Sumner Simpson to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Use of Asbestosis Material (1939)

A one-page letter of May 4, 1939, from Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, to Vandiver Brown, Johns-Manville's attorney, answering Brown's letter of the day before about Leroy Gardner's published references to asbestos dust experiments. Simpson had not seen the papers and would send for them. "I do not believe it is proper for Dr. Gardner to use any of the material regarding asbestosis without our consent," he writes, "or without submitting the report to you for approval," adding that Gardner "is certainly not living up to his agreement of November, 1936."

What it shows

Simpson explains his concern: "The reports may be so favorable to us that they would cause us no trouble, but they might be just the opposite, which could be very embarrassing." The two industry leaders treated the results of the research they funded at the Saranac Laboratory as theirs to approve before anything was said in public (Brown's letter of May 3; the 1936 agreement). The next day Simpson wrote to Gardner for the papers (his request).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Sumner Simpson responded to Vandiver Brown's letter of 5/3/1939 wherein he was asked if he had seen the 1938 Saranac Laboratory Report of Director and collection of reprinted scientific papers, with special attention paid to Dr. Gardner's reference of asbestosis in one of his papers. Simpson states in his reply dated 5/4/1939 that Gardner should not be making mention of asbestosis "without our consent" (the consent of the companies who signed the agreement to fund Saranac studies)

Related documents

• Vandiver Brown to Sumner Simpson on the 1938 Saranac Report and the Gardner Agreement (1939)