A. S. Rossiter to Sumner Simpson Sending a Journal of the American Medical Association Review of the Dreessen Study (1939)

A one-page letter of April 19, 1939, from A. S. Rossiter, editor of Asbestos magazine, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, passing along a clipping that mentioned "A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestos Textile Industry" by Waldemar C. Dreessen. With only one clipping, she sent Vandiver Brown of Johns-Manville a letter instead, and enclosed a copy. The clipping, from the Journal of the American Medical Association of April 8, 1939, is a short review of the U.S. Public Health Service study, which reported that of 445 workers examined with X-rays, 73 "were diagnosed as having asbestosis."

What it shows

The review called the Public Health Service report "an admirable report" and said it showed "it was possible to reduce the dust concentration below five million particles per cubic foot." Counting workers who had been discharged or laid off, it reported, "27.5 per cent were found to have asbestosis." The study itself is in the Library as Dreessen and Others, A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestos Textile Industry (1938). The trade magazine's editor kept the two companies supplied with what was being published on asbestosis while printing nothing about it herself (her letter of March 23).

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes these documents as follows:

03627. Transmittal letter for clipping "A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestosis Textile Industry." by W. Dreesen

03628-03629. Book reviews of "Shock and Related Capillary Phenomena" by Dr. Moss and "A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestos Textile Industry" by Dr. Dreesen. Asbestos related abstract discusses survey of asbestos industry by USPHS to determine health effects of continued inhalation of asbestos dust. Attempts to find safe level of asbestos dust. 550 workers examined and 73 were found to have asbestosis. Comparison made between U.S. and British asbestos industry.

03630. Informs of article "A Study of Asbestosis in the Asbestos Textile Industry" that V. Brown may be interested in obtaining.

Related documents

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

About this copy

These are documents 03627, 03628-03629, 03630 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.