Daniel C. Braun and T. David Truan, An Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer in Asbestos Miners (1958)

A 20-page article in the June 1958 A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Health by Dr. Daniel C. Braun, medical director, and T. David Truan, statistical consultant, of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation, made possible by "a grant from the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association." Studying 5,958 Quebec asbestos miners with at least five years' exposure, it concluded that they "do not have a significantly higher death rate from lung cancer than do comparable segments of the general population," and that the lung cancer rate did not rise with length or degree of exposure, "a fact which presents strong evidence against the carcinogenicity of asbestos."

What it shows

The article is the published form of the foundation's September 1957 report to the mining association (the full report). Its conclusions leave out two of the report's: that miners with asbestosis were more likely to develop lung cancer, and that cigarette smoking mattered more than asbestos. Before publication Johns-Manville's Dr. Kenneth Smith and Hugh Jackson had accepted a condensed text with all references to asbestosis and lung cancer deleted (Smith to Sabourin, December 1957). The article's tables still show that every lung cancer case in the group was in a smoker.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Asbestos miners have only normal risk of lung cancer. (Published as approved by J-M.) Found no time or dose correlation. Article entitled: "Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer and Asbestos Workers" by Daniel C. Braun, M.D. and T. David Truan, M.A., published in the AMA Archives of Industrial Health, 6/58, Vol. 17, pp. 634-653. Certain conclusions made in the unpublished article were left out of the published article, namely that there is a connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and that those miners who develop asbestosis have a higher risk of developing lung cancer.

Editor's note: J-M's description gives the title as "Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer and Asbestos Workers" and says the article was published as approved by J-M. The article is titled "An Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer in Asbestos Miners," and the files show J-M reviewing a condensation (the condensation), not approving the published text.

Related documents

• Industrial Hygiene Foundation, An Epidemiological Study of Lung Cancer in Asbestos Miners, Report to the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association (1957)