Letters on a Lung Cancer Study Among Quebec Asbestos Workers, June to October 1950 (1950)

Six letters on the asbestos industry's plans for a lung cancer study. On June 12, 1950, Dr. Kenneth W. Smith of Canadian Johns-Manville and Dr. Paul Cartier of Thetford Mines met in New York with Dr. A. J. Lanza at his Institute of Industrial Medicine and with Drs. William E. Smith and Nelson, cancer researchers who had moved there from the Memorial Hospital. Four days later William Smith, of the Cancer Prevention Committee, wrote to Dr. R. A. M. Case of the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London about the 31 asbestosis cases with lung cancer in the British factory inspector's report for 1947, proposing that slides from the lungs be gathered for review. "You can appreciate that serious problems in insurance and compensation are involved," he wrote.

What it shows

In his June 19 report to A. L. Penhale of Asbestos Corporation Limited, Cartier favored an epidemiological study over animal experiments, since Quebec had "the more adequate material" for one, and asked whether the new institute would have "the same prestige and authority on questions of Cancer" as the Memorial Hospital, which would matter when the time came to have the conclusions accepted. He added that if animal experiments failed to produce cancer, "it would not be possible to say that there is no relationship." Kenneth Smith's June 19 memo to C. M. McGaw suggested that "possibly no animal experiments for publication should be contemplated today," and that it might be best "first to study our people who live and work in the dust." In August Cartier wrote that the Quebec committee had agreed to organize research "precisely because there was no objective proof in favor of a causal relationship"; in October he asked whether William Smith accepted Merewether's cancer statistics. The plans led to competing proposals from Lanza and the Saranac Laboratory (Smith on the Lanza contract, the Saranac proposal).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Several letters between Dr. William Smith of the Cancer Prevention Committee, Dr. P. Cartier, Dr. K.W. Smith and others dated 6/16/50, 6/19/50, 8/23/50 and 10/5/50, regarding participation in a study of the relationship between asbestosis and lung cancer. W. Smith refers to the 1947 annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories in England as source material and mentions Merewether as the research contact. W. Smith states that "[y]ou can appreciate that serious problems in insurance and compensation are involved."

Cartier reports to A.L. Penhale (Asbestos Corporation Limited) on 6/19/50 regarding a meeting between Drs. Lanza, W. Smith, Nelson, K. Smith and Cartier to discuss the merits of an epidemiological study of the potential carcinogenic hazards of asbestos fibers as opposed to an experimental study to be carried out by the NY Institute of Industrial Medicine (Bellevue); Cartier recommends an epidemiological study because it would be more conclusive. Cartier questions whether the Institute has the same prestige and authority on questions of cancer as the Memorial Hospital. Collaboration with Saranac Laboratory will be requested.

In a letter to K. Smith dated 8/23/50, Cartier writes advocating the organization of a research program because there is no "objective proof" in favor of a causal relationship between asbestos exposure and cancer. Cartier wonders if W. Smith accepts statistics of Merewether on cancer and what degree of asbestotic fibrosis the "English medical school" calls asbestosis.

Editor's note: J-M's description places Cartier's question whether William Smith accepted Merewether's statistics, and what the "English medical school" called asbestosis, in his letter of August 23, 1950. Those questions are in Cartier's letter of October 5, 1950.

Related documents

• Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for the Year 1947, on Asbestosis and Lung Cancer (1949)
• Paul Cartier to Ivan Sabourin on a Study of Cancer in the Asbestos Industry (1950)
• Kenneth W. Smith to K. V. Lindell Urging a Study of Asbestos and Lung Cancer (1950)
• Paul Cartier to Arthur J. Vorwald on the Petrographic Study of Eight Asbestos Dust Samples (1950)