Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee and Board of Governors Minutes on Insurance Forms, Autopsies and Lung Cancer (1954)

Two sets of minutes from the Asbestos Textile Institute's meeting of October 6, 1954, in Philadelphia. The Air Hygiene Committee met with company doctors, among them Dr. Kenneth W. Smith of Johns-Manville, Dr. D. W. Martin of Raybestos-Manhattan and Dr. Gerrit Schepers, the new medical director of the Saranac Laboratory. The report records that Dr. P. A. Theodos, representing Asten-Hill, had classified cases as "pulmonary fibrosis" on hospitalization forms, that the insurer's question "Is accident, illness or disease caused by the occupation?" had "always" been answered "No," and that this had "never been challenged." Schepers spoke all afternoon on asbestosis and lung cancer, and the committee proposed animal research "to combat unjust compensation claims."

What it shows

Dr. Smith presented a plan for member companies to send autopsy specimens to Saranac. The value stated in the minutes was that the reports would establish "the extent of Workman's Compensation liability for a particular case." Schepers told the doctors that British surveys found lung cancer in 13.2% of asbestosis cases, about ten times the rate in silicosis, and that the West German government had recognized lung cancer caused by asbestos in 1951; the report notes that North American experience "does not correspond." The Board of Governors approved Dr. Theodos's heart study for companies that wished to join and asked the Air Hygiene Committee for a more specific lung cancer proposal. Schepers later described this meeting in his testimony (his 1980 deposition).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

ATI minutes dated 10/6/54 a representative of Asten-Hill advocates calling asbestosis "pulmonary fibrosis" on insurance claim forms and answering questions from insurers re occupational nexus in the negative, so that indemnity can be obtained from general insurance companies. K.W. Smith recommended autopsies as better than X-rays or clinical data to estimate future workers compensation exposures. Schepers reported on asbestos cancer link.