Johns-Manville "Position Paper on the Health Aspects of Asbestos" (1966)

A 22-page paper dated October 24, 1966, prepared by J-M's Advertising and Public Relations Department, answering recent reports in medical journals and the press that lung cancer "may be associated with exposure to asbestos." It argues that asbestos is many substances, that asbestosis is hard to diagnose and "non-progressive," that "asbestos bodies" may not be asbestos, and that insulators ("so-called 'asbestos workers'") may never have touched asbestos. Its summary says the cancer theory "has not been proved and should be regarded with scepticism at the present time."

What it shows

The paper states that U.S. asbestos plant workers "with a positive exposure to asbestos, and a positive tendency to develop asbestosis, are no more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population," relying on Anthony Lanza (1952) and the Braun and Truan study of Quebec miners (1958), while acknowledging that no definitive study of American factory workers had yet been published. It quotes speakers at the December 1965 New York Academy of Sciences conference on asbestos, including Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, J-M's medical director, and Dr. Arthur Vorwald, but does not cite the studies of Dr. Irving Selikoff and his colleagues on insulation workers that were presented there. It was written as J-M's public answer to the cancer findings.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

J-M "Position Paper on the Health Aspects of Asbestos," dated 10/24/66. Issued by J-M's Advertising and Public Relations Department. States that "employees of asbestos fabricating plants in the United States, with a positive exposure to asbestos, and a positive tendency to develop asbestosis, are no more likely to develop lung cancer than the general population." Cites Lanza (1952) and Braun & Truan (1958) as the basis for this statement.