Leon B. Horowitz's Report to A. W. Spedding on Dr. Kenneth Smith's Asbestosis and Cancer Talk at the Asbestos Textile Institute (June 1961)

A two-page confidential report of June 12, 1961, from Leon B. Horowitz of Keasbey & Mattison to A. W. Spedding on the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene and Manufacturing Committee meeting of June 8 and 9, attended by Dr. Kenneth Smith, C. L. Sheckler and others for Johns-Manville. A meeting of all Institute committees had been called "specifically to hear Dr. Kenneth Smith of Johns-Manville report" on asbestosis and cancer, "of the utmost importance to all member companies." Smith reported that the British and South Africans had linked lung cancer with asbestosis since 1935, and that Dr. Thomas Mancuso had found 19 lung cancers among 31 asbestos cases at a brake lining plant, with other cancers out of proportion.

What it shows

Smith described the Public Health Service's plan, with two million dollars set aside, for a survey including animal studies, dust counts, worker examinations and a "Cohort Study" using Social Security files. He recommended that the Institute invite the study "since they will probably do so even without invitation anyway," and the committee agreed. The report records Smith's view "that too much irresponsible writing on this subject would harm the industry since the legal profession uses it for their own purposes," raising compensation costs and "the more costly Customer Liability cases in Common Law Court." The members also agreed that spending on dust counts and X-rays was worthwhile because it had reduced asbestosis cases and claims and problems with unions, state officials and insurers. Smith gave J-M's managers the same account the following week (memo to C. W. Hite).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

ATI meeting of 6/9/61, summarized in a letter by Leon Horowitz to A.W. Spedding on 6/12/61, discusses an attempt to standardize medical and environmental monitoring techniques among the members of ATI. Kenneth Smith reported that the British and South Africans had associated lung cancer and asbestosis since 1935, but that the United States only began to consider the subject in recent years, with opinions both pro and con.

Smith reported that he had met Dr. Mancuso, who was doing a study on the statistical correlation of asbestos and lung cancer in a brakelining factory. Mancuso reported that he had detected 19 lung cancers out of 31 asbestos cases, as well as cancer in other parts of the body out of proportion to those that might normally be expected (that is, 50% more abdominal cancers than in the general population).

Smith had also visited the U.S. Public Health Service to discuss a study which they proposed which would include animal studies, environmental studies, dust counting techniques, physical examination of workers as well as a "cohort study" which would use social security files to trace complete occupational histories. "Dr. Smith pointed out that too much irresponsible writing on this subject would harm the industry since the legal profession views it for their own purposes. Not only workman's compensation costs would rise, but the more costly customer liability cases in common law court would be involved."