Kenneth W. Smith to Arthur J. Vorwald Enclosing Merewether's Article on the Pneumoconioses (1950)

A one-page letter of February 8, 1950, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith of Canadian Johns-Manville to Dr. Arthur J. Vorwald of the Saranac Laboratory, headed "Asbestosis: Dr. Merewether," enclosing the article just published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by Britain's senior medical inspector of factories. Smith wrote that he was "rather disappointed that Dr. Merewether's very definite conclusions do not agree with our operating experience" and that he could not agree "about the mortality and tuberculosis figures." He asked whether English fabricating processes were so different from mining and milling that J-M's operation was "much less hazardous to health," or whether British standards for diagnosing asbestosis differed.

What it shows

Merewether's paper reported that 13.2% of the asbestosis cases his department studied had lung cancer at autopsy (the Merewether article). Smith sent a copy of his letter and the article to George Foster, and Vorwald answered in April (Vorwald to Smith). At J-M headquarters, Dr. Lanza's view that Merewether's opinions "don't hold water" was passed on to Smith in March (Woodard to Smith).

The letter alone

Most of this file is published journal articles, which we can't republish, so the full file isn't offered here. The letter itself is published, with its scan, as Motley 1,000 document 3.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Dr. Smith writes to Dr. Vorwald, 2/8/50, enclosing the recent Merewether article on cancer. Dr. Smith states that Merewether's conclusions do not agree with J-M's operating experience. Dr. Smith wonders if this is caused by a difference in the English fabricating processes

Related documents

• E. R. A. Merewether, The Pneumokonioses: Developments, Doubts, Difficulties (1949)