Dr. Kenneth Smith to Ivan Sabourin on the Condensed Industrial Hygiene Foundation Survey (1957)

A two-page letter of December 30, 1957, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, Johns-Manville's medical director, to Ivan Sabourin, counsel to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, on a shortened version of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation's survey of lung cancer in Quebec asbestos miners. Smith wrote that he and Hugh Jackson had "noted deletion of all references to the association of asbestosis and lung cancer in this condensation," and that while they thought this information "of great scientific value," they understood the association's wish "to emphasize the exposure of the asbestos miner and not the cases of asbestosis." They also agreed "with the deletion of the reference to smoking and lung cancer."

What it shows

Smith warned that the report would be criticized when published "because all other authors today correlate lung cancer and cases of asbestosis," and proposed wording changes, including one stressing that "the hypothesis that asbestos miners do not have a higher mortality from lung cancer than does the general population cannot be rejected." He also agreed with Doctors Cartier and Braun that some workers "probably have some asbestotic fibrosis which cannot be diagnosed by x-ray." The full draft had found that miners with asbestosis were more likely to develop lung cancer (September 1957 draft); the published article left that finding out (1958 article).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Smith letter to Ivan Sabourin, General Counsel for QAMA, dated 12/30/57. Dr. Smith states that he and H.M. Jackson have reviewed the "condensation" of the IHF Survey of asbestos miners which Sabourin sent them, and Dr. Smith comments on the condensation and lists their suggested revisions. Dr. Smith says that he and Jackson agree "with the deletion of the reference to smoking and lung cancer," they observed under reporting of asbestosis and that they have "noted deletion of all references to the association of asbestosis and lung cancer in this condensation." Dr. Smith asks that Dr. Braun develop a procedure whereby he (Dr. Smith) and Dr. Cartier could report on the status of the members of the original survey each year so that the survey would be ongoing.