H. M. Green to Sumner Simpson Sending C. O. Sappington's Mining Journal Article on Silicosis (1936)

A one-page letter of September 21, 1936, from H. M. Green, vice-president of Raybestos-Manhattan's Manhattan Rubber Mfg. Division in New York, to Sumner Simpson, the company's president, sending Dr. C. O. Sappington's article on silicosis and asbestosis from The Mining Journal of September 15, 1936. Green thought the Phoenix journal "one of the best mining journals printed in this country" and suggested Simpson might write the Passaic division proposing an advertisement in it. The eight-page clipping is enclosed: Sappington, a Chicago consulting hygienist, wrote "to allay the prevalent hysteria concerning silicosis" and covered the disease, its stages, compensation laws, and how industry could protect itself and prepare "the defense of claims."

What it shows

Sappington described Silicosis for employers and named asbestosis as the next most important form of Pneumoconiosis, producing lung fibrosis as serious and disabling as silicosis, though less common. His advice to industry was largely about claims: a careful occupational history, physical and X-ray examinations before hiring and periodically, and dust studies of the plant, so that an employer would know whether a new worker had already been exposed and could defend a claim. The article was passed from one Raybestos-Manhattan executive to its president, with a sales idea attached.

In Johns-Manville's index

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

02960. Transmittal letter for article "Silicosis - Its Course and Prevention" published in the Mining Journal. Suggests Raybestos might consider advertising in the Mining Journal.

02961-02967. "Silicosis - Its Cause and Prevention." Describes what silicosis is and how it is contracted. Article also deals with compensation experience and laws. Article goes on to elaborate on various ways in which industry can protect itself including: physical examinations of employees and dust count studies at plants. (article is partially illegible)

About this copy

These are documents 02960, 02961-02967 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.