Sumner Simpson to A. S. Rossiter on Gardner's Preliminary Findings and Dust Control (1939)

A two-page letter of March 22, 1939, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to A. S. Rossiter, editor of Asbestos, thanking her for an article on asbestosis. He wrote that he and Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville were "the only ones in contact with the Saranac Laboratory," which was researching the effects of asbestos dust for the textile industry, and that "The preliminary findings on asbestos dust were so good that we just cannot believe them, and they are being re-checked." Final reports were about two years away.

What it shows

Simpson wrote that the Saranac work would show the article was "considerably distorted," and added: "I can tell you confidentially, but am not willing to make it public, that the air can be kept below five million microns, with proper controls, but I am not willing to start a controversy with my competitors." He wrote that "Both Manville and ourselves have done wonders in the way of dust control" and that their competitors had "no dust control at all that amounts to anything," and noted that North Carolina's public health service had visited his Charleston plant several times. The letter is one of the Sumner Simpson Papers. It shows the two leading companies keeping the Saranac research of Leroy Gardner to themselves while it went on.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

S. Simpson letter to A. S. Rossiter, 3/22/39, stating that the preliminary findings of Dr. Gardner on asbestos dust are "so good" that they are being rechecked. Also states that R-M and J-M are far ahead of their competitors regarding dust control.

Related documents

• A. S. Rossiter to Sumner Simpson Sending an Article on Asbestosis (1939)
• A. S. Rossiter to Sumner Simpson on Keeping the Saranac Work Out of Asbestos Magazine (1939)

About this copy

This is document 203 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-001283 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-001284.