Dr. A. J. Lanza to Vandiver Brown on the Mechanical Action of Asbestos Dust (1938)

A typed copy of a one-page letter of April 29, 1938, from Dr. A. J. Lanza, assistant medical director of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's general attorney, on Dr. Gardner's second progress report. Lanza wrote that Gardner had told him it was "his growing conviction that the action of asbestos dust was mechanical and not chemical," and that he was inclined to agree. With it is Brown's one-line covering letter of May 2, 1938, sending the copy to Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan.

What it shows

Lanza thought the mechanical theory explained "the peculiar inconsistencies" in Metropolitan Life's own dust surveys: the lack of asbestosis at Thetford, the occasional case in the textile plants, and the difference between the American and British experience. He added: "It seems to me that all this is very much in favor of the industry because it enormously simplifies the question of the control and prevention of asbestosis." Vandiver Brown had sent him Gardner's report with a letter of April 28, and Simpson thanked Brown for the copy on May 4.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

03457. Acknowledged receipt of letter dated 4/28/38 which enclosed progress report from Dr. Gardner. Informs of inclination to agree that action of asbestos dust is mechanical not chemical. This would explain inconsistencies in past studies and differences between British and American experiences with asbestosis.

03461-03462. Transmittal letter for Dr. Lanza's letter of 4/29/38 commenting on Dr. Gardner's progress report.

Related documents

• Leroy U. Gardner, Second Progress Report on Experimental Asbestosis (1938)
• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on Gardner's Findings and Claims of Progressive Fibrosis (1938)
• Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown Thanking Him for Dr. Lanza's Letter (1938)

About this copy

These are documents 03457, 03461-03462 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.