Kenneth W. Smith to George K. Foster on the Saranac Report (1949)

A confidential letter of March 19, 1949, from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith, chief medical officer of Canadian Johns-Manville at Asbestos, Quebec, to George K. Foster, with four pages summarizing the Saranac Laboratory report on experimental asbestosis and adding his comments and recommendations. Smith accepted the report's finding that only long fibres caused fibrosis, though he noted that the late Leroy Gardner had told him the most dangerous fibres were 5 to 15 microns long. He recommended getting "an opinion from the Saranac Laboratory on the association of asbestosis and cancer," because asbestos had been mentioned in the medical literature "as a very definite possible cause."

What it shows

Smith wrote that "in actual practice we have seen no cases of cancer of the lung among our employees," but that asbestos "is an irritant and as such might play some role in the development of carcinoma." He also wrote that asbestosis could be controlled by lowering dust and moving men to non-dusty jobs before disability, "probably as soon as there are significant x-ray changes," and that local doctors found pneumonia in a long-time dust worker often fatal. The copy is stamped "NOTED V. B." Woodard answered for headquarters a month later (Woodard to Foster), and in October the Saranac director proposed a lung cancer study using the Quebec X-rays (Vorwald to Smith). The report itself is Asbestos Pneumoconiosis.

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Letter from Dr. Kenneth W. Smith to George K. Foster dated 3/19/49. Dr. Smith summarizes the conclusions of the Saranac report and states that he basically agrees with those findings. Dr. Smith also makes several recommendations including the following:

1. Asbestosis can be controlled if every effort is made to lower the dust concentration in the working area of the employee and transfers to non-dusty jobs are effected before any disability develops, probably as soon as there are significant x-ray changes.

2. We should have an opinion from Saranac Lab on the association of asbestosis and cancer. There is a world-wide effort to find the cause and cure for cancer. The medical literature is full of suggested causes and asbestos has been mentioned as a very definite possible cause. Although in actual practice we have seen no cases of cancer of the lung among our employees, asbestos is an irritant and as such might play some role in the development of carcinoma. An expert opinion on this relationship would be worthwhile."