Theodore F. Hatch and Eugene P. Pendergrass, The Konicide Club (1932–1940): A Brief History (1977)

A three-page historical note of 1977 by Theodore Hatch and Eugene Pendergrass, both former members, on the Konicide Club, an informal group of about 20 physicians, scientists and engineers formed in January 1932 at the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Pittsburgh to discuss "research problems on the relation of dust to health." Philip Drinker of Harvard was its secretary. Members included Dr. A. J. Lanza and others from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and five men from the Saranac Laboratory, among them Leroy Gardner. The club's first meeting was held at Saranac Laboratory in April 1932.

What it shows

Most meetings dealt with silicosis, dust sampling and X-ray diagnosis, but at the November 1933 meeting Gardner spoke on "What is Known About Asbestosis," and the January 1939 meeting at the University of Pennsylvania was devoted to the health problems of the asbestos industry. The article places the industry's medical advisers in a small, closed circle of the country's dust disease experts from 1932 on. The authors say the club ended after the American Industrial Hygiene Association was organized in 1939.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Organized in 1/32, the Konocide Club was an organization of approximately 20 physicians, engineers, scientists and industrial hygienists whose stated purpose was to meet occasionally to discuss "research problems on the relation of dust to health." The club was informally organized with no dues and no officers except for Philip Drinker who was club secretary. Topics of discussion at meetings generally focused on silicosis-related issues in United States mines and factories, dust pathology, dust standards and the connection between silicosis and cancer, standardization of atmospheric dust sampling, and procedures for evaluating the respiratory injury found in exposed individuals. Five employees from the Saranac Lab were listed as members and Dr. Gardner of Saranac Lab spoke on several occasions regarding asbestosis. One of the clubs later meetings, in 1/39, was devoted entirely to the problems of the asbestos industry. Titles of lectures at this meeting included "General Survey of the Asbestos Industry and Its Engineering Problems"; "Experimental Pathology Concerning Asbestos"; "Clinical and Roentgenological Survey of Asbestos Industry"; "Pathology in patients Dying of Asbestosis"; "Roentgen Studies in Industries Using Asbestos."

Editor's note: J-M's description spells the club's name "Konocide"; the article spells it "Konicide." It also says Gardner spoke on asbestosis on several occasions; the article records his talk of 1933 and his part in the 1939 meeting on the asbestos industry.