X-Ray Readings of Canadian Johns-Manville Workers at Asbestos, Quebec (1944)

Fifteen pages of chest X-ray readings made at Asbestos, Quebec, in July 1944, during the visit by Dr. Leroy Gardner, Saranac's X-ray specialist Dr. Robert, and Dr. Vestal to review the films of Canadian Johns-Manville employees. Each sheet is identified by film number, with workers' names removed; some give age and years of service (up to 38 years), and several follow a man's films back to the mid-1930s. Most readings find changes "not sufficiently characteristic to warrant definite diagnosis of asbestosis," or attribute them to tuberculosis or old infection, but one finds changes "compatible with a diagnosis of early asbestosis" and another notes fine nodulation "characteristically seen in early first degree" disease.

What it shows

These are the individual readings behind Gardner's July 15 report that only two questionable cases of asbestosis were found. Many sheets record lung changes ("marked peritruncal exaggeration," increased linear markings, fibrosis, emphysema) that the readers did not call asbestosis. On one, Gardner comments that had he seen the films without knowing where the man worked, "it would never occur to me to ask whether he had been exposed to asbestos dust."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

X-ray interpretations of various workers (names are redacted) dated July 1944, from Asbestos, Quebec. Many note lung changes and/or diagnosis of asbestosis.

Editor's note: J-M's description says many of the readings note lung changes or a diagnosis of asbestosis. Most readings find changes "not sufficiently characteristic to warrant definite diagnosis of asbestosis" or attribute them to tuberculosis or old infection; one finds changes "compatible with a diagnosis of early asbestosis."

Related documents

• Thomas Gatke of Gatke Corporation to Vandiver Brown on Gardner's Quebec Work (1944)
• Leroy Gardner to R. H. Stevenson Asking to Review Canadian J-M X-Rays, with H. K. Sherry's Approval (1944)