Leroy U. Gardner to Vandiver Brown on the Delay in His Final Asbestosis Report (1946)

A typed copy of a one-page letter of August 15, 1946, from Dr. Leroy U. Gardner, director of Saranac Laboratory, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's secretary. "No one feels worse than I over the delay in making a final report on our studies in asbestosis," Gardner wrote, blaming the war and what it did to his staff. He called J. F. D. Rohrbach's suggestion of a brief advance statement of conclusions "entirely logical," but said he would first have to review all the experimental data; his "own mind is fairly well made up" about the significance of the work, and he hoped to do the review during the coming winter.

What it shows

Raybestos-Manhattan and other sponsors were pressing Leroy Gardner for results from the asbestos dust experiments they had paid for since 1936. Gardner promised, once his review was done, to send Vandiver Brown copies of a statement "for distribution to the members of the asbestos industry who have contributed to the support of the work." Brown forwarded this letter to Rohrbach on August 19. Gardner died on October 24, 1946, before the review or the report was finished.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

States "no one feels worse than I over the delay in making a final report on our studies in asbestos." Gives war activities as reason for delay. Informs that Rohrback's suggestion for a brief statement of conclusions is not possible as all information would need to be reviewed before that project could be undertaken. Restates objective is to complete final report during the upcoming winter.

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to J. F. D. Rohrbach Enclosing Gardner's Reply on the Asbestos Dust Experiments (1946)
• J. F. D. Rohrbach to Vandiver Brown Asking Gardner for Simple Conclusions in Advance (1946)
• J. F. D. Rohrbach to Vandiver Brown Asking for a Brief Report from Gardner Within Sixty Days (1946)

About this copy

This is document 05629 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.