C. M. McGaw on Dropping Asbestosis and Lung Cancer from Industrial Hygiene Minutes (1951)

A short confidential note of January 19, 1951, from C. M. McGaw at Asbestos, Quebec, headed "Industrial Hygiene, Minutes of Meeting - January 12," answering a letter of January 17. It reads in full: "In view of the seriousness to the Company of the various opinions being expressed about asbestosis causing lung cancer, without anything yet having been proven, we will remove this item from any future minutes of our Industrial Hygiene meetings." A copy went to H. M. Jackson at J-M headquarters. The file also holds a letter to McGaw from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, the medical director at Asbestos, about Dr. Wright's breathing studies of the men.

What it shows

By January 1951 the question of whether asbestosis led to lung cancer was being discussed at Canadian Johns-Manville's industrial hygiene meetings, and the company decided to keep it out of the written record. The same winter the Quebec producers were setting up their own lung cancer study at the Saranac Laboratory (November 1950 Saranac meeting), and British and Canadian doctors were reporting the link to them (Knox report; Cartier to Penhale).

About this copy

Dr. Smith's letter to McGaw in this file appears to be the same letter that is filed with Smith's letters to H. M. Jackson and McGaw. Its day is hard to read on the copies (January 17 or 18).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Correspondence among J.P. Woodard, C.W. McGaw, H.M. Jackson, N.S. Deeley dated 1/17/51: "In view of the seriousness to the Company of the various opinions being expressed about asbestosis causing lung cancer, without anything yet having been proven, we will remove this item from any future minutes of our Industrial Hygiene meetings."

Editor's note: J-M's description dates the correspondence January 17, 1951. The note it quotes, from C. M. McGaw, is dated January 19, 1951; it answers a letter of January 17 that is not in this file.