Corporate Documents
Early industry-funded studies showed a causal relationship between asbestos exposure and cancer – a revelation that, if made known to the public, could have prevented countless deaths. Tragically, the asbestos industry made the conscious decision to protect their profits instead, and kept this information from the public.
One of the principal research contractors used by the asbestos industry was the Saranac Laboratory for Research on Tuberculosis. The Saranac Laboratory had originally been created as an adjunct to a sanatorium in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The Saranac Laboratory already had facilities for animal experimentation on dusts to study the synergistic effects of silicosis and tuberculosis in the early 1920s. As a result, the laboratory was equipped to investigate the effects of other dusts, as well.
Some of the earliest studies on asbestos at Saranac was funded by the asbestos industry, and it resulted in a series of documents now known as the "Sumner Simpson Papers." In 1936, several asbestos companies together funded a research contract at Saranac, which was subsequently renewed yearly for 10 years. The revelations of the Saranac studies included a demonstrated relationship between asbestos exposure and cancer. However, at a January 1947 meeting between members of the companies that funded this research, it was decided that "there would be no publication of the research of experiments without [the group’s] consent," and that any publication "would not include any objectionable material...as, for example, any relation between asbestos and cancer." As a result, the final publication regarding these asbestos dust experiments suppressed evidence of the link between asbestos exposure and cancer, and the final agreement between the asbestos conglomerate that funded the studies was that "the reference to cancer and tumors should be deleted." Unfortunately, then, information that would have been invaluable to American workers was instead buried and hidden from the public.
Sumner Simpson was the president of Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. in the 1930s and 1940s. His correspondence with other corporate leaders in the asbestos industry demonstrates the industry’s many efforts to hide from the public evidence about the hazards of asbestos exposure. For example, in 1935, Mr. Simpson wrote Vandiver Brown, attorney for Johns-Manville Corporation, that "the less said about asbestos, the better off we [the asbestos industry] are." Companies such as Raybestos-Manhattan and individuals such as Mr. Simpson also placed a great deal of pressure on trade industry publications, including Asbestos Magazine. Letters from Asbestos Magazine to Mr. Simpson document the magazine’s acquiescence to Mr. Simpson’s request that the magazine publish nothing about the dangers of asbestos. In 1939, the publisher of Asbestos Magazine wrote in a letter to Sumner Simpson, "You may see all that we have written you on several occasions concerning the publishing of information, or discussion of, asbestosis and the work which has been, and is being done, to eliminate or at least reduce it. Always you have requested that for certain obvious reasons we publish nothing, and naturally, your wishes have been respected..." In a letter from Johns-Manville Corporation to Mr. Simpson in 1941, Johns-Manville corporate officer Vandiver Brown demonstrated the cavalier attitude of the asbestos industry and the complete lack of concern for its workers when he wrote, "I felt there was considerable likelihood that a number of subscribers would dislike an article on this subject in the trade magazine of the asbestos industry. I had in mind the ostrich-like attitude which has been evidenced from time to time by members of the industry."
The industry cover-up continued when the Saranac Laboratory tested the dust from the Owens-Illinois thermal insulation product called "Kaylo." The Saranac Lab reported to Owens-Illinois in 1948 that Kaylo was capable of causing asbestosis and should be treated as a hazardous industrial dust. Unfortunately, Owens-Illinois chose not to share with its customers or the public the health hazards Kaylo posed.
These are just a sampling of the almost endless line of documents revealing the callous attitude of American industry toward asbestos dangers and its conscious disregard for the lives, health and safety of the American worker. The asbestos industry’s unconscionable attitude is perhaps most chillingly described in a September 12, 1966 document by E.A. Martin, Director of Purchases for Bendix Corporation:
"My answer to the problem is: if you have enjoyed a good life while working with asbestos products why not die from it. There’s got to be some cause."
The asbestos tragedy was preventable, had the asbestos industry acted responsibly to protect the health of the American worker. The unfortunate legacy of the asbestos industry’s actions is the public health crisis that continues to plague the U.S. in the 21st century.
