H. E. Seiler, A Case of Pneumoconiosis, British Medical Journal (1928)

A complete issue of the British Medical Journal for December 1, 1928, kept for a one-page report by Dr. H. E. Seiler, assistant medical officer in Glasgow's public health department (page 982, with a plate), subtitled "Result of the Inhalation of Asbestos Dust." Seiler described a man of 40 who had worked in the asbestos industry for twenty-two years, including twelve years carding and weaving asbestos cloth, and who had a cough, breathlessness and weight loss but no sign of tuberculosis. He concluded that the X-ray findings and "his long period of employment with asbestos point definitely in the direction of a fibrosis of occupational origin."

What it shows

Earlier cases had been mixed with tuberculosis or pneumonia, leaving "the slight doubt" whether asbestos dust was the main cause. Seiler's patient had no tuberculosis, so his case pointed to the dust alone. He also remarked that although the asbestos industry was over two thousand years old, the possibility of lung damage from the dust "has not been investigated until within comparatively recent years." See also Pneumoconiosis.

In Johns-Manville's index

Johns-Manville's attorneys indexed the Sumner Simpson Papers. Their index describes this document as follows:

British Medical Journal. Relevant article "A Case of Pneumoconiosis" by H.E. Seller. Article describes case study of 40 year old man who had worked in an asbestos factory for 22 years. Seiler states this is the first case of "definite pulmonary fibrosis, the result of the inhalation of asbestos dust." Seiler found that "the typical radiographic features and his long term of employment with asbestos point definitely in the direction of a fibrosis of occupational origin."

About this copy

This is document 00443-00598 of the Sumner Simpson Papers, as numbered in the collection's index.