Document BymB77wGbQZRp90ow2neN9eZ8

FILE NAM E: Exxon (EXX) DATE: 1990 A p r 9 DOC#: EXX038 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: L e tte r to Dr. Eckardt fro m Barry C astlem an April 9, 1990 Dear Dr. Eckardt, I just wanted to express appreciation for the opportunity to meet with you and learn about the history of occupational health in industry. Candid views and open discussion by people who had first-hand experience are, as ever, hard to come by. I suspect that your impressions of greater sympathy from higher execs than middle management may have been two facets of the same policy. That is, the big boys express in general terms the need to cut costs and improve profits, and leave the unpleasant details to be resolved by others. Your approaches to higher management bypassed this arrangement (as you may well have been told!), by placing knowledge and decisions in the hands of higher officials than would otherwise have been the case. These folks were consequently left without the alibi that whatever decisions were made and consequences resulting could be blamed on "human error" well down on the scale of corporate power. Whatever you might think of that theory, we both know that the top execs were drawn from the ranks of the most "successful" middle managers. It is unfortunate that the company never permitted publication of the "Esso Health Hazard Handbook" as a text. As a collector of the old texts in occupational medicine, I would appreciate it if you would consider passing your copy on to me at an appropriate time. This type of information is valuable to company personnel but also others outside the corporation. If you are aware of similar efforts, by other companies, I would be most grateful to learn about them. The more I see of the company physicians, the more I believe that culpability in the field of industrial medicine is a product mainly of other professions dominant in the corporate hierarchy. Once again, thanks for seeing me, and do not hesitate to get in touch with me in the future by mail or phone for any reason. 1722 _taUimar'e-, rncL- 21217 )al. 301-4&2-SI3S Madelyn Chaber Dear Madelyn, Here are some things on asbestos-cancer relevant to Esso/Exxon. The first 3 pages are info to Esso's Dr. Mclver Woody from 1948 about cancer in the oil industry and mentioning the work of Dr. W.C. Hueper. Asbestos is specifically mnentioned in the 2-page letter from industrial hygienist C. M. Berry. The other item is extracted pages from the text, Industrial Carcinogens, by Esso's Dr. R. Eckardt, on asbestos. Eckardt was also on the New York Cancer Committee, which included Dr. Hueper, and was a forum for presentation of papers on occupational cancer. If you can get someone to the library, look up the March, 1952 issue of A rchives o f Industrial Hygiene and O ccupational Medicine. This has a page introducing the committee and also includes at least one article on occupational cancer. Please send me a copy if you run this down, I can't locate a copy in my files. There are other references on health hazards in the oil industry generaklly that mention asbestos as one of many hazards (Pabst and Meyer & Church articles, Chapter 5, Table 5, pp. 410-411). The 1948 letters look like they came from historic files of the Kettering Laboratories in Cincinnati, I think I got them from Hershel Hobson in Beaumont. Good luck. With best wishes, <7ljn WO 1 _ I 7 A 4 - / f / * r7 Cl *7 C