamber, and invites Blagden to a meeting at the Biltmore in New York on November 17.

What it shows

Simpson gives the industry's reason: compensation laws would become "more rigid," and asbestosis, "on account of the advertising it has had lately, will become one of the Compensation cases," so the companies should have "all the information we can possibly get to submit to the Compensation Commissions." On publication he writes that the sponsors "could determine from time to time after the findings are made, whether we wish any publication or not," and that it would be good to share the findings with doctors "providing it is of the right type and would not injure our companies." The same letter went to Thermoid Rubber, and the plan became the signed agreement of November 20, 1936.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Sumner Simpson letter to A.S. Blagden (Keasbey & Mattison), 11/10/36, asking for Blagden's financial support of Dr. Gardner's experiments. Simpson states that J-M and R-M have now reached the point where they can eliminate a large part of the dust but as yet do not have any definite information on "what asbestosis will lead into." (There are some reports that it leads to TB). "I think the compensation laws in the various states will become more rigid in the next few years and, no doubt, asbestosis, on account of the advertising it has had lately, will become one of the compensation cases, and we should have all the information we can possibly get to submit to the Compensation Commissions of the various states when the question of asbestosis comes up."

Simpson tells Blagden that he and Brown would like 4 or 5 asbestos manufacturers to sponsor Dr. Gardner's study for 3 years, "and then we could determine from time to time after the findings are made, whether we wish any publication or not. My own idea is that it would be a good thing to distribute the information among the medical fraternity, providing it is of the right type and would not injure our companies."

Related documents

• Sumner Simpson to F. H. Schluter of Thermoid Rubber on Funding Gardner's Asbestos Research (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to Leroy Gardner on Reviewing Raybestos-Manhattan's Manheim X-Ray Films (1944)
• Memorandum of Agreement Funding Gardner's Asbestos Experiments at Saranac Laboratory (1936)