Frederick M. Kriete of the California Department of Public Health to Dr. A. J. Lanza Enclosing the Bulletin on Diatomaceous Earth Pneumoconiosis (1952)

A one-page letter of April 29, 1952, from Dr. Frederick M. Kriete, assistant chief of the California Department of Public Health's Division of Preventive Medical Services, to Dr. Anthony J. Lanza as medical consultant to Johns-Manville, enclosing the department's thirteen-page Occupational Health Bulletin on "Diatomaceous Earth Pneumoconiosis." Kriete explains that distribution had begun before his office saw it and had been halted, and that "Had we seen the draft in this office, I think we would have postponed a discussion of this subject until some future date. Certainly we would have done some editing." The bulletin states that diatomaceous earth, inhaled long enough, "causes a disabling and often fatal disease of the lungs," and names J-M's Lompoc plant as probably the world's largest producer.

What it shows

The bulletin recounted that a 1930 state study at the Celite plant in Lompoc (later J-M's) found abnormal lung changes in 81 of 108 workers, findings it said were "virtually ignored" for two decades. It reported that compensation claims with good evidence had often been contested, that some sick workers had been discouraged from claiming, and that "The industry has accumulated ample clinical and autopsy material" without publishing it. It doubted that aluminum therapy would help, the treatment J-M's consultant had proposed (see Lanza's September 1951 memorandum). The copy was marked as an exhibit in later litigation. The state's study plan that followed is in Woodard's minutes of the May 1952 meeting.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Letter from Dr. Kriate (or Kriete) ("Division of Preventive Medical Services") to Lanza (4/29/52). Attaches copy of bulletin discussing diatomaceous earth pneumoconiosis. The writer states that had his office seen the draft, they probably would have postponed a discussion of the subject, and certainly they "would have done some editing."