A quest into the environmental causes of cancer of the lung (1955)

This 1955 U.S. Public Health Service monograph was a review, not a new study. The author surveyed published epidemiological, medical and animal evidence on environmental causes of lung cancer. The known or suspected causes covered were urban air pollution and workplace agents: nickel, chromium compounds, arsenic, iron, beryllium, coal tar, petroleum oils, asbestos, isopropyl oil, mustard gas and radioactive ores. In the asbestos section, the author counted 80 published cases of lung cancer occurring with asbestosis. Of the 52 cases with sex recorded, 37 were men and 15 were women, a ratio of 2.5 to 1. The author compared this with a usual ratio of 5:1 to 10:1 for lung cancer of unknown cause. The author cited other investigators' findings, such as Merewether's 31 lung cancers among 266 asbestosis cases (11.65 percent). The author described animal experiments with asbestos as equivocal and treated asbestosis as the prerequisite for the cancer. The author concluded that the evidence made it unlikely that cigarette smoking was a major factor in lung cancer, and pointed instead to occupational and industry-related causes.

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From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 001861. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 2, "Cancer" and chapter 4, "Thresholds and Standards" and chapter 5, "Asbestos Product Use" and chapter 7, ""Bystander" Asbestos Disease" and chapter 9, "Company Knowledge" and chapter 10, "Historical Research on Toxic Substances", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.