Dr. A. J. Lanza to Julian Mitchell on the Public Health Service Survey of the Charleston Plant (1936)

A one-page copy of a letter of October 30, 1936, from Dr. A. J. Lanza, assistant medical director of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, to Julian Mitchell of Mitchell and Horlbeck, Raybestos-Manhattan's attorneys in Charleston, South Carolina. Answering Mitchell's letter about the proposed survey of the Charleston plant, Lanza wrote that it came under Dr. R. R. Sayers of the U.S. Public Health Service's Office of Industrial Hygiene and "will be very much to your advantage." He explained that Public Health Service reports do not name the firms or places studied and that "No individuals' records are ever divulged by the Government."

What it shows

Lanza reminded Mitchell that Metropolitan Life's own asbestos study had named the plants only as A, B, C and D (the key Raybestos-Manhattan sent its plants). He cited the Picher clinic in Oklahoma, where the government had refused anyone access to the physical examination records of more than 50,000 individuals, and said he was sure the federal service would not give individual records even to the State Board of Health. This reassurance answered Sumner Simpson's worry that the X-rays would reach lawyers and doctors bringing suits: on November 5 Simpson agreed to the survey "in view of this letter."

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Believes allowing U.S. Dept of Health study on Charleston plant would be in interest of Raybestos. Public Health Service Reports are published without mention of firms or localities so identification of plants studied remains unknown. No individual records are ever divulged by the government. Dr. Sayer, man in charge, has wide industrial experience and enjoys good favor with industrialists and employers.

Related documents

• Raybestos-Manhattan's North Charleston Manager to Sumner Simpson on a State Health Board Dust Study (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to E. H. Jeffords on X-Rays and Fear of Suits (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to E. H. Jeffords Allowing Public Health Service X-Rays of Workers (1936)
• E. H. Jeffords to Sumner Simpson on Waiting for Julian Mitchell Before Answering the Health Service (1936)
• Sumner Simpson to Julian Mitchell Sending the Lanza Study (1935)

About this copy

This is document 02991 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.