National Cancer Institute, Asbestos Exposure: A Desk Reference for Communicators (1978)

A 21-page question-and-answer booklet of May 1978, "Asbestos Exposure: A Desk Reference for Communicators," produced by the Office of Cancer Communications of the National Cancer Institute (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 79-1622). Written for people passing the government's asbestos warnings on to workers, it answers 22 questions on who is at risk, the diseases, the role of smoking, shipyards, diagnosis, protection, treatment and federal programs. It estimates that "between 8 and 11 million" workers had been exposed to asbestos since the beginning of World War II.

What it shows

The booklet was part of the asbestos awareness campaign that Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, announced in April 1978. It says that shipyard workers in many trades, "painters, electricians, carpenters, machinists, boilermakers, and welders who may not realize they were exposed," were "now beginning to show signs of X-ray abnormalities." This copy came from J-M's files (stamped "Produced JM-83"). For the industry's response to the campaign, see R. H. Mereness to Asbestos Information Association Members on HEW's Asbestos Awareness Campaign (1978).