W. E. Cooke, "Fibrosis of the Lungs Due to the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust" (1924)

A short case report by Dr. W. E. Cooke, pathologist at the Wigan Infirmary in England, in the British Medical Journal of July 26, 1924 (page 147; the copy also has the issue's cover and contents). Cooke describes a woman who had worked in asbestos factories from the age of 13, intermittently in her last five years, until she stopped work in July 1922; she died on March 15, 1924, aged 33. At autopsy he found extensive scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs, with tuberculosis as well, and sharp-edged particles of mineral matter in the scarred tissue. The case, he wrote, "is of importance because it is the first in English medical literature to be definitely proved."

What it shows

Cooke opened by noting that "Medical men in areas where asbestos is manufactured have long suspected the dust to be the cause of chronic bronchitis and fibrosis." His report put a proved case of lung scarring from asbestos into a leading medical journal. Three years later, in a fuller paper on the same woman, he named the disease "pulmonary asbestosis" (Cooke, 1927).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

First generally reported case of pulmonary fibrosis in an asbestos textile worker; death after fifteen plus exposure years by Cooke on 7/26/24.

Related documents

• W. E. Cooke, "Pulmonary Asbestosis," with Papers by Stuart McDonald and Sir Thomas Oliver (1927)