W. E. Shoemaker of American Mutual on a Baltimore Insulator's Cancer Claim and Dr. Kenneth Smith's Advice (1962)

A three-page memo of March 20, 1962, from W. E. Shoemaker, an industrial hygienist with the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company, to Mr. Blaine in its Baltimore claims office, on an occupational disease claim against the Leroy Insulating Company, an insured. The deceased, a foreman for Leroy and before that for fifteen years at the Standard Insulation Company, had died of lung cancer; he had smoked two packs a day, and his doctor also diagnosed pneumoconiosis. Doubting the asbestosis diagnosis, Shoemaker phoned Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, for advice on defending the claim.

What it shows

Smith suggested examining the tissues for other toxic materials, said that "no one knows the actual cause of cancer," and advised that "the matter of heavy smoking should be built up." He said he could not testify in such cases because his testimony was always "discounted as being in the employ of a large asbestos producer," and recommended Dr. A. J. Lanza instead. He said J-M's New Jersey plants, with some 5,000 exposed employees, had reported sixteen cancers in ten years, the same rate as the unexposed population. Where a lung cancer claim did arise, Shoemaker reports, J-M paid only when the man showed advanced asbestosis, "mainly because of what they feel to be their moral responsibility although, of course, with the selfish reason of making a quiet settlement rather than having the case recorded in the law journals." Nine months earlier Smith had written to J-M management of a "phenomenally high incidence" of lung cancer among asbestosis cases at another plant (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:

W.E. Shoemaker (Industrial Hygienist, American Mutual) reports on a claim by a deceased worker against the Leroy Insulating Company, an insured (3/20/62). The deceased was foreman of Leroy Insulating and before that a foreman for 15 years at Standard Insulation Company. He was a cigarette smoker; he was diagnosed with lung cancer and pneumoconiosis.

Shoemaker has no information regarding the operations of Standard but has found that the majority of the products applied by Leroy do not contain asbestos. Shoemaker questions the diagnosis of asbestosis and contacts Dr. K. Smith for advice. Dr. Smith offers Shoemaker some particular advice with respect to the case and also discusses J-M's experience with asbestos and cancer. Dr. Smith states that "[i]n New Jersey they operate plants employing some 5,000 employees exposed to asbestos and in the last ten years the employee group have [sic] reported sixteen cases of cancer. This is the same ratio of development of cancer as would be expected among the population who have not been exposed to asbestos."

Dr. Smith states that when a cancer claim did arise, J-M "only paid for it on the basis of the employee showing evidence of advanced stages of asbestosis - mainly because of what they feel to be their moral responsibility although, of course, with the selfish reason of making a quiet settlement rather than having the case recorded in the law journals."