Asbestos Textile Institute Air Hygiene Committee Minutes on the Quebec Mining Association's Report (1955)

Two pages of minutes, dated October 17, 1955, of the Asbestos Textile Institute's Air Hygiene Committee meeting of September 7, 1955, signed by H. M. Jackson of Johns-Manville as chairman. Guests from the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association reported on its health work: Ivan Sabourin, its general counsel, said there were "practically no new cases of asbestosis other than those with twenty or more years exposure," and that the industry's present major health problems concerned "the relationship of heart difficulties and cancer to asbestos exposure." Dr. Paul Cartier of the Thetford clinic reported fifteen cancer cases in the clinic's ten years, nine of them with signs of asbestosis at autopsy, which he said indicated "a very much lower attack rate than that reported from the British experience of 13%."

What it shows

Cartier estimated that after ten years' exposure about half of workers would show some sign of asbestosis in lung tissue, 10 percent on X-ray and 2 percent some disability. Autopsies were made in every occupational disease claim, which he said mattered "not only in determining the extent of liability, but also in increasing the knowledge of the disease process," and he called for considerable research on cancer and the heart. Three months earlier the textile makers had turned down an autopsy study because of its implications about cancer (June 1955 general meeting).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

ATI Air Hygiene Committee Meeting minutes by Jackson, 9/7/55, describe QAMA presentation by Ivan Sabourin and Paul Cartier stated that "as a result of the industry emphasis on health, safety and dust control for the past ten years, there are practically no new cases of asbestosis other than those with twenty or more years' exposure." To gather data, all OD cases and as many others as possible were autopsied. In ten years the Thetford clinic saw fifteen cancers, nine of which included asbestosis, thus below Merewether's 13% observation.