Irving J. Selikoff, Jacob Churg and E. Cuyler Hammond, "Asbestos Exposure and Neoplasia" (1964)

A five-page article by Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, Dr. Jacob Churg and E. Cuyler Hammond, read before the American College of Chest Physicians in Atlantic City on June 17, 1963, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on April 6, 1964. It followed 632 New York and Newark insulation workers who had joined the trade before 1943 through the end of 1962. Of 255 who died, "forty-five died of cancer of the lung or pleura, whereas only 6.6 such deaths were expected," four died of mesothelioma, and twelve died of asbestosis.

What it shows

This is the first of the Selikoff Studies, and it showed that the risk was not limited to asbestos factories and mines: the men studied were insulators who used finished asbestos products on construction and shipyard jobs, with what the authors called "relatively light, intermittent" exposure. They found lung cancer deaths at about 6.8 times the expected rate, concluded that smoking habits could not account for it, and reported more stomach and colon cancer than expected. They also warned that other trades working beside insulators, "electricians, plumbers, sheet-metal workers, steamfitters," might share the exposure. The asbestos industry knew of the paper before it was read (see the Asbestos Textile Institute minutes of June 1963), and J-M's medical director had been told of Selikoff's plans in 1961 (Dr. Joseph Smith's letter).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Selikoff, "Asbestos Exposure and Neoplasia" read in June to American College of Chest Physicians of the AMA.

Editor's note: J-M's description says the paper was read to the American College of Chest Physicians "of the AMA." The article says it was read at the College's annual meeting in Atlantic City on June 17, 1963; it was published the next year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.