J. P. Woodard, Minutes of the Saranac Lake Meeting on the Quebec Asbestos and Lung Cancer Study (1950)

Five pages of minutes, initialed by J. P. Woodard and dated November 14, 1950, of a meeting at Saranac Lake on November 7 among Dr. A. J. Lanza, Ivan Sabourin, Dr. Arthur J. Vorwald and Woodard. They met to settle the Saranac Laboratory's proposal to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association to find out "whether or not a relationship exists between the inhalation of asbestos dust and primary pulmonary cancer," through an epidemiological survey and two years of animal experiments. It was agreed that the company doctors, Smith and Cartier, would screen the X-rays, and that the epidemiological report would go first to Saranac and be "available only to the underwriting companies and not made generally available until it has been reviewed with and by the companies."

What it shows

The minutes record that in Quebec "it is the practice not to list cancer as a cause of death even when it is," so death records might be of little help. For the animal work, Vorwald was quoted as saying, "We hope to show or prove that cancer incidence is not increased among these animals even if dusted." The group also agreed the companies should seek more publicity about "the many favorable aspects" of the problem "to combat the adverse and often unwarranted pseudo facts that are put out by others," but should avoid being identified with other mining industries' chest diseases. Copies went to Vandiver Brown, A. R. Fisher and L. C. Hart. Brown's exchange with Woodard on publication terms followed (Brown to Woodard, November 15, 1950).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Woodard writes a summary of a meeting held at Saranac Lake on 11/7/50 regarding the proposed Saranac cancer study. Woodard states that it was agreed that the report would only be available to the underwriting asbestos companies and not made generally available until it has been reviewed by them.

Related documents

• Saranac Laboratory, Proposal on Asbestosis and Pulmonary Cancer to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association (1950)