George K. Foster to Kenneth W. Smith Enclosing Comments on the Saranac Asbestosis Report (1950)

A four-page file: a short cover memo from George K. Foster of Canadian Johns-Manville to Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, headed "Saranac Report," and three pages of numbered comments by an unnamed writer on the Saranac Laboratory's report of Leroy Gardner's experiments on asbestosis. The copy is almost entirely illegible. As J-M described it, Foster noted he had not yet had Smith's reaction to the report, and the comments found it confusing and hard to relate to human experience, agreed that chrysotile was a mechanical rather than a chemical irritant, and saw one advantage: if only long fibers were hazardous, respirators could use a wider mesh and be easier to breathe through, making it less difficult to get workers to wear them.

What it shows

One readable passage questions the report's theory that only long fibers cause harm, recalling that "the late Dr. Gardner" had said the most dangerous fiber lengths were much shorter. Smith had reviewed the Saranac report for Foster twice before (in 1948 and in 1949).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Comments regarding Dr. Gardner's report (author unknown) which is attached to a cover memorandum from George Foster to Dr. K. Smith, 1/31/50, in which Foster states that he has not yet received Dr. Smith's reactions to the Gardner report. The attached comments are not complimentary of the Gardner report. The author states that the report is confusing; the results cannot be related to the human experience. He does agree with Dr. Gardner that chrysotile is a mechanical rather than a chemical irritant. The author states that the only advantage to the study is, if Dr. Gardner is right about fiber length (that the long fiber is hazardous), then respirators can be made with a wider mesh which would make breathing easier and thus make it less difficult to induce workers to wear them.