Vandiver Brown Memorandum on Dust Problems Discussed with Leroy Gardner (1944)

A two-page memorandum by Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, recording an unexpected visit from Dr. Leroy Gardner of the Saranac Laboratory on October 12, 1944. They discussed Saranac's diatomaceous earth experiments, a comparison of dust samples from J-M's Manville, New Jersey, factory and its plant at Asbestos, Quebec, and a proposed California safety order. The order would have required a label reading "WARNING: This Material may give Rise to Poisonous or Injurious Dust. AVOID BREATHING IT." on materials with as little as 1% asbestos or silica, and both men called it "absurd."

What it shows

Gardner objected that asbestos dust could only be called "poisonous" in a figurative sense, because its injury was a "mechanical irritation" rather than a chemical one, and he thought such a label "would frighten a great many people and do absolutely no good." When Brown pointed out that the order would reach asbestos-cement sheets, "which are sometimes sawed with the resultant production of a little dust," Gardner said this showed the absurdity of the proposal. The memo shows that by 1944 the company knew its products released dust when customers cut them, and that its response to a proposed warning label was to object to it. On the research side, Gardner hoped the dust comparison would explain why few workers at Asbestos, Quebec, showed "marked fibrosis" compared with workers at Manville (see his request to review the Quebec films).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Memorandum summarizes Vandiver Brown's discussions with L.U. Gardner on 10/12/44. Issue was California's proposal to require labeling of materials containing 1% of asbestos or silica "where they were to be used under conditions likely to give rise to dust." The label would read "Warning: This material may give rise to poisonous or injurious dust. Avoid breathing it." The two agreed the label would be "absurd". Gardner objected to the word "poison" being applied to asbestos dust, because the injury produced by asbestos is caused by a mechanical irritation rather than by chemical reaction.
Also on 10/12/44, V. Brown mentions x-ray studies done by Dr. Gardner, who compares films of employees at Asbestos, Quebec with films of employees at the Manville, NJ plant. The author hopes that by analyzing asbestos fiber particles found at both locations, a conclusion can be drawn concerning the small number of fibrosis cases found among Asbestos employees in comparison with Manville employees.