Leroy Gardner, First Progress Report on Asbestosis Experiments at the Saranac Laboratory (1937)

A four-page report of May 5, 1937, by Dr. Leroy U. Gardner of the Saranac Laboratory, on the animal experiments paid for by the asbestos industry. Their aim was "to furnish a better understanding of the disease, asbestosis, and to provide standards as a basis for its diagnosis by x-ray films." Inhalation began on March 22 with 80 guinea pigs, 20 rats, 8 rabbits and 3 cats in a dust room held at about 175 million particles per cubic foot, using chrysotile dust from a plant at Manville, New Jersey, and injection tests compared chrysotile with other kinds of asbestos.

What it shows

Gardner wrote that it was "too early to report more than the fact that the experiments have been started" and that "None of these early results is regarded as significant." He noted one early problem: seven rabbits had died after chrysotile was injected into their veins, and "It is not yet clear whether the difficulties with intravenous injection of chrysotile are merely a matter of technique or whether this substance is essentially toxic."

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Document entitled "First Progress Report on Asbestosis Experiments at the Saranac Laboratory," 5/5/37, authored by Dr. L.U. Gardner. (Duplicate of a portion of Motley Document #809.)

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to L. J. Silverman Enclosing Gardner's First Progress Report (1937)
• L. L. Cohen of Union Asbestos & Rubber to C. Mosier Enclosing Gardner's First Progress Report (1937)

About this copy

This is document 1020 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-005272 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-005275.