Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Effects of the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust upon the Lungs of Asbestos Workers, Typescript with Handwritten Edits (c. 1931)

A 32-page typescript of the report "Effects of the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust upon the Lungs of Asbestos Workers," from the Industrial Health Service of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's Policyholders Service Bureau in New York, marked up in an unidentified hand. It is the unpublished full report of the company's survey of U.S. asbestos plants, which Dr. A. J. Lanza and his colleagues later condensed into the paper published in January 1935. Its introduction says the study began when, in 1929, Metropolitan Life "was approached by" the asbestos industry, which wanted to know whether asbestos dust was an occupational hazard and what should be done about it. The handwritten changes strike out or soften several passages, among them the typed sentence "However, it is possible for uncomplicated asbestosis to result fatally."

What it shows

The edits run through the report. In the conclusions, the typed statement that asbestosis "is of a type milder than silicosis" becomes "from this study it appears to be" milder; the conclusion that asbestosis "does not involve an unusual tendency to pulmonary tuberculosis" is replaced by a handwritten one; and a typed sentence saying that, given the many low dust counts, "it is possible that asbestos may cause pneumoconiosis more readily than free silica" is struck out. The recommendation that workers be X-rayed "every year or certainly every two years" is changed to "preferably every year but at least every two years," the wording of the published 1935 paper. The copy does not show who made the changes or when.

Johns-Manville's lawyers reviewed the galley proof of the published paper in December 1934, comparing it with the earlier report: Vandiver Brown's comments asked that the "milder than silicosis" sentence be kept, and George Hobart's letter objected to wording suggesting asbestos might cause pneumoconiosis more readily than other dusts. This typescript lets readers see the earlier text and how it was revised.

About this copy

The first page is a faint printed cover with the title; the second is nearly blank. The pages carry stamped numbers 01728 to 01757. The report's death and disability claim histories describe workers by race, age and years of employment but do not name them.