Vandiver Brown to the Saranac Sponsors Enclosing the Revised Report, Asbestos Pneumoconiosis (1949)

An 81-page file: Vandiver Brown's letter of March 3, 1949, as J-M's secretary and general attorney, to the eight other companies that underwrote the Saranac Laboratory asbestos dust experiments (American Brakeblok, Gatke, Keasbey & Mattison, Raybestos-Manhattan, Russell Manufacturing, Thermoid (Southern Asbestos), Union Asbestos & Rubber and United States Gypsum), a four-page memorandum by Brown on the laboratory's September 30, 1948, draft, and the revised report of January 31, 1949. Brown wrote that the revised report "adopts the substance of all of the suggestions that were made by representatives of the underwriting group" at a meeting in New York on November 11, 1948. As "the findings are generally favorable," the sponsors had asked Saranac to publish it promptly, preferably in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene with an introduction by Dr. A. J. Lanza.

What it shows

Brown's memorandum quotes the 1936 agreement that the results would be "the property of those who are advancing the required funds," who would decide whether and how they were made public (the Saranac agreement). It notes that the 1948 draft reported pulmonary tumors in 9 of 11 mice exposed for a year to long-fibre dust, and argues that it was "premature to make any reference to 'neoplasms'" and that tumors should be the subject of separate experiments. It also suggests omitting a finding on non-tuberculous infection, and says any later Saranac report on human asbestosis should be separate and not subject to the sponsors' approval before publication. The enclosed final report says nothing about tumors in mice (Asbestos Pneumoconiosis). The earlier exchanges over the cancer reference are in the 1947 Brown and Bowditch letters and the November 1948 Vorwald letter.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter dated 3/3/49 from Vandiver Brown to the nine companies who along with J-M funded the Saranac research. Brown reports having reviewed the final revised Saranac draft which "adopts the substance of all of the suggestions that were made by representatives of the underwriting group [the asbestos manufacturers]".

Editor's note: J-M's description says Brown wrote to the nine companies that funded the research along with J-M. The letter is addressed to eight companies; with J-M they made nine sponsors.

Related documents

• Saranac Laboratory, Asbestos Pneumoconiosis: Experimental Studies, Report to Johns-Manville (1949)
• Vandiver Brown to W. T. Kelly of American Brake Shoe on Deleting Cancer from the Saranac Report (1948)
• Vandiver Brown and Manfred Bowditch Letters on Lung Cancer in Gardner's Mice (1947)