Dr. Leroy U. Gardner to Sumner Simpson on the North Carolina Commission's Call for Help with Asbestosis Cases (1937)

A one-page letter of January 2, 1937, from Dr. Leroy U. Gardner, director of the Saranac Laboratory, to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan. Dorset of the North Carolina State Industrial Commission had "sent out an SOS" to Dr. Sampson, roentgenologist at the Trudeau Sanatorium, "for help in the diagnosis of 70-odd cases of alleged asbestosis." Dorset was "apparently bewildered by the medical testimony which he has heard" and had wired Sampson and Dr. Brumfiel, the laboratory's clinical consultant, to come down; they were leaving that night.

What it shows

The state body deciding workers' compensation claims for asbestosis turned to the Saranac Laboratory's doctors to sort out conflicting medical testimony, just as the asbestos companies began funding Gardner's experiments there. Gardner told Simpson, one of those sponsors, about it at once. The letter does not name the employers in the cases. A week earlier Gardner had told Simpson that the standards for diagnosing asbestosis were "not sufficiently defined" (December 24, 1936).

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Informs that Dr. Dorset of the North Carolina Industrial Commission has requested aid in diagnosing about 70 cases of alleged asbestosis. Doctors Sampson and Brumfiel from the Saranac Laboratory will go to North Carolina to help the Industrial Commission with this problem.

Related documents

• Dr. Leroy U. Gardner to Sumner Simpson Reviewing Dr. Shull's Asbestosis Article (1936)
• George S. Fabel of Southern Asbestos to Sumner Simpson Sending Dr. Shull's Asbestosis Article (1936)
• G. S. Fabel of Southern Asbestos to Sumner Simpson Asking to Interview Charleston Employees (1936)

About this copy

This is document 03144 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.