Transcript of the Massachusetts Medical Society Symposium on Occupational Diseases of the Lungs (1953)

A 104-page stenographic transcript of the Symposium on Occupational Diseases of the Lungs, held in Boston on October 28, 1953, by the Massachusetts Medical Society with New York University's Institute of Industrial Medicine. The chairman credited Dr. Kenneth Smith, J-M's medical director, as the "driving force" behind it. Ernest Johnson, Massachusetts Commissioner of Labor and Industry and a member of the Asbestos Workers Union, reported four recent deaths among insulators diagnosed as asbestosis and said the state meant to study whether applying heat and frost insulation "is hazardous." Dr. Kenneth M. Lynch reported that of 49 cases of asbestosis he had seen, 4 were associated with lung cancer, "an incidence quite out of proportion" to ordinary autopsy series.

What it shows

Other speakers included Dr. A. J. Lanza, Dr. Leonard J. Bristol, Dr. O. A. Sander and Dr. Paul Cartier of Thetford Mines, Quebec, who reported 6 deaths from lung cancer among 40 autopsied asbestosis cases and warned that compensation boards might treat asbestosis as "an aggravating factor of any cardiac lesion." Smith had planned the meeting to educate J-M's doctors and lawyers after "poor experience" in Boston compensation courts (Smith to Eby). The transcript records the insulators' union raising the hazard of their trade, and leading doctors raising lung cancer, before an audience J-M had helped assemble.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Transcript of symposium on occupational diseases of the lungs held on 10/28/53, sponsored by Massachusetts Medical Society in conjunction with the Institute of Industrial Medicine at NYU (Lanza).

The chairman gave Kenneth W. Smith credit for instigating the symposium. One guest speaker, Ernest Johnson, was then the Commissioner of Labor and Industry of Massachusetts and was also an asbestos worker by trade. He reported that there had been four deaths within the trade diagnosed as asbestosis within the prior few years. One of these deaths was the subject of a lawsuit and the speaker reported that "when it has been settled, we intend to move forward and find out whether the employment of men engaged in the application of heat and frost insulating materials -- in which asbestos plays a large part -- is hazardous. We will call upon the services of the Department of Public Health and Occupational Hygiene to assist us in that work."

A number of important researchers participated in the symposium. Dr. Kenneth Lynch reported that removing an individual from further exposure to asbestos can halt progress of the disease. He noted that in his work he had seen 49 cases of asbestosis, four of which were associated with lung cancer. Leonard Bristol noted the importance of clinical history, physical findings and laboratory data - in addition to mere x-ray changes in arriving at an asbestosis diagnosis. Bristol also referred to George Wright's physiological function studies which Bristol correlated with x-ray findings and learned "that some individuals with slight roentgenological changes had definite functional impairment." Cartier of Thetford reported that a small group of employees "with cardiovascular disease and a minimal or moderate degree of asbestosis is becoming a serious problem as far as the compensation aspect is concerned.

Without too much imagination and from the findings of an increasing number of autopsies in old employees, we can assume that there is a large unknown number of employees who have a minimal amount of asbestosis and who, most likely, will also present later on a cardiovascular disease; and then, unless definite criteria are developed to estimate objectively the harm produced by the asbestosis and the harm produced by the fibrosis, the compensation boards might decide to reward [sic] compensations on the ground that in case of doubt the asbestosis can be considered as an aggravating factor of any cardiac lesion; and we have already had a few cases in Quebec compensated on that basis."

Dr. O.A. Sander reported on his experiences observing a group of asbestos textile workers in North Carolina in conjunction with the state industrial hygiene unit. Sander reported that within the group, there had been no progression for the most part during a ten year period following initial diagnosis. He attributed this to a "remarkable job of dust control." He pointed out that "it’s a very difficult job of clearing the air because ventilation costs a lot of money. But this little plant has invested a lot of money and found it paid off."

Related documents

• Dr. Kenneth W. Smith to J. O. Eby on J-M's Boston Asbestosis Symposium (1953)