Frederick L. Hoffman, Mortality from Respiratory Diseases in Dusty Trades (Inorganic Dusts) (1918)

Bulletin No. 231 of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a book-length study by Frederick L. Hoffman of deaths from lung disease among workers in dusty trades, printed by the Government Printing Office in 1918. In a short section on asbestos (pages 176 to 180), Hoffman notes that the Prudential Insurance Company's records for 1907 to 1914 showed only 13 deaths of asbestos workers, three from tuberculosis, too few for firm conclusions. He writes that "in the practice of American and Canadian life insurance companies asbestos workers are generally declined on account of the assumed health-injurious conditions of the industry," and calls for "a more qualified and extensive investigation of the health aspects of asbestos manufacture."

What it shows

By 1918 a U.S. government publication was telling its readers that life insurers in the United States and Canada generally turned down asbestos workers because of the conditions of their trade. Hoffman also wrote of the "self-evident injuriousness of asbestos dust" as a cause of tuberculosis, summarized a 1910 British factory inspector's report of five deaths from lung disease in five years among fewer than 40 workers at an asbestos weaving factory, and cited Dr. Murray's evidence (Murray, 1907). He expected that asbestos workers would "attract more qualified attention in this country in the future than it has in the past."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

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

Hoffman Report (Prudential Ins. Co.) notes long standing refusal of both U.S. and Canadian life insurers to cover asbestos workers, concludes dusty trades are hazardous.

Editor's note: J-M's description calls this a Prudential Insurance Company report. It was published in 1918 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as Bulletin No. 231; Hoffman drew on Prudential's mortality records.