Kenneth W. Smith and Hugh Jackson, "The Asbestos Industry: Certain Health Experiences Among Asbestos Workers" (1957)

A paper by Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, and Hugh M. Jackson, manager of J-M's Industrial Health Program, given at the April 1957 meeting of the Home Office Life Underwriters Association and its Occupational Committee and printed in the association's Proceedings (pages 186 to 193 in this copy). Speaking to life insurance underwriters, Smith said that "very few ever develop the disease" of asbestosis, that "the lives of the asbestos workers are not shortened by their occupation," and that the work does not predispose men to other lung diseases. Its conclusions say asbestosis takes many years to develop and does not progress after exposure ends.

What it shows

On lung cancer, Smith told the underwriters that reports of asbestosis and lung cancer "should not be accepted implicitly" unless the worker had been exposed only to asbestos and not to mixed dusts, and that it was "obviously incorrect" to call today's insulation installer an asbestos worker. Reviewing one company's pension records, he concluded that "the asbestos trade is not as hazardous as may have been indicated in the past." That August, the Industrial Hygiene Foundation's medical director wrote to Jackson that the literature showed a likely link between lung cancer and asbestosis among factory workers (Braun to Jackson).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

April, 1957 presentation by Smith and Jackson to Proceedings of Home Office Life Underwriters Association and Occupational Committee: asbestosis does not progress after exposure ceases; exposures are not life threatening; no predisposition to other life threatening pulmonary diseases; industry has controlled exposures and therefore incidence of asbestosis is very low.