Dr. Kenneth W. Smith to C. M. McGaw, Report of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association Meeting at Lake Placid (1951)

A two-page report of October 11, 1951, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, medical director of Canadian Johns-Manville at Asbestos, Quebec, to C. M. McGaw, on a meeting of the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association at Lake Placid and visits to Saranac Lake. Smith spent a day with Dr. George Wright reviewing the results of the physical examinations Wright had carried out on J-M men over three years, received a report on each man, and planned to discuss it with each of them. He describes two research projects discussed with Wright, one of them on the effect of cortisone on lung scarring, and a review of the cancer research with Dr. Cartier and Dr. Arthur J. Vorwald.

What it shows

According to J-M's own description of this memo, Smith wrote that a test for oxygen in the blood that could detect lung scarring before it showed on X-rays would let J-M "safely recommend a transfer from dusty occupations before there is impairment of the man's health and before there is a possibility of disability compensation." The same description reports that Smith had found 45 cases of asbestosis but no cancer on 7,141 X-ray films at the mine, and that Vorwald, six months into his animal experiments, was "morally certain that there is no association between cancer and asbestos." Those passages cannot be checked against this copy, which is largely illegible. Saranac's own first interim report on the mouse experiment, in May 1952, found a trend toward more tumors in the dusted mice. Smith's earlier advice to hold back publicity until the cancer work was done is in his June 1951 memo to McGaw.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Smith writes to McGaw, 10/11/51, regarding Dr. Wright's study of certain J-M employees which has been carried out for the past three years. Dr. Smith plans to discuss the physical exam results with each worker. Dr. Smith also reports that he and Dr. Wright discussed a research project: whether there could be developed a method to detect unsaturated oxygen in the blood. If accomplished, this would be very useful as a means of detecting signs of early pulmonary fibrosis as oxygen deficiency is noticeable before any X-ray signs can be seen. If successful, "we then would be in a position to tell whether or not a man may develop asbestosis and can safely recommend a transfer from dusty occupations before there is impairment of the man's health and before there is a possibility of disability compensation."

Dr. Smith also states that he reviewed 7,141 X-ray films at the mine and saw no evidence of cancer, although he found 45 cases of asbestosis. He states that Cartier found nine cases of cancer a Thetford Mines, with only one associated with asbestosis. Dr. Smith reports on the progress of Dr. Vorwald's animal experiments regarding cancer incidence. So far, after six months, Dr. Vorwald sees no evidence of cancer and is "morally certain that there is no association between cancer and asbestos."