Dr. D. T. DuBow, Confidential Addendum on Walter Burek (1958)

A three-page confidential addendum of October 15, 1958, by Dr. David T. DuBow of the Medical Department at Johns-Manville's Manville, New Jersey, plant, to an earlier report of September 29 on Walter Burek, a retired employee. At Dr. Kenneth Smith's request DuBow visited Burek at home on October 10, had him X-rayed at the plant, and recorded his history and a physical examination. He found "evidence of extensive pulmonary disease," with cancer spread from elsewhere not ruled out, and asked whether Dr. Smith wanted Burek seen by a specialist, noting "the problem of future care of this patient if he should be accepted as a company responsibility."

What it shows

J-M's doctors were following the illness of a retired worker closely in the weeks before his death, while the question of whether the company would accept responsibility for his care was still open. The pathology report on his lungs found severe asbestosis and lung cancer (January 1959 report).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Walter Burek, Manville plantworker, pneumoconiosis plus organic cancers and possible lung cancer per K.W. Smith, 10/7/58.

Editor's note: J-M's description attributes to K. W. Smith, on October 7, 1958, a finding of organic cancers and possible lung cancer. The document in this file is Dr. DuBow's addendum of October 15, 1958, which says only that secondary metastasis had not been ruled out; the earlier report it adds to is not in this file.