Ernest Muehleck to W. W. F. Shepherd Enclosing Vandiver Brown's Letters on Gardner's Final Report (1946)

A set of four letters (five pages). On May 13, 1946, Ernest Muehleck of Keasbey & Mattison sent W. W. F. Shepherd of Turner & Newall copies of Vandiver Brown's letters of May 9, saying he would write Brown "that it is high time we received something definite from Dr. Gardner and that we start bringing pressure to bear so that he submits his final report to us." Brown's letter to Thomas L. Gatke of Asbestos Textile Co. called Dr. Gardner's approach "very cautious" and said "when Dr. Gardner states a finding it is quite likely to be correct." The last is Gardner's letter of May 8, 1946, to J. P. Woodard of Johns-Manville on asbestosis and lung cancer.

What it shows

Brown wrote that, as Dr. Bowditch had reported, he himself had been "somewhat annoyed and disappointed" that Gardner would not back a proposed New Jersey Industrial Hygiene Code saying that the small particles that do the damage with silica "are innocuous in the case of asbestos." Brown and Muehleck had been urging Gardner for a definite report through the war years, and Brown thought his excuse was "wearing a little thin." Gardner's enclosed letter notes "some twenty-three cases" of asbestosis with lung cancer on record and over 80 percent of asbestos-dusted mice with lung tumors; it is published on its own as Leroy Gardner to J. P. Woodard on Asbestos and Lung Cancer (1946).

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

Ernest Muehleck letter to W.F. Sheperd, 5/13/46, entitled "Dr. Gardner's Asbestos Dust Experiments." Muehleck encloses a copy of V. Brown's letter of 5/9/46 together with V. Brown's enclosures. Muehleck indicates that today he will be writing to Brown and "suggesting that it is high time we received something definite from Dr. Gardner and that we start bringing pressure to bear so that he submits his final report to us in the reasonably near future." V. Brown letter to Ernest Muehleck, 5/9/46, enclosing V. Brown letter to T. L. Gatke (Asbestos Textile Co.), 5/9/46, and Dr. Gardner's letter to J.P. Woodard (J-M), 5/8/46. V. Brown letter to Thomas L. Gatke, 5/9/46. Brown states that Dr. Gardner will "not lend his support in connection with a proposed New Jersey Industrial Hygiene Code to the effect that the small particles, which do the damage in the case of silica, are innocuous in the case of asbestos." Brown states that Dr. Gardner's unwillingness to cooperate is characteristic but, on balance, a favorable characteristic, because, when Dr. Gardner states a finding, his fellow experts know that "it is quite likely to be correct." Dr. Leroy U. Gardner letter to J.P. Woodard, 5/8/46, thanking Woodard for a copy of "Dr. Heuper's paper on Cancer and its relation to occupation and environment." Dr. Gardner then discusses his view of the relationship between asbestosis and pulmonary cancer. Dr. Gardner does not believe the medical community has proven that asbestosis causes lung cancer. He states that if a study were conducted in which a large number of asbestos workers were analyzed, we might find out the answer. Dr. Gardner states that he is "quite sure that we would have evidence to controvert the implications of the case reports now in the medical literature." (23 cases of asbestosis occurring with lung cancer are reported in the literature as of 5/46.)

Related documents

• Ernest Muehleck to W. W. F. Shepherd Enclosing Gardner's Letter on Tuberculosis and Cancer (1943)
• Leroy Gardner to J. P. Woodard on Asbestos and Lung Cancer (1946)

About this copy

This is document 1206 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-005335 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-005339.