Kenneth W. Smith to K. V. Lindell Urging a Study of Asbestos and Lung Cancer (1950)

A one-page confidential memo of January 28, 1950, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith of Canadian Johns-Manville to K. V. Lindell, headed "Pulmonary Malignancy." The surviving copy is very dark and only partly readable. Smith noted a sharp rise in medical articles on occupational cancer, including reports linking asbestos and lung cancer, said he had found no evidence of lung cancer among the company's own employees, and urged that the company learn more about the link: "If we are to defend ourselves in the compensation courts we must have proof." He suggested taking the question to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association and asking the Saranac Laboratory to outline a plan of study.

What it shows

The same day, Smith wrote Lindell recommending that J-M hold off on reporting asbestosis cases under Quebec's new rules (Smith on the notification rules). Days earlier he had told the Saranac Laboratory's director that he knew of no proven lung cancer at Asbestos (Vorwald and Smith letters). The study he proposed here became the industry's lung cancer project of 1950 (Smith on the Lanza contract).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Smith writes to Lindell on 1/28/50, stating that cases of lung cancer and asbestosis are appearing increasingly in the medical literature. Dr. Smith has not seen any evidence of lung cancer among J-M employees but encourages a study to be performed, perhaps with QAMA. "If we are to defend ourselves in the compensation courts we must have proof."

Related documents

• Arthur J. Vorwald to Kenneth W. Smith on Reviewing Asbestos X-Rays for Lung Cancer (1949)
• Arthur J. Vorwald and Kenneth W. Smith on Lung Cancer Among Canadian J-M Workers (1950)
• S. Roodhouse Gloyne, "Two Cases of Squamous Carcinoma of the Lung Occurring in Asbestosis" (1935)