W. S. Haines of Safety & Claims Service to Robert E. Cryor of Union Asbestos & Rubber on Tracing Former Disease Claimants (1952)

A one-page "personal and confidential" letter of September 2, 1952, from W. S. Haines of Safety & Claims Service, Inc., a Chicago workmen's compensation claims firm, to Robert E. Cryor of Union Asbestos & Rubber Company (Unarco). Haines sent Cryor an exhibit, prepared with Ed Hayes, of all the occupational disease cases the firm had handled for the company since 1944. At a meeting that morning, he reports, Tom Angerstein had again suggested that the company "make every effort to track down the living men" on the list "to determine how they have fared physically since removal from exposure."

What it shows

Such a survey, Haines writes, would help with pending cases and "would, of course, be of great interest to Trudeau, as there is apparently no literature whatsoever as to what happens to these men after they have been removed from exposure." Trudeau here is the Trudeau Foundation, home of the Saranac Laboratory. He suggests that current X-rays might show "whether or not there is a continuing build up after cessation of exposure." The letter shows an asbestos maker and its claims agents in 1952 treating the course of the disease after men left the dust as an open question.

About this copy

This is a Unarco letter, not a Johns-Manville one, and the file does not show how J-M came to have it. J-M corresponded with many asbestos companies, which is probably how a copy reached its files, but that is a guess.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

W.S. Haines (President of Safety & Claims Services, Inc.) writes to Robert E. Cryor (Union Asbestos & Rubber Company), 9/2/52, that he and Ed Hayes drafted a list of all occupational disease cases handled by their office since 1944. Haines enclosed a copy of this list for Cryor's review. Haines would like Cryor to "make every effort to track down the living men shown on the enclosed [list] to determine how they have fared physically since removal from exposure." Such information would be of interest to Trudeau, "as there is apparently no literature whatsoever as to what happens to these men after they have been removed from exposure." Haines also suggests that it might be useful to secure current x-rays of these men to answer this question.

Editor's note: J-M's description presents the suggestion to track down the living men as Haines's own. The letter says it was Tom Angerstein who "again suggested" it at a meeting that morning.