J. A. Bettes, Jr., to B. W. Luttenberger on the Industrial Hygiene Foundation's Asbestos and Cancer Survey (1956)

A memorandum of April 10, 1956, from J. A. Bettes, Jr., to B. W. Luttenberger at Raybestos-Manhattan, with a copy of an April 6 letter to Bettes at Manheim, Pennsylvania, from Myril C. Shaw, secretary of the Asbestos Textile Institute. Shaw wrote that the Institute's Board of Governors had approved "a preliminary study regarding the relationship of asbestos and cancer," to be run by the Industrial Hygiene Foundation at Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh: Dr. D. C. Braun would visit each member's textile plant to review personnel and medical records, X-rays and insurance records. Bettes assumed the company would take part, a program that "ties in very closely" with one the Quebec Asbestos Producers Association had begun, but said the decision must be one for all of Raybestos-Manhattan: "we cannot very consistently say yes for Manheim and no for Charleston, or visa-versa."

What it shows

The survey grew out of the Institute's March 1956 meetings, where the Board of Governors had funded a preliminary survey (general meeting minutes of March 8, 1956). It led to the Industrial Hygiene Foundation's proposal for a study of lung cancer in asbestos textile workers (May 1956). Bettes also asked that the company's representative on the Board of Governors be briefed before each quarterly meeting.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

Transmittal memo for letter from Dr. Shaw (ATI) dated 4/6/56. Discusses preliminary study regarding the relationship of asbestos and cancer to be conducted by IHF in conjunction with ATI. Letter informs that Dr. Braun (IHF) will visit each textile plant of the Institute's members for a preliminary survey. Memo requests that RM decide on a consistent policy to be followed by all plants regarding this request to survey the plants.

About this copy

This is document 05819-05820 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.