Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee Minutes on Dr. Kenneth Smith, Dr. Hueper and Lung Cancer (1956)

Four pages of minutes of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene Committee meeting of March 7, 1956. Dr. Kenneth Smith, Johns-Manville's medical director, came to discuss "Asbestosis and Cancer" in compensation cases: he told the members "we have an epidemic of Lung Cancer in the world today" and described a Pennsylvania compensation case decided against an employer, in which the referee quoted Dr. W. C. Hueper of the U.S. Public Health Service. Smith said "he has no evidence that there is not a relationship between Asbestosis and Cancer" and recommended a study of lung cancer in the industry through the Industrial Hygiene Foundation in Pittsburgh.

What it shows

Smith advised that the study be done with the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association's planned survey "in order that we could procure information which would combat current derogatory literature now being circulated throughout the United States and Canada." He also pointed members to Hueper's other "damaging information," a journal article on silicosis, asbestosis and lung cancer. The committee put the "Asbestosis-Cancer" survey ahead of a planned dust survey, and the Board of Governors approved a preliminary fact-finding survey by the Industrial Hygiene Foundation costing no more than $1,000. Also present was W. D. Shoemaker of the American Mutual Liability Insurance Company. The rest of the minutes cover oil sprays for fiber conditioning, which the members had decided were "comparatively harmless," and dust counts at another company's mill. The next day's general meeting (March 8, 1956) described the purpose of the funding as action "to refute the work of Dr. Hueper."

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's legal department indexed the Motley 1,000 in 1984. Its index describes this document as follows:

ATI Meeting Minutes, 3/7/56 - Air Hygiene Committee. Dr. K.W. Smith states that he has no evidence that there is not a relationship between asbestosis and cancer. Dr. Smith recommends that the ATI conduct a study on the relationship of lung cancer to asbestosis.

Related documents

• Asbestos Textile Institute General Meeting Minutes on Refuting Dr. Hueper (1956)

About this copy

This is document 50 of the Motley 1,000, from the set the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust's records facility certified as true copies, pages CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000562 to CRMC-Motley1000-Subj-000565.